Are younger people speaking faster? - and if so, does it matter?

I recently attended a webinar by the British Council where linguist David Crystal talked about the future of English. One of the things he highlighted was the increasing speed of speech in younger generations. Evidence suggests that the influence of short-form videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube is contributing to faster speech patterns.

This caught my attention. Why?

I deliver intercultural communication skills training across a range of UK organisations, including training for internationally diverse NHS teams and broader healthcare communication skills programmes. Speed of speech is consistently one of the first barriers to communication that we address.

This emerging trend has important implications. Faster speech can make it significantly harder for listeners who are processing English as an additional language to follow conversations in real time. In multilingual workplaces, this risks increasing communication challenges in multicultural workplaces and contributing to communication breakdowns with non-native speakers.

So what can help bridge this communication gap?

We can be more mindful of how fast we’re speaking and consciously slow down. But just as importantly, we can build in pauses. Even a brief pause between ideas and sentences can provide crucial processing time for colleagues who speak English as an additional language.

These small adjustments are simple but powerful strategies for clear communication in multilingual teams and how to communicate better with non-native English speakers.

✨ Remember: adjusting your pace, adding pauses, and allowing processing time are three key steps to stronger, more effective communication in multilingual teams and better collaboration and communication in intercultural healthcare teams.

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