ParentsEfficient Reading = Reading Faster + Better Comprehension

 

In today's fast-paced information age it is simply not good enough to be an OK reader. It is more important than ever to have efficient reading skills. It can be a great advantage to have the reading skills to absorb more material in less time.

Efficient readers are not only reading faster, but they are also reading with better comprehension. An efficient reader has learned the art of reading text in much the same way that most of us look at objects in the world around us. When an efficient reader comes across the word "blue", they don't repeat the word "blue" to themselves, then think about the meaning. Instead, an efficient reader will understand and visualize the color much in the same way most people do when they look up at a blue sky. When you look up at a blue sky, you are typically not saying "blue sky", then thinking about the meaning, but instead you simply absorb the meaning immediately and effortlessly.

Reading is a much more enjoyable experience for efficient readers. It's not work and can actually be fun. Students need to understand these points since it can motivate them to become more efficient readers which in turn can make a big difference in the quality of their life.

Why Students May Be Reading Inefficiently

Slow readers do not fully trust their abilities to comprehend, causing them to read each word in the text instead of trying to grasp the main ideas of the author. Put another way, slow readers often strive to detect every detail in the text instead of moving quickly through the material to determine and understand basic concepts. Slow readers are also affected by factors such as:

  • Jerky eye motions--When a person reads, his eyes do not move continuously along a line of text, but engage in a series of rapid movements (saccades) with intermittent short stops (fixations). The more often the eyes have to pause for fixations, the slower the reading speed will be. An inefficient reader will be inclined to pause more often for fixations, and the duration of each fixation will also be longer than that of the typical reader.
  • Faulty returns sweeps--When a reader gets to the end of the line of text, his eyes must make a return sweep, moving back from the end of one line on the right side of the page to the beginning of the next line. Inefficient readers may have difficulty finding the beginning of the correct line, causing them to skip lines or repeat the same line.
  • Subvocalization--Subvocalization is the act of pronouncing the words in your mind and/or even whispering the words to yourself as you read. The tendency of subvocalizers is to concentrate on specific words, believing it is necessary for memory. While subvocalizing may help memory to some degree, it slows down reading speeds considerably. You can only subvocalize at speeds close to "reading aloud" speeds, so if you subvocalize, it's hard to reach efficient reading rates. It is not important to totally eliminate subvocalization, but you do want to minimize it.
  • Regressions--This is where you let your eye wander back to re-read text previously read. Regressions can be conscious or unconcious. A conscious regression occurs during the re-reading of a difficult passage in the text. An unconscious regression occurs when the reader looks back at words unnecessarily. This often happens when a reader lacks confidence in comprehension. 
  • Eye Span-- One of the common poor reading habits to be overcome is reading word by word, or one word at a time. With practice, readers can expand their visual span to see several words at one time, or even an entire line at one glance, thereby speeding up their reading rates. This minimizes the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do, increases the volume of information that can be examined in a period of time, and maximizes understanding of the material. Readers who see large word groups gain more meaning from the words, and read faster because they also perceive the word groups in terms of ideas and thoughts (thought units) instead of slowing down to interpret the words individually.

A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small fixations. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text and hence overall understanding of the subject. The increased amount of irregular eye movement will make the reading. A poor reader may therefore find the text significantly less satisfying, and may find it harder to concentrate and understand the text than a good reader.

The efficient reader has fewer fixations (pauses or stops while reading), regular (rhythmical) eye movements, and fewer regressions (backward fixations). Readers can improve their reading efficiency by realizing that reading is concerned only with ideas (not just words); that main ideas are more important than minor ideas; and that it is important to fine the main idea as quickly as possible. Skillful and efficient speed readers have learned to "condense" the process of gathering and sorting information in reading material in order to understand (comprehend) and determine the relevant "meaning" (as it applies to their individual interests and purposes).

Reading speeds can be improved with hand motions, especially in the beginning of learning to read faster. Using the hand and fingers as a pacer will force the eyes to move down a page of text in a smooth rhythm. Interestingly, hand motions are helpful in improving both speed and comprehension, mainly because they help avert such reading distractions as regressions. Basically, hand motions are effective as a pacer until the eyes can continue the same motion efficiently with the same precision on their own, allowing the reader to read even faster.