Why You May Have to Repeat Yourself

Written by: Dain Hong / Communication / October 2019

It can get frustrating when your spoken message is not understood as soon as it leaves your lips. You’ve said it, so why is there no immediate reaction from the listener? Several clients have approached me with this same concern these past few weeks. They’ve shared that when they’re not understood the first time, and possibly urged to repeat themselves repeatedly, their initial confusion leads to frustration which eventually leads to reluctance to communicate. 

There are many factors contributing to this outcome. Factors outside your control include the background noise, listener’s hearing level, their attention, their processing speed and their willingness to engage. Although there are many outside your control, there are multiple within your control: volume, pace and enunciation, pronunciation, and prosody.

Volume

When as speaker’s voice is not loud enough, their message may not be received. Adequate volume depends on the context, considering the existing background noise, one’s distance to the communication partner, and one’s awareness of the hearing level of the listener. Dialogues in noisier backgrounds such as a busy restaurant or a bar would require more volume than those in coffee shops or during a stroll down a residential street. Although a speaker may be hearing one’s own voice loud and clear—as they are accessing the sound through both the air and skull vibrations— can the listener hear the speaker? 

Pace and enunciation

These two factors go hand in hand. When one speaks quickly, it is most likely that their lips and tongue are moving smaller distances inside and around the mouth; this leads to reduced enunciation and thus less clarity. 

Talking first about pace: when a speaker talks quickly, numerous sentences expressing multiple ideas become one long run-on sentence. When the ideas are not phrased into digestible pieces, the listener has to do the difficult work of parsing the run-on. With so much effort dedicated to processing what’s been said, the listener has little leisure to respond to comments in-the-moment. Another characteristic of those with quick speaking pace is their tendency to abandon ideas. They may begin a train of thought, lose direction or interest, and jump to another idea before the previous idea has been completed. When pace is slowed down, the speaker has greater awareness and control over their ideas, phrases and words that are being produced. 

Regarding enunciation, slowed pace also allows the speaker to articulate with their oral muscles the specific sounds they are saying. In this way, words are not jumbled up, pauses are where they should be, and the end of sentences are marked obviously. With slower pace and intentional enunciation, one can increase their clarity significantly.

Pronunciation

Is English the speaker’s first language? If not, by how much – if at all—is one’s English influenced by their mother tongue, and possibly other languages one may speak? Speakers of more than one language may find that aspects of one language may rub off onto another. For example, a speaker of Hindi as a L1 (first language) may find their p – t—k sounds are similar to b—d – g. Similarly, a speaker of Tagalog as L1 may find that /z/ sounds are more like /s/ in words like examine “ikzamin”, exist “ikzist”, and exit “ekzit”. These distinctions, though subtle, may be a source of confusion for listeners who are still tuning their ear to the influence of linguistic diversity on English. 

Prosody

Are the speaker’s questions sounding like questions and statements sounding like statements? Or in other words, are the sentences generally going up in pitch for the former and down for the latter? Also, are certain parts of the sentence emphasized to highlight key points? Additionally, is the stance on a topic expressed, or are messages being sent matter-of-factly? Mastering the melody of spoken messages is crucial as it helps to engage the listener, draw attention to the area of greatest importance, and provide a tidbit about one’s perspective on the topic. These details allow the listener to respond appropriately. 

For example, if one were to say to another on a cloudy day, “It’s expected to rain today” with monotony, the listener may not know whether it was an invitation for a conversation (question/ observation) and also would not know how the speaker is feeling about it—was the intention to inform, express annoyance, or share excitement? Through prosody, one’s message can become more inviting, engaging and relatable. 

The next time someone asks you to repeat yourself, take a moment to consider these four factors and identify what can be modified to compose clear and immediately understood messages. 

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To speak with one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.

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