Surely, you have often heard such an expression as the speed reading technique. But have you done anything to improve your speed reading skills? And what is the normal reading speed and how to measure it? Let's talk about what reading speed is and how exactly you can increase it. In addition, we will also touch upon such issues as checking reading technique, its types, and also consider the most effective exercises that will help to significantly increase the speed of perception of textual information.
What is a reading technique?
Before we figure out how to read quickly while remembering the material, let's talk about what reading speed is and how exactly it is measured. We will also touch on the technique of speed reading, which allows you to quickly and efficientlyprocess texts. Note also that speed reading and memory development are quite closely related.
Reading speed - the ratio of characters read to the time they were read. This takes into account the understanding of the text, that is, how carefully the reader read it and remembered it.
In school practice, reading speed is measured in words, but experts recommend measuring it in characters, since the length of words is different.
Speed reading is a set of special techniques and techniques that can significantly increase the speed of reading, the perception of the content of the text. People who master the technique of speed reading have a wide field of vision, they know how to filter the material they read, to highlight the main thing in it. And most importantly, they can quickly find the necessary information in the text. That is why it is quite important to know what the speed reading technique is and how to master it in a short time.
Types of reading
Before talking about reading techniques and how to learn to read quickly, let's say a few words about the types of reading. By the way, we note that most of them are ways of fast reading.
Psycholinguists and people involved in teaching speed reading distinguish several types of familiarization with the text. So, you can select in-depth, fast, panoramic, selective, as well as read-view and read-scan.
Let's briefly describe each of these species and analyze their features.
- Thus, with in-depth reading, all the details are analyzed, what is read is criticized, andfindings. This is usually how non-fiction is handled.
- Fast reading means not only high speed of the process, but also excellent reading comprehension. This may include familiarization with fiction.
- Panoramic reading uses a technique to expand peripheral vision. That is, a person reading in this way covers a fairly large section of the text with his eyes, which significantly affects the speed. Almost any book can be studied this way.
- In selective reading, only some parts of the text are processed. It can be individual chapters, sections, paragraphs, and even sentences. This type of reading is used by students in preparation for exams.
- Reading-browsing is usually used by specialists and students in the selection of a particular literature. Looking through a book - annotation, preface, table of contents, a person decides whether he needs it or not.
- When reading-scanning, a quick page scan is performed in order to search for individual definitions, dates, surnames and names.
Next, we will talk about how to read quickly, and also find out what programs can help us with this. But first, let's talk a little about the reading speed itself and its parameters.
The main components of reading speed
Before we look at what speed reading is, let's talk about the components of the speed of this process. In order to test your reading speed, you first need to know about them.
So, the formula by which reading speed is usually calculated is as follows:
V=Q x K: T
Let's now decipher each of these conventions.
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speed reading technique So, V is the reading speed, which is measured in characters per minute.
- The letter Q stands for the total number of characters read or the characters in the text, depending on how you measure reading speed. If you measure exactly a minute, two, three to read the text, then you count only the number of characters read for the specified period. If you read the entire text, noting the time for which you have read it, then you should count the number of characters in the entire text.
- T denotes the time spent reading the text. As already noted, it can be either fixed or obtained as a result of full text processing.
- And the last component, without which it is rather problematic to calculate the reading speed, is K, the comprehension coefficient. Here we note that it is usually used in programs to check the desired value. When self-checking reading at home, you can skip it. True, in this case, the results will not be entirely accurate
Reading Speed Standards
Before we talk about how to read quickly, let's talk about what standards exist in this regard. Based on this data, you will be able to determine whether you need to develop this skill or if your indicators are quite high.
There are several reading speeds. It is measured in signs, since such a parameter is moreobjective than such measurements in words.
At the same time, a speed of 900 characters per minute is considered very slow. Slow equates to 1200 characters per minute. A person who reads 1500 characters per minute reads at an average speed. Above average is considered 1800 characters. Fast reading is 3,000 characters, very fast is 5,000, and people who master more than 10,000 characters in a minute are considered ultra-fast readers.
Checking reading speed
Before we talk about exercises that will help you significantly improve your reading speed, it's worth checking it out. To do this, you can either use special programs or check it yourself, although this may not be entirely accurate data. If you decide to use the second option, then you will definitely need the help of one of your relatives or friends, a text, a stopwatch.
We start by picking up an unfamiliar text, then we ask you to note the time it takes you to read it. We start reading. At the end, you should be asked a couple of questions about the text. If you answered them, that's very good. If not, it's even worse. By the way, we note that speed reading and memory development are two inseparable things. If you read pretty fast and don't remember what you read, then there's no question of any speed reading.
Next, we count the number of characters read in the text (this can be done using the Word program (Statistics) by selecting the desired segment). Then we use the above formulas and calculateour reading speed. Here we note that the coefficient of understanding should not be considered.
This way you can decide for yourself whether you should increase your reading speed or not.
Why develop reading speed
The main reason to develop speed reading skills is to increase the perception of information. We are constantly surrounded by various messages, and it is quite important that we have time to perceive and remember them. And if the perception of sound and visual information is quite fast and it is almost impossible to develop this skill, then the perception of text messages is rather slow and directly depends on our reading speed. That is why speed reading skills should be developed, and this should be done not only by adults, but also by children. And that is why speed reading for children is a pretty necessary skill.
Besides, this process develops memory and attention. It is authentically known that the more a person reads, the more literate and developed he is. And in order to read a lot, you need to be able to read quickly.
We also note that people always strive to master special skills that are not inherent in everyone. So, short reading also applies to them. Having mastered it, you will be able to tell your friends and acquaintances about your achievements with a clear conscience.
Reasons for slow reading speed
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speed reading technique for kids First of all, reading speed largely depends on a person's vocabulary. The smaller it is, the more difficult it is to master the text, because you have to delve into the essenceeach new word.
- Another reason why we read slowly is inattention. Surely, you have often caught yourself re-reading the same page several times.
- Pronunciation of the readable text with the lips. Few people know, but when reading a particular text, we make barely noticeable articulatory movements with our lips. This significantly slows down the reading speed.
- Another reason for slow reading is the habit of going back to a word or phrase that has already been read.
These and many other things significantly reduce the ability to quickly master speed reading. For children and adults, there are special exercises that help solve these problems.
Methods for developing reading technique
If you want to master any method of speed reading, then you definitely need to know about a variety of techniques and methods that will help you significantly improve your perception of information.
In principle, every psycholinguist and specialist in this field develops his own method of teaching speed reading, focusing on one or another set of exercises.
The most famous of them is the quick reading technique of Oleg Andreev, Andrey Spodin.
All of them are based on the same principles - to expand the field and angle of view of a person, to teach him to avoid regressions, articulatory movements when reading, to develop memory and thinking, the ability to critically perceive and memorize the text.
It doesn't matter whose method you choose, the main thing is that it is easy and interesting for you to practice it.
Below we offer youexercises that form the basis of almost every speed reading course.
Exercises for developing reading speed
So, if we are learning to read quickly, then we need to do some exercises that will help develop memory, attention and reading comprehension.
If you want to develop your speed reading skills, we recommend that you work on it daily. To do this, you need to allocate at least an hour of free time for classes and perform simple exercises, which we will now tell you about.
- When reading the text, close each line you read with a blank sheet of paper. Instead of a sheet of paper, you can use your hand. The main thing is not to go back and not open the lines you have already read.
- Work with the Schulte table, gradually expanding the angle of view. By the way, the technique of speed reading also implies the presence of a wide angle of view.
- When reading, be sure to keep your index finger on your lips - this will help prevent articulation, that is, pronunciation of the read text with your lips.
- Do not be distracted by extraneous sounds, try to read in silence and concentrate your attention on the text as much as possible.
- After reading, retell what you read to yourself, check if you remember everything or if something eluded you.
Install special programs that help you quickly read texts. So you can change the pace of reading, gradually get used to it. Below we will offer you some of these programs and talk a little about whichthere is a speed reading technique for kids.
Speed Reading Programs
We figured out what reading is, its speed, remembered a few fairly simple exercises that will help us improve our performance. Let's now look at speed reading programs. Here are the three most famous and used.
- Spritz helps you quickly read texts. You enter the piece you need in the field and set the speed at which the program reads it. It is very good in order to check not only the speed of your reading, but also to master the material in record time.
- Second program - Psy games. This is a whole complex of various exercises that will help expand the field of vision, improve memory and attention, reaction.
- We also note another complex for improving reading skills - Speed reading software. It can also significantly improve your reading speed.
Teaching children speed reading
The last thing worth mentioning is teaching speed reading to children. As we have already said, this skill will be quite useful both for developing the memory, attention of your son or daughter, and for further studies at school or university.
A few tips for those who want to learn how to teach a child to speed read. In order to teach children to read quickly, you first need to show them that they can do it. For this, the following experiment can be carried out. Let the text be read, while limiting the timeone minute reading. Then count the number of words in the read section of the text and ask the child to read it again. At the same time, note the time again. The second time the text will be read faster, which means you can prove to the child that the more he reads, the more he increases the speed of reading.
Be sure to ask the child after reading about what exactly he learned from the text. This will help teach you to read not only quickly, but also carefully.
Note that any speed reading technique for children will be interesting only if you try to interest the child, engage with him in a playful way, without forcing him to do what he does not want.
Conclusions
So, we have figured out what the speed reading technique is and how important it is to master it. We found out what types of reading exist, what prevents us from reading quickly and how we can overcome these obstacles. We also talked about how to teach a child to read and develop his skills.
We hope this article was helpful.
