I’ve noticed this repeatedly when working on spoken English with professionals.
They know the words, the grammar. They often pronounce the individual words quite well. But when they speak, each word gets its own little piece of attention. The result can sound surprisingly effortful.
And sometimes the speaker concludes:
“I need to slow down.”
Sometimes that can help, but often slowing down alone isn’t the solution. It can actually make the word-by-word quality more noticeable.
The issue is not necessarily speed. It is connection.
In fluent speech, words don’t always arrive as separate, equally weighted units. Some words connect, some become less prominent, and some transitions become almost automatic.
For instance:
hold on, look at, move on
don’t have to sound like two carefully separated words.
It can become a single flowing unit. And this is something you can practise with other word combinations. Not by trying to speak faster, but by taking a short group of words and practising them as a block.
First say it slowly, then repeat it. Pay attention to the transition between the words rather than to each word individually.
Then put the block back into the sentence.
This is one of the things I often work on with professionals because the problem isn’t necessarily that they don’t know enough English. They may already know exactly what they want to say. They haven’t yet made the movement between the words automatic enough for the speech to flow.
And that is a different problem.
I have written about this on various occasions in the past, explaining connected speech to learners.
Fluency isn’t just about how much English you know, or how quickly you speak. It is also about how easily your mouth can move through the English you already know.
Do you need help communicating clearly in English?
I help senior professionals who want to communicate with greater clarity and confidence in English.