Why Your English Gets Worse When You Try to Speak Fast

Many English learners experience the same frustrating paradox:

👉 The harder they try to speak fast, the worse their English sounds.

For me, personally, this happens when I’m speaking Portuguese in certain situations.
It’s not even that I consciously try to speak fast.🏃‍➡️

Sometimes I’m very excited 😅about something, so I naturally speed up, and even as I’m speaking, I can feel that I’m not being clear at all.

Other times, I’m angry.😠 And all that emotion comes rushing out in a completely unintelligible mess.

And then there’s the worst scenario of all:
you sense that the person you’re talking to is losing interest.😞
You’re explaining something in a long, drawn-out way (usually because you’re missing the right vocabulary), so you speed up to finish… and end up botching the whole story.

It’s frustrating.
And, honestly, a little humiliating.

Here’s the result:

Pronunciation breaks down.
Grammar disappears.
Vocabulary vanishes.
And confidence drops, exactly when you’re trying to “sound fluent”.

If this happens to you, let me reassure you straight away:

This is not a personal failure.
It’s a cognitive limitation.

And understanding it is essential if you want real fluency.

Speaking Fast Is Not Fluency 🧠

Fluency is often misunderstood as speed.

But speed is not fluency.
Automaticity is.

Fluent speakers don’t speak fast because they’re fluent.
They speak fast because language retrieval is automatic.

Learners often try to copy the result (speed)
without having the process (automation).

When you force speed before automation exists, your brain enters overload.

And the result is predictable:

👉 Your English gets worse, not better.

What Actually Happens in Your Brain When You Rush 🤯

When you speak a second language, your brain is already managing several things at once:

• Retrieving vocabulary
• Building grammatical structure
• Producing correct sounds
• Monitoring meaning
• Managing social pressure

That’s a lot.

When you try to increase speed artificially, you exceed your working memory capacity.

Something has to fail.

Usually, it’s:
• Grammar
• Pronunciation
• Accuracy
or all three at the same time.

That’s why your English suddenly feels less controlled when you rush.

Speed Forces Translation… and Translation Is Slow 🐌

Fast speech requires direct access to English.

But many learners are still relying, partly or fully, on translation from their native language.

When you force speed:
• You don’t eliminate translation
• You compress it

And compressed translation creates:
• Hesitation
• Awkward pauses
• Wrong words
• Broken sentences

This often leads to a vicious cycle:

You try to speak fast
→ You make mistakes
→ Anxiety increases
→ Performance drops further

And slowly, your brain starts associating English with stress, not fluency.

Native Speakers Pause. Learners Try to Eliminate Pauses ⏸️

Here’s another damaging myth:

❌ “If I pause, I don’t sound fluent.”

In reality:
✔ Native speakers pause constantly
✔ They hesitate
✔ They reformulate

What makes them fluent is control, not speed.

Learners, on the other hand, often believe pauses equal failure.
So they rush.

And rushing removes:
• Sentence planning
• Sound accuracy
• Structural stability

Pauses are not the enemy of fluency.
They are a feature of controlled speech.

Why Slower Speech Sounds Better (Even If You Hate It 😅)

When learners slow down slightly:

• Pronunciation improves
• Grammar stabilises
• Vocabulary retrieval becomes more reliable
• Confidence increases

Paradoxically, listeners often perceive slower, accurate speech as more fluent than fast, broken speech.

Fluency is judged by:
✅ Clarity
✅ Ease
✅ Coherence

Not by words per minute.

The Long-Term Damage of Forcing Speed 🚨

Continually pushing speed too early can:

• Reinforce fossilised errors
• Train incorrect pronunciation patterns
• Increase speaking anxiety
• Create avoidance behaviours

In other words, every time you rush, you may be practising the wrong version of your English.

What Actually Builds Real Speed 🎯

Real speed emerges naturally when:

• Structures are repeated in context
• Vocabulary is learned in chunks
• Speaking practice is controlled, not rushed
• Output is slightly challenging, but manageable

You don’t train speed by forcing speed.

👉 You train speed by removing friction.

Practical Adjustments That Actually Work 🛠️

Instead of trying to speak faster, focus on:

• Speaking in complete, simple sentences
• Using familiar structures repeatedly
• Allowing natural pauses
• Prioritising clarity over impressiveness
• Increasing speed only after stability exists

This approach feels slower at first, but it leads to real, lasting fluency.

The Uncomfortable Truth 😬

Your English doesn’t get worse when you try to speak fast.

👉 It gets exposed.

Speed reveals what isn’t automated yet.

Fluency isn’t built by rushing.
It’s built by control first, speed later.

Final Thought ✨

If your English collapses when you try to speak fast, that’s not a weakness.

It’s feedback.

👂And if you listen to it, instead of fighting it,
your English will finally start moving forward.

👉 Want help building fluency without rushing, stress, or losing control?
I help learners develop clarity, rhythm, and automatic speaking skills, not artificial speed.

If you want to learn English with me, I’m Liz Aldam, an English teacher with more than twenty years of experience, having worked with companies like Yamaha, Faurecia, and others. I live in the Val-d’Oise region in France and I teach online.

📲 Click the WhatsApp icon below and contact me 😊