When testing text to speech on android using the native plugin the speech rate is normal. When testing on any emulator or my iPad the speech rate is really, really slow. Here is my speech function:
speak(text){
var options = {"text":text, "locale":"en-US", "rate": 1};
TextToSpeech.speak(options)
.then(() => console.log('Success'))
.catch((reason: any) => {
alert('Speech is not ready yet! Try again later.');
console.log(reason);
});
}