To review your pace, record one short answer on your own device, write or type what you said, count the words and divide by the time in minutes. The number is a words per minute (wpm) figure. Then listen again for pauses, rushed sentences and stretches that sounded flat.
This lesson follows comparing past, present and future, where you practised keeping a clear timeline. Here you check how that timeline sounds at speed.
Why measure pace at all?
Feelings about speed are unreliable. Nervous speakers often hear themselves as faster than they are, and careful speakers may think they sound slow when they sound calm. A number and a listen-back give you facts.
Think of a runner with a watch. The watch does not judge, it just tells you how fast you ran.
How do I review a recording?
- Record thirty to sixty seconds on one prompt, using the private speaking recorder. The tool records locally and lets you delete the file at once.
- Write out what you said, or type it, just as you said it.
- Count the words, then divide by the seconds and multiply by 60 to get wpm.
- Listen again with the transcript. Mark the places where you rushed, stopped suddenly or ran two ideas together.
- Choose one change for the next attempt, such as a short pause after each idea.
Worked example
A student records a 40-second answer about a holiday. The transcript has 98 words.
Step 1, words and time: 98 words in 40 seconds.
Step 2, calculate wpm: 98 ÷ 40 = 2.45 words per second. Then 2.45 × 60 = 147 words per minute.
Step 3, listen back: The student notices that the first ten seconds were steady, but the story about the train rushed. The listener would miss the ideas “we missed the train” and “we waited for an hour”.
Step 4, choose one change: Add a short pause after each of those two ideas and keep the rest.
Step 5, re-record: The new version takes 46 seconds with the same 98 words. 98 ÷ 46 × 60 ≈ 128 wpm. The answer is slower overall, and the two key ideas are now easy to hear.
The aim was not to hit a number. It was to give the listener time to catch the ideas that matter.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to judge pace by feeling alone, then try to fix it by “speaking slower” across the whole answer.
Mistaken approach: “I sounded fast, so next time I will talk very slowly all the way through.”
Slowing down everything can make the answer flat and too long for the time given. Correct it by finding the one or two places that rushed, and adding pauses there. Pace is about variation: slower for important ideas, steadier for links.
A second slip is counting filler sounds as words and then feeling pleased with a high number. Write out what you said honestly, including hesitations, and look for patterns.
Check yourself
Try the calculations, then open each answer.
1. A recording has 120 words and lasts 1 minute 20 seconds. What is the pace in words per minute?
Show answer
1 minute 20 seconds = 80 seconds. 120 ÷ 80 = 1.5 words per second, and 1.5 × 60 = 90 wpm.
2. A student speaks 150 words in 60 seconds, but the listener says the answer felt rushed in the middle. What should the student do first?
Show answer
The overall number (150 wpm) is not the problem. The student should find the middle section in the recording and add short pauses after the key ideas, instead of slowing the whole answer.
3. Why is it useful to delete a recording after you review it?
Show answer
The recording has done its job once you have chosen a change. Deleting it protects your privacy, and a fresh attempt gives cleaner evidence of what you improved.
Where this leads next
The next lesson is about choosing one thing to fix in your pronunciation without accent shaming. Then use the speaking organisation practice set to combine everything, and note the results in the mistake log and retest queue.
Some students can measure pace but are unsure what to change. That is the kind of decision our teachers help with in online one-to-one English as a Second Language tuition.