The acoustic emission (AE) monitoring technique has proven its suitability in characterizing the condition of materials and structures. In composites for construction and repair, several developments have recently been emerged involving mainly fracture mode evaluation based on the waveform parameters. However, the propagation distance, the size and the shape of the specimens strongly influence the recorded signals. Although the effect of wave propagation distance has been studied, the influence of the lateral dimension of the plate (width) has not been given proper attention, not allowing the extrapolation of results obtained from small coupons to large scale plates. The study examines wave propagation from actual AE sources as well as artificial ones in textile-reinforced cement (TRC) plates highlighting the strong differences in the results that are attributed just to the shape and size of the specimens even though the source of emission is unchanged. The aim is to highlight that the interpretation of AE trends should be firmly connected to the shape and size of the specimens.