A recent visitor to my site inquiring about speed reading asked, "How can I move away from actually saying the words, and learn how to identify the symbols?" The question demonstrates a knowledge of one of the difficult habits to overcome in learning to speed read - sub-vocalization. Sub-vocalization is seeing the words, then saying the words in your mind, then hearing the words, and finally understanding them. It is a four step process. Reading is defined as getting meaning from printed materials - seeing them, and creating understanding. Theoretically, reading should be only two steps. This article will give 7 tips to overcome and transform this process.
Sub-vocalization is heralded by most uninformed pundits as the primary block to slow reading. It is a difficult habit to overcome. Too often speed reading learners get too hung up in the beginning because they become so focused on this habit. It is a problem for speed reading depending on how you define speed reading. If someone currently reads at 250 wpm (words per minute), and then learns to read at 500 wpm, is that speed reading? If so, that is still a speed in which the spoken word can still be understood, but it is below the visual reading threshold which occurs at about 600 wpm. From my experience of using and training tens of thousands of learners, speed reading occurs much faster than that.
Tip One - Get physical - learn to move the eyes more rapidly and fluidly over the print. All speed reading programs cover some sort of physical eye training. Unfortunately, most programs stop with the physical training, and that is one reason why speed reading programs often get negative reviews. Keep in mind the eyes are the mechanics in reading. Learning to move the eyes more fluidly and getting them unstuck from focusing on single words and phrases is very important to getting the mind to respond faster. You do need to see the words faster. But in the early stages, this can be unsettling. Know that you are making dramatic changes to your perceptual processing of the material and stay focused and disciplined.
Tip Two: Since sub-vocalization occurs below 600 wpm, increase your rates far beyond that. In fact, you should consistently move at least twice that speed. Breaking sub-vocalization by fast practice is useful in stimulating the brain's nervous system in a way that is similar to driving a car. You might feel comfortable driving at 30 miles per hour. Then you drive on the freeway. As you accelerate, you focus on controlling the car as you ramp up to 70 mph. After a couple hours you exit the freeway and slow back down 30 mph. It feels very, very slow. Training your eyes and brain to focus and understand at accelerated rates follows a similar principle.
Tip Three: Think about what you are seeing. After all, reading is a thinking skill. As your eyes are passing over all the words, think about what the material is about. Do not focus on saying to yourself, "Stop Sub-vocalizing!" Paying attention to your sub-vocalization and telling yourself to stop only interferes with any comprehension. Your mind will be thinking about the sub-vocalization, not the material.
Tip Four: Use multiple rapid exposures to the material. The brain has an incredible capacity to recognize patterns and relationships of visual symbols at extremely high rates. Seeing something very fast more than once leads to recognition and then comprehension.
Tip Five: Ask questions of the material as you pass over it. Questions have a powerful impact on the mind. Questions seek answers. Allow your mind to start stringing things together. Use any clues you get to start forming a mental picture of the material.
Tip Six: Monitor your thinking. If your mind is not responding to the material below, or in front of your eyes, notice what you are thinking about, and then bring it back to the material. Constantly ask yourself, "What is this about?" When you speed up the eyes moving over the material, the mind will naturally become more engaged until you get to an overload point. When that happens, combine the above tips. The experienced speed reader can read in almost any environment with precision concentration. He/she has full control of the mind's focus.
Tip Seven: Practice, practice, and practice some more. Overcoming sub-vocalization is a tough habit to beat. Your old ways will easily slip back until you remind yourself to behave in new ways. Don't "practice" in materials that are important for you fully understand and retain. Comprehension and retention are a separate part of the process. Use materials that are interesting to you, but you don't need to master. You can work on comprehension and recall after you've reached a level of some comfort with the basic mechanics.
Overcoming sub-vocalization is only part of the process. There are other strategies and tactics in learning speed reading, such as the comprehension process and building memory and recall. All the above tips should be done together. However, the goal of overcoming sub-vocalization is not to quiet the mind. You do not want your mind to go to sleep. You want to replace sub-vocalization with your mind's response to the print. A skilled speed reader's mind is very active. It's not sounding out the words verbatim in the order of the printed sentence, but rather, you are summarizing as you go.
The most often asked question I get when people either see me read or when they submit a question to my website goes like this: "Does it really work?" Or, "Can you really comprehend when you read really fast?" The short answer is yes! But behind the question is an assumption (a belief) that both can not be achieved. This article will explore the belief behind that question
Because I've been using the skills so long, I've been perplexed about why this question is so often asked. In my mind, if you're not understanding or comprehending the material, you're not reading! You must be doing something else. Perhaps your mind is wandering - a common problem with untrained readers. Or, perhaps, you are struggling saying all the words to yourself (sub-vocalizing) to hear them in your mind before you believe you understand them. This is surely a block to effective speed reading because you can only read as fast as you can hear the words.
Reading is defined as the mind's response the printed symbols. With this definition then, you can only read as fast as your mind can understand (decode) the symbols. It is a visual process, not a sub-vocal process. Did you know that some cognitive researchers estimate that our mind can compute between 80,000 to 100,000 words per minute? That's the speed of your brain when both the right and left hemisphere are engaged! Do you believe your brain is that powerful?
However, the untrained reader does not utilize both right and left hemispheres when reading. This can be verified by using an EEG monitor. Because of the way most people have learned to read, reading has become an offshoot of processing language - a left hemisphere function. Also, because the untrained reader usually reads word by word, by nature the approach is left hemisphere dominant. Traditional forms of reading are literally half-brained!
How many years have you been reading? If you're reading this article, you have probably been reading for at least 10 years, if not much longer. That's a long time of ingrained habits. Because these habits are so ingrained, you have developed a belief system that tells you that's how to read. Your mind can not comprehend there are other possibilities without conflicting with your ingrained beliefs. You have a difficult time imagining doing it any other way.
Another part of the speed reading vs comprehension belief system has to do with your own self-image of yourself as a learner. If you've been struggling as a learner for many years, that defines your capability in your belief system. On one hand you may desire to become an effective speed reader who can comprehend anything, on the other hand, since you don't have the personal experience of having done it yourself you won't believe it's possible, or you won't believe it's possible for you.
But beliefs are subjective. They are not facts. Therefore, you can change your self-limiting beliefs to ones that nurture your growth and development.
Beliefs do shape our thinking and actions/behaviors. Many of the beliefs we hold in our mind are self-limiting and will hold us back until we try new ones instead. However, your self-limiting mind will initially cause you resist the new patterns of thinking.
Perhaps one of the most-told stories about the power of beliefs was provided by the great psychologist Abraham Maslow. A patient refused to eat because he believed that he was a corpse. In exasperation, the psychiatrist finally asked him if corpses bled. The patient said that he did not believe so.
The psychiatrist then proceeded to prick him with a pin, after asking the patient's permission to do so. At which point, the patient started to bleed. In amazement, he declared, "Wow! Corpses do bleed after all!"
This story illustrates the difficulty you might have when you think about changing a particular behavior or belief you may have. On one hand it's simple. On the other hand it's hard to change those habits of your thinking. What limiting habits of mind/belief do you suffer from? Are you willing to confront them for your own best interest and self-development?
In my live courses, we begin the program with the participants filling out a simple form asking them about their beliefs and experiences as learners and what they believe about accelerated learning. During the training if someone appears to be struggling, I look at the form they filled out. Inevitably, the ones who are struggling have written negative beliefs about heir own abilities or the possibility of reading/learning in an accelerated manner.
The great industrialist Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, you're right!" In other words, your mind will rally to support what you hold to be true.
Towards a positive self-improvement direction, the popular psychologist, Wayne Dyer has said, "You'll see it, when you believe it!" What do you want to be true about your learning to successfully read faster, comprehend better, and recall more? Your strong belief will make it happen so much easier. Perhaps you have no role models around you. That can be dis-heartening. But the fact is there are many thousands of speed readers who read fast with good comprehension that I have trained. There are probably millions worldwide.
In closing, then, speed reading doesn't work. You work it. The road to comprehension is built as a system, or method. The speed is merely part of the process. Learning the process may get bumpy at times. So, I'd like to ask you: What do you believe about your learning abilities? What do you believe about accelerated learning/reading and you abilities? What do you believe is possible for your mind's abilities? What could interfere with your learning these skills, and how can you overcome these obstacles? As a user for 32 years, I can say, without these skills my life would be much poorer. I am a believer. I am a user. You can be too!
Ed Caldwell has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Speed Reading and Speed Reading. Ed Caldwell, formerly National Director of Instruction for Evelyn Wood hastaught these skills for 30 years, created the "Masters Online Program:Dynamic Speed Reading, Memory, and Recall at ProductivElearn.com You canlearn more at ". Ed Caldwell's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.