Response Time is Critical You, yes you, are responsible for ensuring that you are an interesting, fun person to have【C1】______ , for being a positive player in the game of life. No matter what your level of 【C2】______ to use a given language, you'll need to be fast. To be able to respond or begin speaking within the usual conversational pause of about half a second or break of 【C3】______ four seconds, you'll need to be able to say something, anything, within those time limits, or you just won't get a【C4】______ . We had an interesting example of this in class which accurately 【C5】______ real life 'on the street'. One student, who'd never left Japan and who spoke English at only sixty to seventy words per minute, could generally begin speaking within a second or so 【C6】______ he wanted to. His start was strong, but not always meaningful: 'Yes, well, yes. Well what I wanted to say ...' 【C7】______ student had lived and worked in England, could easily speak at one to two hundred words per minute and preferred to be precise 【C8】______ he said, taking two to four seconds to prepare before he spoke. By the end of the class round-table debate, the second student said he was feeling frustrated and 【C9】______ that no one would listen to him and had only been heard for a few minutes【C10】______ over the hour long debate. On the other hand, the first, slower talking student had totaled over twenty minutes of speaking time and been the most lucid ( = expressive)【C11】______ in the group of six. The first speaker had a hearing because his【C12】______ and initiation time was very fast, while the【C13】______ failed, no matter how much he wanted to talk, because his response time was too slow, slower than any other student. A secondary factor was that when the second student【C14】______ before speaking his first few words were much quieter than his normal speaking volume. The interactive talking possible in lessons gave the second student chances to reduce his response time so that later in the course he could make himself【C15】______ quickly and loudly enough for people to be interested in hearing what he wanted to say. Part of the success I've had with teaching language has been【C16】______ of my insistence that response times be in the half to two second【C17】______ from the beginning of the first lesson,【C18】______ the students true beginners who don't know even the English alphabet or advanced second language speakers who have lived and worked overseas. of course, having the ability to respond or【C19】______ quickly does not mean you have to do it, it just allows you to say what you want and【C20】______ when you want to. A public speaker answering a curly question may well choose to take some time to prepare what they will say, and may be well advised to do so, but there will be occasions when quick response is essential if credibility is to be maintained. 【C1】