Positing that listeners exploit early motoric cues and vocal tract shapes related to upcoming speech elements, this research examines the perceptual effects of anticipatory gestures and vocal tract configurations in the production of a French rounded vowel-like consonant: the so-called semivowel [á]. The paradigm consists in generating speech samples by a representative French speaker, then segments are "gated-out" and listeners are asked to judge what the "gated-out" segments were. The robustness of the perceptual effects and extent of these anticipatory gestures and vocal tract shapes are evaluated under increased speaking rate. Relationships between coarticulatory production strategies and perceptual mechanisms are explained in terms of sensory-motor constraints.