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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Speech Rate as and Indicator of Fluency in the Russian of Finnish Learners.

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description

This study focuses on the speech rate development of 12 Finnish university students of Russian during their 3.5-month-study abroad experience. Speech and articulation rates are measured in phonetic words per second and syllables per second in the Russian read-aloud speech of the subjects. This is done at three recordings: prior to, during and following their stay in Russia. The results are compared to their read-aloud Finnish speech. The students are also compared depending on the residence (host-family vs. dormitories) in Russia. The study shows that speech and articulation rates correlate with the evaluated fluency of the speech samples. It was found that speech rate is a better indicator of fluency than articulation rate in non-native read-aloud speech. The results also show that articulation rate in mother tongue (Finnish) and foreign language (Russian) correlate with each other more than speech rate. peerReviewed