One of the subjects that returns in speed reading literature and theories is subvocalizing. Subvocalization is the process in which you “say” the words you read in your mind, you’re in a sense reading to yourself “out loud” silently.
I recently discovered that subvocalizing is a matter of controversy in speed reading country. The general opinion is that it’s a bad thing. It slows you down, after all: who can speak (comprehensively) at a rate of 1000wpm? So subvocalizing is something that needs to stop. It doesn’t require training though, if you increase your speed, you will get this as a bonus. It will stop simply because it cannot keep up.
I can’t get it to stop
I use subvocalizing when I read. And while I’m writing this, I realize I even use it when I write. During my training of speed reading I noticed a change in subvocalizing, and I gradually changed from every single word to only the key words. And this is something I cannot seem to get rid of.
So I turn to the all knowing web to check out subvocalizing. And to my surprise I found a couple of links from pretty reliable sources, that subvocalization isn’t as bad as it is presented in a lot of books. Subvocalization needn’t slow you down if it’s not accompanied by physical movements (e.g. talking, murmuring). It even plays a role in comprehension!
Now whether or not subvocalization primarily has benefits or primarily has downsides we may never know. We cannot measure it after all as it happens inside a person’s mind. For my training I’m going to accept it on a keyword level.
Oh, and when I’m reading for the sheer fun of reading (I like fantasy books, absolutely love Raymond E. Feist and his world of Midkemia), I subvocalize every word. I love it how the words suck me into the sentences and smoothly guide me into the magical world of the book.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It is not actually true that subvocalization can not be measured, even if you do not move the muscles in your speech organs, electrical signals are sent in the nerves and can be measured. This has recently been exploited by researchers, (amongst others at NASA (*)) to build a system for subvocalized speech recognition which applies the data to a statistical model in much the same way as speech recognition based on acoustic features.
(*) http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html
Hi Jan,
That’s a real interesting news article. It means that it would be possible to actually research whether there’s a correlation between the practice of subvocalizing and speed reading. That’s an exciting possibility that would take the claim out of the realm of assumptions!
Thanks for that link.
hi, I have found that sub-vocalization could be reduced, and indeed increase the reading speed. Now is speed reading bad? well, if you want to read a book just because you want to relax, you take all the time you want, and go over the same book several times if you like it. But if you need to present exams like IELTS or TOELF, in where speed reading is esencial, I would recomend to try it at least. here a good tool I have found http://www.shaks.ws