The goal of this study is to look into the speech rhythm and rate of native English speakers, Chinese speakers, and Korean speakers when reading in English, with a particular emphasis on the nPVI and speech rate, which are critical timing variables used to predict which differences between English and the English learner’s L1 cause difficulty. The study discovered that the rhythm of native English speakers had the most stress-timing of any reader, regardless of reading language, and that the rhythm of Chinese speakers had more stress-timing than that of Korean speakers. Furthermore, native English speakers had the fastest speech rate and articulation rate during English reading, whereas Korean speakers had the fastest speech rate and articulation rate during L1 reading. When reading the passage in their L1, Chinese and Korean speakers were the overall fastest in terms of speech rate and articulation rate. These findings demonstrate the fundamental differences in rhythm between English, Chinese, and Korean speakers. It was revealed that the temporal characteristics, segmental structure, and syllable structure of Chinese and Korean speakers’ L1 are frequently transferred to the rhythm and rate of English reading.