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Becoming a faster reader? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3912 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 24 30 September 2014 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't want to speed read. I just want to read a little faster, I've always been a slow plodding reader in any language, and I was wondering how I might get myself at a faster reading speed? I already read tons I just never seem to be able to recall things as well if I don't read at a snails pace.
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| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5235 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 24 30 September 2014 at 11:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Never read aloud in your head. This is the most common reason for slow reading. If you are saying the words in your head (subvocalising) then you are slow reading. Have a look at some of these websites.
Eliminate subvocalising Stop subvocalising But it is difficult to not subvocalise in a 2nd language. I have the opposite problem. I read very fast, and need to slow down when reading a second language so that I practice pronunciation! 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 3 of 24 30 September 2014 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's funny, I've been trying to slow down over the years. You actually put your finger on the reason why: I tend to read at a breakneck speed to get to the end of the story, but I forget the details. I'm beginning to learn to try to savour books rather than rush through them. Sorry I don't have advice to help you, but maybe your pace isn't so bad.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 24 01 October 2014 at 12:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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That's why I find LR so useful. The audio prevents me from slowing down too much. I do sometimes pause it to think of the story or of a language item, but I still have to decide very quickly that yes, this particular bit is worth the trouble. Most of the time it simply isn't.
edit: also, see this and try timeboxing/pomodoro. I find that "natural" timeboxing works best for me, ie the situations where the available time is limited. edit2: varying your reading strategy can also help. you've probably seen the wikia article by now, but try this especially. In general, consider using sources that present the material in small portions, such as GLOSS or bliubliu. Or even Spritz and other apps for this different kind of speedreading. I also read fairly slowly even in my native language, btw. Edited by Serpent on 01 October 2014 at 1:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5765 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 24 01 October 2014 at 4:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm a relatively fast reader. (I actually tend to rush ahead when doing LR and have to catch myself, find the place at which the recording is and follow it with the text - most of the time I read almost everything twice.)
Trying to quit subvocalizing seems to be a stupid idea when you're reading in the context of language acquisition. So is employing reading strategies that make you skip function words. I think you should read at the pace at which you feel you get the most out of a text. Be it enjoyment, information or language practice. Skimming is useful for finding a particular bit of information you read before, but not for actual reading for comprehension. If you still think you're too slow, there may be a number of factors you could address. For example, it could be that you're too easily distracted and your eyes jump from the line you're at to the one above or below, and you have to catch yourself and read the line again. If you're reading a book an easy trick is to put a blank sheet below the line you are reading, or to use your finger. Yes, it can make you feel like you're 'almost illiterate' but it makes staying concentrated on the text easier, and especially when the text is difficult I think you should use all the tricks that can help you perform well. If it's on the computer or another device, adjusting the font size and width of the window can do a lot to help you not jump from one line to the next. If you're easily distracted it can also be that you often read the same paragraph several times to make sure you actually got it right. Though, I think that doesn't happen so much to people who read slowly, but to people who read hastily but finish texts slowly. In that case slowing down actually makes them faster overall. There are sites that say they train you to look at a larger number of characters at once, so you process more words at once. (I think Spritz does that.) I don't know if those sites work, because I read lines in German or English using the number of eye movements you are supposed to end up with. What does help my reading in my weaker languages is copying texts by hand. I read the text once for comprehension and then copy it, that is, I read as many words as I hope I'll be able to remember, write them down, check them (correct them), go on to the next batch of words. The more I do this the larger become the chunks I can remember, and that seems to be directly related to how fast I read in that language. Edited by Bao on 09 October 2014 at 9:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 24 01 October 2014 at 4:49am | IP Logged | |||||
It's a skill like any other, and it trains your ability to focus on an entire paragraph and note the main points. This can help you avoid reading the same paragraph several times because you're not sure whether you've read it or not.
To some extent, all extensive reading is like that. And if your only goal is reading, or if you use other techniques that make you pay attention to details, you'll be fine. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 24 01 October 2014 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What rdearman says. Don't read aloud in your head. Something that can take time to learn/develop (but will speed up things) is reading in chunks rather than words.
BTW, I've never understood how audio can prevent one from slowing down. The audio itself slows down my own reading. (That's my main issue with L-R - it takes so darn long to finish an audiobook, when I could have read the printed copy in no time.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 24 01 October 2014 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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But isn't it too obvious to bring up every single time? You read faster than the narrator, I often read slower or start focusing on minor things too much. Audiobooks do force you to read at a steady pace. My top speed is of course faster than that of a narrator (apart from my weakest languages), but it's not sustainable.
Oh and LR with L2/L3 prevents subvocalizing. Heck, I'll probably read more in an hour of L1/L2 LR than if I was simply reading Russian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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