ENHANCING PHONETIC TRAINING FOR MEDIA BROADCASTERS AND ANNOUNCERS

The most important form of communication is perhaps the spoken form. The naturalness of speech makes it to be the most effective means of communication. It is the most used medium, and it is particularly important because it assures the use of the sensitive organs in various degrees simultaneously. In everyday conversation, according to Crystal (1988), people speak about five to six syllables a second – around 300 a minute. This is an average, of course. Some people are naturally fast, and others naturally slow in their manner of speech. And speed varies greatly depending on the context. When reading aloud, the average is much lower – around 250 syllables per minute (spm). Reading the news on radio or television may produce even slower speeds, of around 200 spm. By contrast, in the middle of an exciting story, in intimate surroundings, a speaker can easily reach speeds of 500spm – though not usually for more than a few seconds at a time. Whether or not the validity of these findings could be extended to nonnative speakers is an issue waiting to be investigated.