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Becoming a faster reader?

  Tags: Reading
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
24 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Serpent
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 Message 17 of 24
02 October 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged 
Well, deliberately suboptimal or accelerated audio are interesting techniques too. But not for reading.
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Retinend
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 Message 18 of 24
08 October 2014 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
I just wanted to add that as I understand speed reading (e.g. Tony Buzan's book),
"subvocalization" is not something you mustn't do, but something you should mentally
speed up. I read no slower than one page a minute at optimum speed, in my native
language, yet I can hardly say that I have no sub-vocalization at all. That said, there
are much faster reading speeds so perhaps it is the final goal.

Besides that, speed comes by improving your reaction time to grouped chunks of words.
When you read a foreign language you are often surprised by two known words coming next
to each other, but given time you will become familiar with this "chunk" and be able to
register it as one. In this manner, becoming a good reader is like becoming a very good
predictor and recognizer of patterns in data.
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Bao
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 Message 19 of 24
09 October 2014 at 9:12am | IP Logged 
Retinend wrote:
When you read a foreign language you are often surprised by two known words coming next
to each other, but given time you will become familiar with this "chunk" and be able to
register it as one. In this manner, becoming a good reader is like becoming a very good
predictor and recognizer of patterns in data.


Do you have any idea how to train chunk size in particular?

Edited by Bao on 09 October 2014 at 9:15am

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patrickwilken
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 Message 20 of 24
09 October 2014 at 9:29am | IP Logged 
Bao wrote:

Do you have any idea how to train chunk size in particular?


Isn't this just a question of using the language (reading/hearing) lots and lots?

Perhaps it's easy to see what would work against this would be lots of drilling with SRS type methods using single words.
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Bao
Diglot
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 Message 21 of 24
09 October 2014 at 11:39pm | IP Logged 
patrickwilken wrote:
Isn't this just a question of using the language (reading/hearing) lots and lots?

I would not think so if you consider yourself a slow reader in your native language despite reading a lot, or at least regularly.
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Retinend
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 Message 22 of 24
10 October 2014 at 9:34pm | IP Logged 
I don't know if learning the chunks (in L1 or L2) of a language can be isolated from the general
speed reading objective. "Collocation" is also the sort of thing I'm talking about. Knowledge in
this area just comes from exposure. But there are specific skills that sharpen mental discipline and
maintain optimum speed. After you master these, your improvement will be a function of how many
books you read, and how familiar you become with the subtler shades of cliche that exist in the
written idiom.

Specific skills:

Reading to a constant beat. This can be done by tapping your foot, tapping a pencil or just swaying
your head. The problem with slowing down is that you do it before you are conscious of it. This beat
will tell you when you start slowing down. I also use a stopwatch.

Progressing onward without revisiting sentences. Of course you need to do it sometimes, but if you
make it a rule that you will only re-read a sentence as a last resort, and combine this with a
constant beat, you will feel the pressure to keep your attention fixed.

Counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7... in your head (with the subvocalization long and drawn out like
"ooooonnnneee.... twoooooooo") is a good way of minimizing the competing linguistic sub-vocalization
(like I said I'm not convinced it ever becomes a complete silence). I tend to count the sentences in
a paragraph, since it also helps to structure that paragraph better, in your mind.

Lastly, use a pencil or long stick on the page. You'll find that you only need to move from left to
right in the middle of the page (not extending close to the margins of the page) in order to
encompass everything with your eye movements.
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Serpent
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 Message 23 of 24
10 October 2014 at 9:44pm | IP Logged 
Yeah, the sentence thing is why I find audio very helpful.
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Paco
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 Message 24 of 24
12 October 2014 at 8:59am | IP Logged 
I suggest you work through all of the following courses, or at least the first. These are
"speed reading" courses in the sense that it helps with your reading speed; they do
not teach the art of speed reading.

Speed Reading Course: Asian and Pacific Speed Readings
New Zealand Speed Readings for ESL Learners Book One
New Zealand Speed Readings for ESL Learners Book Two
3000 BNC Speed Readings for ESL Learners
4000 BNC Speed Readings for ESL Learners

All of the above can be found at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/sonia-millett

In the Introduction of the first book Speed Reading Course, the author
explains briefly the principle of the programme and what the desired speed is. The contents
of all of the books should present no difficulty to you since you have already read tons.

By the way, some scholars indicated in Papers from the Parasession on the Lexicon (1978)
that enhancing reading speed in one language has positive effect on that of other
languages.

Edited by Paco on 12 October 2014 at 12:33pm



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