To Study the Speech Rate and Fluency on Bilingual Children

The present study aimed to study the speech rate and fluency on bilingual children. Children aged seven years old from second grade, eight years old from third grade, nine-year-olds from fourth grade and ten-year-old children among the fifth grade will be taken for the study. Narrative speech was elicited through "cookie theft" picture. The picture had shown to each participant and they would be requested to describe as much as possible about it, in their L1 and L2. Results of the current study revealed 1). speech rate is more in L1 than L2). 2)The fluency (total locution time, number of pauses, number of repetition) is greater for Malayalam(L1) compared to English(L2).3). No overall significant gender effect. It was concluded that the speech rate and fluency are more on Malayalam(L1) than English(L2), and there is no significant gender difference. The study concludes that the children are more proficient in their first language than the second language in terms of speech rate and fluency.