Speaking clearly and being understood when speaking English isn’t just about pronouncing vowels and consonants correctly, or even using the correct rhythm, stress and connected speech pronunciation rules.
Another key to speaking clearly and being understood is pausing between groups of words in your sentences.
That means, native English speakers do not speak continuously. In fact, they take tiny pauses (meaning, they don’t speak for a fraction of a second) between groups of words.
Why Pause?
Give the listener time to understand your words.
Emphasize one main word in a group of words.
(1) Taking a very short pause between groups of words (called “thought groups“) gives your listener the opportunity to digest, take in and understand what you have already said, without having to worry about what you are going to say next.
Example
Compare the pronunciation of the following two sentences.
“Why would you go to school when you could work and earn money?”
versus
“Why would you go to school / when you could work / and earn money?”
The second sentence is much easier to understand–even for a native speaker–because I very slightly paused between thought groups, those groups of words that presented a thought together. This allowed the listener to digest and understand each part of the sentence before going on to the next part of the sentence.
Remember, the pause is very short and quick, but very effective.