diff --git a/packages/api/src/routers/text_to_speech.ts b/packages/api/src/routers/text_to_speech.ts
index 2a6a1b320..f7dd7bdcc 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/routers/text_to_speech.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/routers/text_to_speech.ts
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ export function textToSpeechRouter() {
           options: {
             primaryVoice: userPersonalization?.speechVoice || 'Axel',
             secondaryVoice: 'Evelyn',
+            language: page.language,
           },
         })
 
@@ -81,8 +82,8 @@ export function textToSpeechRouter() {
             voice: utterance.voice || 'Axel',
             priority: 'high',
             isUltraRealisticVoice: true,
-            language: page.language || 'English',
-            rate: '1.1',
+            language: speechFile.language,
+            rate: userPersonalization?.speechRate?.toString() || '1.1',
           })
           logger.info('Start Text to speech task', { taskName })
         }
diff --git a/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts b/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
index 9b1a32d87..8fb0b7e35 100644
--- a/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
+++ b/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ export type SSMLOptions = {
 const DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = 'en-US'
 const DEFAULT_VOICE = 'en-US-JennyNeural'
 const DEFAULT_SECONDARY_VOICE = 'en-US-GuyNeural'
-const DEFAULT_RATE = '1.0'
+const DEFAULT_RATE = '1.1'
 
 const ANCHOR_ELEMENTS_BLOCKED_ATTRIBUTES = [
   'omnivore-highlight-id',