How to increase speaking speed

[HeDiWen何迪文]

I'm in my second year of university study and this year my teacher greatly emphasizes speaking, unlike my first teacher who emphasized writing. I really like speaking and I like speaking to native speakers but whenever I hear them talk they're going 90mph and I was wondering how can I practice to get up to this speed? Whenever I try to, either i stumble over my words, the sentence comes out slower than normal, or I cant hit any tones (although when i hear them speak like this it's often hard to hear little to any tones from them). So yes, I geuss my basic question is, how can I speak more like the natives?

Thanks in advance.

[calibre2001]

Think and speak only in chinese by hanging out with native speakers. And read alot (chinese only) too.

[LaoZhang]

I suggest using a program like Audacity.

1. Get some recording of native speakers saying things you'd like to say. Lots available on the net, such as the Chinese Voices Project.

2. Open Audacity (or your favorite audio editor)

3. Have two tracks - one being the native's recording and the other your recording

4. Listen and compare your voice/speed/tone/inflection to the natives

5. Repeat and repeat.

Audacity has tools/filters that you can apply to make the native speaker slower without affecting pitch, as well as the ability to loop a certain part of the phrase/sentence/paragraph.

I have a vision to build some software to facilitate this process, but I'm not a technical guy. Anyone out there want to help work on this?

[Scoobyqueen]

You could practice the repetition approach I raised in another thread. Basic idea being you memorize a text and practice how much of the text you can recite without looking. That not only helps practicing speed but also help you sustain a conversation over more than just a ten second interval. In any case in order to talk faster you should first learn to be fluent when you speak slow, otherwise it does not work. If you are at the stage where you still have to search for the words when speaking slow, practicing speaking faster may not be useful for now.

[Hanlink]

Perhaps you should try the following for increasing your speed. Listen to the radio (or whatever) on your headphones and try to say out loud whatever the broadcaster is saying as he/she says it, trying all the time to keep as close to his words as they come out as possible (shadow mimicing).

You will certainly stumble at first, you probably would in English, too, but with a bit of practice, you will find yourself one very small step behind the speaker. The more you do this, the quicker the sounds will come out.

Once you have the speed, then concentrate on the intonation and tones. At this stage, it is actually not necessary to understand everything, that is not the point. However, you will inevitably get to a point where you will either understand it (in Chinese) or where you will begin to put your own words into the speakers mouth (so to speak), i.e. you may end up faster than the speaker!. At this point, you will know you have made it...

This is a version of a very annoying children's game, but it can be quite fun and it will certainly help.

[HeDiWen何迪文]

Thank you, everyone, for all the advice.

Scoobyqueen, your idea is actually what we use in class. We read a dialouge from our textbook (Integrated Chinese for anyone who wants to know), practice the dialouge with a partner, then recite it together with our partner. Whenever doing these excercises I always try to speak as fast as I can but sometimes i feel like i'm forcing myself. The only problem I have with reciting dialouges is that its scripted and not actual talking. I can remember how to speak these lines with speed but not in a natural conversation. That's why I like practicing speaking with natives. Am I just being biased or does anyone else feel that reciting over and over is not 100% effective?

[Scoobyqueen]

On the repetition approach, I have also questioned the effectiveness. It would appear the sentence patterns get embedded more thoroughly. I have to do this for class to and really havent got another choice as this is how my teacher does it. I have come to appreciate it and whenever I repeat one of these very Chinese phrases later (in conversation) it is always met by approval.

[L-F-J]

i think speaking and listening are directly related. the more you listen the more your sense for the language will build up in your ear, which will then translate into you being able to produce the language in the same way you hear it.

listening is also key to output which can be practiced silently even when reading. after some time you'll be able to read silently the way you would hear a native speaking, and it would be clear to you because you would have such a strong sense for the language through so much listening.

in only the second year of university study, it could be that your listening skill has not grown enough yet and not actually your speaking problem. things always sound faster until you understand everything. the more you understand the slower things sound because its not all zipping past you, you start to catch it all. its like the words snag on your ears as they zoom by which seems to slow it all down. even after understanding everything, it often takes a lot of getting used to through many hours of listening experience.

the only time i've ever heard chinese really speak fast, was on several radio shows where it is as if they need to get through a number of news stories in just a few minutes. the hosts always speak super fast, and seem to be rushing their guests along to fit everything in. but in general, no one talks like that any more than they talk like those textbook dialogues.

[nicklenn]

Largely I thinking improving your speaking speed involves both confidence and being forced into situations which test your skills. I myself have improved my speaking speed by living in Taipei and surrounding myself with only taiwanese friends while living. Though since my return back to australia I dropped speed and fluency in speaking not listening nor reading just speaking. So I had to do something about that and I believe it isn't in doing extra study on your own or listening to podcasts but putting yourself into day to day situations where you need to communicate in chinese. I do this now by going out to coffee a lot with my chinese friends and visiting my girlfriends mother. This communication is becoming easier and easier. I have always struggled in speaking due to my constant travel arrangements though creating a chinese circle to speak chinese helps greatly with the support I got so I could speak fluently.

[HeDiWen何迪文]

i think speaking and listening are directly related. the more you listen the more your sense for the language will build up in your ear, which will then translate into you being able to produce the language in the same way you hear it.

listening is also key to output which can be practiced silently even when reading. after some time you'll be able to read silently the way you would hear a native speaking, and it would be clear to you because you would have such a strong sense for the language through so much listening.

in only the second year of university study, it could be that your listening skill has not grown enough yet and not actually your speaking problem. things always sound faster until you understand everything. the more you understand the slower things sound because its not all zipping past you, you start to catch it all. its like the words snag on your ears as they zoom by which seems to slow it all down. even after understanding everything, it often takes a lot of getting used to through many hours of listening experience.QUOTE]

That's true. It may be that my Chinese knowledge is not good enough to be able to speak efficiently. And I do definetley have trouble listening sometimes. It's not always that I don't catch everything but when I speak with natives, such as my teacher or a friend, they usually throw in something I don't know or havent studied before.

So do you suggest from then on I just continue practicing listening skills and dialouges rather than trying to engage in real conversations with native speakers? Or can I do a mix of both? Although I have trouble sometimes I find it to be good practice because I usually learn something new each time.

[heifeng]

i don't think you should necessarily be looking to speak fast. rather you should be looking for what to say in a proper situation or how to express yourself without thinking of what to say and/or translating into chinese as you speak. As long as you can join into a conversation and express yourself, then that's already a big plus. The spead will naturally increase.

Besides, the reason I say speed shouldn't really be the objective is b/c on this board you will notice that there are even threads of people (such as myself) trying to slow down when they speak so they can improve their pronunciation. Once you get into a habbit of speaking quickly, it's a difficult habit to break and makes it more challenging to diagnose other problems later down the line

Anyway, if you do really want to practice speaking more quickly just watch soap operas and read the line after they say it and see if how fast you can read everything aloud, and if you can read it b4 it changes to the next line. Sometimes if I'm watching a really corny soap opera (with orphans and other sob stories) my friends and I will each pick a actor's lines to over act and go back n' forth reciting them along with the soap opera in a super exaggerated manner. If you want to improve your listening and speaking, then don't look at the Chinese subtitles, just listen and repeat. You can also try this with documentaries and such too.

[L-F-J]

So do you suggest from then on I just continue practicing listening skills and dialouges rather than trying to engage in real conversations with native speakers? Or can I do a mix of both? Although I have trouble sometimes I find it to be good practice because I usually learn something new each time.

continue speaking as often as you feel comfortable. find what works for you and stick with it.

for me, i dont have chinese conversation partners. my wife is a mandarin language teacher at the university level in the u.s., yet we only randomly speak mandarin together at home.

most of my study is listening as often as i can throughout the day using my mp3 player, on the train to and from work for example (a couple hours). then more at home online where i can use an online dictionary. i read a bit too then. probably less than i should, but i think listening is most important and enjoyable, to me.

that way i focus on building my vocabulary every day, always acquiring more words and phrases. then every summer i spend a couple months in china. thats where my study is put to the test, to see what it has given me.

in any situation i speak quite comfortably with the natives there, even though actual speaking practice is such a little part of my chinese study- really little. as long as i increase my vocab often and listen all the time, i'll have no problem when it actually comes to speaking to the natives in china.

in fact, on my last trip i noticed so much of the vocab i was hearing from the natives was words i had just learned throughout the previous year. since listening keeps it fresh in my mind i could even remember when, where, and how i learned a certain word from my listening content as i heard it from them in china.

but anyway, at least for me, the ability to speak fluently doesnt take much actual speaking to develop. more-so, it takes getting used to the language and having it natural in my head. so that, whatever i want to say, i can hear the way a chinese would say it, then i speak as naturally as that.

i've heard many non-chinese speak mandarin very well, with very large vocabularies and all. really great, but some of their words are pronounced incorrectly and they have a very obvious accent. likely because they focus on speaking too much, so they become accustomed to their own pronunciation, rather than that of the native speakers. (a habit hard to break)

last time i had a conversation with native chinese they said i had no accent at all (though i'm sure tone mistakes). i attribute that completely to my listening. i almost have a native speaker's voice in my head and i can hear them say whatever i want to say, because i'm so used to the way they speak mandarin- the way it should sound. so its easy.

but i totally agree with heifeng-

the focus should be on communicating effectively, not speaking fast. but for me, that includes speaking as fluently as possible with little to no accent. at least not clearly mispronouncing words. there are so few possible sounds in mandarin that i find that's unacceptable.

and of course, speed will develop as your sense for the language becomes stronger. luckily, i think chinese is an easy language to develop that sense with.

[sweetcheri]

I make myself voice chat with friends on QQ, as most of my friends on there are native speakers. Since they talk very fast, if I keep having conversations with them, I get the hang of it soon enough. Then, I try talking like them, and making it fast. It's still common for me to stumble on words and stop in the middle of a sentence to think, but I think speaking with native speakers is the best way.

[HashiriKata]

I think speaking with native speakers is the best way.

It doesn't have to be native speakers. With anyone that you can keep the conversation going, then it's a good practise for you, native speakers or not.

[imron]

I second LaoZhang's suggestion. Find some recordings of native speakers (even better if they have transcripts). Record yourself speaking. Compare to original. Note the places you were different, and pay attention and try to correct that the next time you speak. Start with smaller sentences and gradually work your way up to longer sentences, multiple sentences and then whole passages. Initially you will stumble a lot and it will feel awkward, however like everything, the more you practice, the better you will get. As you start to become more fluent when reading and/or reciting these passages, the fluency will begin to flow over into your normal speech.

[Shadowdh]

Imron thanks for the link to those resources... they are fantastic for practice... much appreciated...

[imron]

Haha, the thanks should go to Heifeng for posting them first

[Shadowdh]

oops Thanks Heifeng...

[HeDiWen何迪文]

Thank you everyone for all this advice! I will put it all to good use. Speaking with natives is a great way to learn. I always do and learn something new each time. There's so much to learn!!! Including the language and the culture! I believe its also good to have a lang partner. One or two ppl who are either native or very profecient in the lang. They will correct you and translate anything you don't understand. Also, I know I said I hate reciting scripts over and over but I notice I like writing them. For some reason, I can remember them better if I write scripts x amount of times. My teacher has suggested listening to audio clips and writing down what is said x amount of times. Kinda like killing two birds with one stone. Getting better at writing and listening, which I geuss would help your speaking in the end result. It can also help learn how to use new hanzi along the way.

Do you agree?

[imron]

I hate reciting scripts over.... Getting better at writing and listening, which I geuss would help your speaking in the end result

To a certain degree yes, and to a certain degree no. It will help in that it will increase your vocabulary and understanding of grammatical structures, however you also need to practice your mouth muscles and practice speaking longer sentences without unnatural pauses. I hate reciting stuff too, and put off doing this for a long time. Shortly after beginning to do recitation however, I noticed a marked improvement in my speaking. In the end, I believe you need to do something like this if you want to get up to speaking fluently for sustained periods of time. Sooner or later you just have to bite the bullet and do the stuff you hate, because you know it will pay off in the long run.

Try it with the links I provided above for 30 min a day over an entire month. Use this to track progress. Keep a recording of your efforts on the first day (pauses, stumbles and all), and compare it with a recording on the last day - you'll see a big difference. 作品2号 and 作品7号 contain fairly simple language and might be good ones to start with.

Edited October 6, 2008 at 04:13 AM by imron