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Spritz: Speed Reading App | ||
Tags: Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4105 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 1 of 11 06 March 2014 at 2:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/spritz-reading_n_48 65756.html
So I haven't heard of speed reading apps before, apparently there are a few out there already, but Spritz is supposedly the first to implement an Optimal Recognition Point feature. They claim this actually boosts you're comprehension over normal reading, which I'm not sure I 100% believe. But it does make a bit of sense since I often skip over words and make assumptions when reading and perhaps focusing at 1 word at a time would improve comprehension. My main doubts are that it is that it's not just eye speed that matters when reading, but I often may pause and think about certain things, and I wonder what speed reading through a book does to that experience. Still I'm pretty excited to figure out how stuff like this could be applied to language learning. Even if it proves inefficient to read a foreign language book with speed reading apps, I think a number of interesting uses could still come out of it. For example if you wanted to read a foreign language book that was above your reading level, I could see it being helpful to speed read the book in your native language first, then read it normally in your target language. I would also be curious to try re-reading the same book several times with a speed reading app. Does anyone else have any ideas on how these sort of apps could be usefully applied to language acquisition? Edited by YnEoS on 06 March 2014 at 2:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6448 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 2 of 11 06 March 2014 at 9:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Have a look at this thread :)
I've also tried using the autoscroll feature in Adobe Reader. It was definitely too fast for a decent comprehension, but it may be a good way to get used to the language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6554 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 11 06 March 2014 at 11:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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The big question is whether speed reading is relevant for language Learning at all (we have anotrher recent thread about this question). There can be no doubt that it is good to be able to get through a lot of text fast if you want to find some specific information or just learn about a subject in general, and I am nyself a fervent user of speed reading - but not for language Learning.
As for special apps to teach yourself faster reading skills I can't really see the point. On paper I can set the speed simply by moving my index finger down the page; and on a screen you can scroll at a chosen speed just above your comfort level until you can read at lightning speed. Why complicate things? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6448 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 11 06 March 2014 at 11:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Have you actually checked the Spritz page, though?
The whole point is that we waste a lot of time moving our eyes on the page. I like the thought of an app that does the useless work for you. It's not for learning to read, it's for an optimal presentation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5171 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 11 06 March 2014 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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IMHO, web apps such as Spritz are merely a gimmick, without much practical use. They might reduce saccades, but I fail to see the advantage of reading each word separately. It might actually even be counterproductive, because reading ultimately boils down to pattern recognition. I.e., the more books you've read, the better you'll be at recognizing collocations and processing them as a unit.
However, if collocations are broken down into two or more words your brain has to re-assemble them before it can process the information. Also, you might not need to read each and every word of a text to fully understand it. For more information on this also see the speed-reading definition at the Skeptics Dictionary. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6448 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 11 06 March 2014 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's no web app for Spritz. I think it's very useful for small mobile devices at least. Also, I highly recommend reading their FAQ page before jumping to conclusions.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5171 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 7 of 11 06 March 2014 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
What I referred to, was the Spritz demo web app that is embedded in each of the company's websites, which can be activated by clicking the "click to spritz" icon in the upper right corner. For example,the FAQ page that you mentioned.
I'm afraid in this case it's you who's jumping to conclusions. I did read the FAQ and I'm still not convinced. It looks like the only new thing that they came up with is the positioning of the word on the screen and the red marker. As for speed reading in general, you may want to read the German speed-reading PowerPoint presentation by Peter Roesler. Consider it part of your German language studies. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4105 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 8 of 11 06 March 2014 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I for one am hugely impressed by the demonstration on their website, I found reading at 600 WPM to be very comfortable and enjoyable. There were some moments where it was hard to read if several words with similar spelling followed one another, my brain couldn't catch the difference between them fast enough, and every once in a while I felt like I missed a key word that made the rest of the sentence incomprehensible to me. But overall I feel I understood most of the content on the page.
Again I don't see this as some miracle method where I'll be able to read all the great literature in very small amount of time, but I think it will be an extremely useful utility for multiple wave reading. I can definitely see myself using the following process in the intermediate phase of language learning. Wave 1: Spritz English translation of book Wave 2: Read book normally in original language. Use pop-up dictionary when context/memory aren't enough. Wave 3: Spritz book in original language for review. Also I don't really have enough interest in something like Harry Potter to spend time reading through many different translations of it. But I would definitely try using Spritz to go through Harry Potter in several different languages to see how much I could learn with a familiar story in a short amount of time. Edited by YnEoS on 06 March 2014 at 4:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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