In order to be intelligible to the listener the speaker has to pay attention to the
speed of his delivery. If we convey our message at a rapid speed, the listener
may miss its essence or some important links in the sequence. This is likely to
result in a breakdown of communication and a concomitant loss of interest in
what is being said. Very slow speech, on the other hand, could make the talk /
speech/presentation boring. Thus the two extremes would defeat the very
purpose of oral communication i.e., transmitting information and interacting.
When we speak to an audience (present or absent) we need to adjust the speed
depending on the subject matter, the estimated level of the audience, and the
time allotted for the talk / speech / report etc.
If the subject matter the speaker is to talk about is difficult and entirely new to
the audience they cannot afford to speak too fast. They would, for instance,
need to speak slower when talking about a technical subject than they would if
they were talking about a sports event. However, if the audience comprises
highly qualified people, we could speak faster.
Another factor that can be important in determining speed is the listener’s
proficiency in the language used by the speaker. If the level of proficiency is
low the speaker would need to reduce his speed.
Familiarity with our audience can influence the speed of our speech. If we
address an assembly of friends we can speak faster than we would while
addressing strangers. Also, if we have been talking to an audience quite
frequently, we need not speak slowly.
Sometimes the time allotted for a talk/speech/report/presentation necessitates
an adjustment in the speed of delivery. What we want to say must be said
within the allotted time, so we have to speak fast or slow as the case may be.
We would be able to speak at normal speed if the content were to be just
enough for the time allotted.
Three examples:
Fast
Too slow
Normal
Said at a fast pace:
It is often said in high places that engineers exploit the discoveries of
scientists and use them for making profit. It is even implied sometimes that
this is all they do. Perhaps the simplest counter to this is that the pure sciences,
as we now understand them, have a history that stretches back perhaps 200
years (in any concentrated form). Engineering, on the other hand, can be
traced back some 30,000 years when primitive men tied logs together with
reed ropes to make rafts, and soon learned to harness the wind by putting
masts and sails on them.
Said very slowly
Engineering is much more than that. It is concerned with everyday living,
often with survival, especially in its more ancient beginnings. Engineering is
therefore concerned with common sense as well as ingenuity. When it finally
brought affluence, at least to a minority, it was on the first rung of a ladder
that it has been climbing ever since-improving the quality of life for all
mankind. This involves not only harnessing, but controlling, the natural forces
and resources.
Normal speed
For thousands of years the primitive folk we now see as engineering pioneers
never thought of themselves in such terms. There were seamen, farmers,
soldiers and men of a few other occupations who could clearly be identified as
leading quite different kinds of lives. But not until the Industrial Revolution
did entirely new ‘species’ emerge, the men who made machines. They could
be seen to be neither soldiers nor sailors, nor had they anything to do with the
earth itself. They did not build roads, nor bridge rivers, and yet they had skills
in common with those who did.
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