Effect of English Speech Rate on Elementary Students’ Listening Comprehension

This study aims to find out the effect of various degrees of English speech rate on elementary students’ listening comprehension. The average speech rate of elementary school e-books is 130 wpm (word per minute), which is considerably slower than the natural speed of native speakers (about 160-190 wpm). The average speech rate of the Nationwide Standardized Achievement Test is also around 128.2 wpm which can be regarded as the barometer of the textbooks. In the EFL setting, however, it is very important to be exposed to the authentic English. For these concerns, this study is conducted with 135 of 6th grade students from an elementary school in Seoul. It attempts to determine their listening comprehension on three different speech rates according to their English proficiency. The results indicate that there is no significant difference between groups, on every proficiency level. Therefore, this study claims two conclusions. First, it is necessary to present the real-life speed of native English speakers for effective language comprehension for elementary students. It also insists that the concept of speech rate should be in the national English curriculum, so that the textbook developers should follow the guideline when they write elementary school textbooks in the future.