Speedread123 - An On-Line, Interactive Speed Reading Course

2017.02.22. Speedread123Anonline,interactivespeedreadingcourse.
Lecture No. 2 What reading

actually is?
LECTUREOUTLINE
1.Definingkeynotions
2.Anticipation
3.Commonreadingmistakes
1.Definingkeyterms
In order to fully understand what reading actually is, let us define key terms connected with effective
reading.
Readingisanactiveprocessinsearchformeaning
active
because you control reading, decide upon its course, consciously monitor it (you may
readfasterorslower,thewholetextorjustfragmentsyoufindinteresting)
process
because reading is a sequence of activities: you look at the text, identify symbols,
decodethemeaningofwords,sentencesandparagraphs,puttogethertheelementsinto
ameaningfulwhole.
http://speedread123.com/course/tasks/unit/2/lesson/4 1/11
search
because when you read effectively, often instead of carefully reading each word in the
text,youscreenitinsearchforinformationparticularlyinterestingtoyouyousortthe
wheatfromthechaff.
meaning
because words carry meaning, help you understand thoughts, emotions and reflections
of the author, allow you to enter the authors world, see the reality through somebody
elseseyesandperceivemorethanbefore.
fieldofview
istheextentofworldseenbymotionlesseyeswedistinguishclear(sharp)fieldofview
i.e.theareainwhichyouseeeverythingclearly,youareabletoidentifyletters,digits,
colours etc. and peripheral field of view i.e. the area in which you see shapes, colour
schemes,younoticeanobjectbutmayexperienceproblemsidentifyingwhatitactually
is.
fixation
is the moment when your eyes settle on a part of a text (a letter, syllable, word or
cluster of words) in order to notice a word, number or other object, you stop for a
while and you fixate the length and frequency of those fixations determines your
readingrate
readingrate
istherateatwhichyoureaditdeterminesthenumberofwordsyoureadperminute
researcherscreatedvarioustypologies,butletsassumethat:
slowreadingmeansreadingunder150wordsperminute
averagereadingmeansreadingfrom150to250wordsperminute
fastreadingmeansreadingover250wordsperminute
readingover1000wordsperminuteiscalledselectivereading
andreadingmorethan10000wordsperminuteiscalledphotographicreading
learning
isaprocessofcollectinginformation,acquiringskillsanddevelopinghabitswhichleads
topermanentbehaviourchanges
understanding
isthestateofbeingfamiliarwiththemeaningofaparticularphrase,itsessenceandits
key idea due to understanding we become familiarized with the authors intentions,
thoughts,viewpoints,expectations,etc.
memory
is the ability to perceive, store and retrieve physical sensations, associations or pieces
ofinformation.
concentration
is the ability to concentrate direct and focus attention on a particular thought, idea,
objectorphenomenon.
anticipation
istheabilitytoforeseeandpresumepotentialmeaningshiddeninwordsandsentences.
2.Anticipation
Even though the eyes are necessary to identify letters and words, the genuine process of reading takes
placeinhumanbrain.
As you have already seen, the the human brain is very clever and imaginative. Due to anticipation it is
possibletofindthemeaningofwordseveniftheyareincompleteormisspelled.
Also, when some words are missing in the sentence or you simply have not noticed them, you usually
understandthegeneralideaofthesentence.Considerthefollowingsentence:
InmostAfricancountriesitisusuallyveryhot.
The sentence comprises of 9 words, but even if you were to read only two of them African and hot, you
wouldunderstandthemainideaofthesentence.
The excess of information redundancy is one of the characteristics of a language. We often put the
same information in a sentence twice because communication may be disrupted due to poor articulation
ornoises.Ifwedothatthereisasparepieceofinformationincasethelistenermisseditthefirsttime.
Additionally, some words in a sentence are used to link phrases or words to make the sentence
grammaticallycorrect.
Thesewordscarrynomeaning,soevenifyouskipthemyoudonotlosemuchinformation.
Thankstoredundancyandthefactthatsomewordsinthesentencefunctionaslinkingwordsratherthan
meaningcarriers,youmayskipsomewordsandstillcomprehendtheauthorsmessage.
3.Commonreadingmistakes
lowreadingrate
In school we are instructed to read SLOWLY and carefully in order to understand the
text.
Unfortunately,itistheotherwayaround.
Slowreadingnotonlytakesmoretimebutalsodecreasestheunderstandingofthetext.
The human brain is capable of reading faster and is usually simply bored during slow
reading.
Slow reading disturbs your concentration and you start thinking about other unrelated
things,whichcausesincomprehensionofthereadfragment.
Usefultips
Widenyourfieldofviewinordertobeabletoreadlargergroupsofwords
Trainyourphotographicmemorytoshortenthetimeoffixatingonthetext
Consciouslyincreaseyourreadingratemoveyoureyes(pointer)faster
lackofconcentration
Yourconcentrationisdistractedbynumerousfactorsexternalorinternal.
Externaldistractorsinclude:
noises, conversations, music with lyrics (which attract your attention), bad lighting (too
strongaswellastoolow),themesswhichsurroundsyou.
Internaldistractorsinclude:
too intense feelings and emotions (both positive and negative), unsolved problems and
unfinished assignments (which occupy your thoughts and capture your attention),
negativeattitude(Iwillnotmanagetoreaditanyway!WhyamIevenreadingit?)

Usefultips
Close the door and windows, turn off the radio, the TV and all other sources of
distractingsounds
Put on classical music, so that it accompanies you while learning after a while you
willnotactivelylistentoitanymore,yetitdrownsoutdistractingsounds
Startreadingorlearningafteryouhadconfrontedyourintenseemotions
Write down all the tasks you have to perform because it allows you to clear your
mindandstopbeingpreoccupiedwiththingsunrelatedtoreading.
lowmotivation
IfyoureadsomethingjustbecauseyouHAVETO or SHOULD, but actually you donot

wanttodoitatall,youfindithard to understand and remember the information in
thetext.
Usefultips
Justthinkabouttheadvantagesofreadingthetext.Isitgoingtohelpyousomehow
inlife?Inwhatsituationscouldyouusethegainedknowledge?
Before you start reading, try to recall what you feel when you read something
interesting if you start reading with interest, after a while you find it easier to
actuallygetinterestedinthetext
Concentrate on the bright sides if most of the information on a page is familiar or

uselesstoyouandtherearealso3newthings,concentrateonthefactthatyoufind
out something new maybe this new piece of information turns out to be so
worthwhilethatitcompensatestheeffortyoumadegettingthroughthewholetext.
readingwithoutagoal
Unless you tell yourself why you are reading something, you find it much harder to
extract essential information and you simply waste time reading a book from cover to
cover,whileyouactuallyneedtoreadonly5pagesofthisbook.Readingwithoutagoal
alsocausesadecreaseinmotivationandconcentration.
Usefultips
Before you start reading, think and WRITE DOWN what goal you want to achieve by
meansofreadingaparticularbook
Think which elements are worthwhile for you, and which parts of the text you can
skimthrough,notlosinganything
vocalization
Reading aloud and moving your lips substantially decreases the reading rate. It also
causesadecreaseinunderstanding,becauseyourmind,inthiscase,cannotlinkseveral
words or get the context of their application. This mistake is often made by children
whentheystartlearningtoread.
Usefultips
Consciously give up reading aloud and moving your lips while reading. Every time
youdoit,tellyourselfSTOPandstartanewsilently.
Learntoreadusingapointer,inordertosetaproperreadingspeedandnottogive
yourselftoomuchtimetoreadeachword.
subvocalization
Silent repeating of the words you are reading may cause problems, especially during
fasterreading.
At first it might seem to you that you are not able to understand anything without
subvocalization. However, note that when you reach for a phone, you do not have to
silently repeat the word phone to know how to use it you do not need to repeat the
word chair to sit on it. Similarly, while reading, as soon as you see the words, you
recognize them and the meaning they convey. If you read up to 400 words a minute,
subvocalization is not a considerable problem, because you are able to recreate
everything silently in your thoughts. However, if you want to read faster,
subvocalizationstartstohinderyourreading(becauseitisimpossibletorepeatsilently
each word fast enough). During numerous speed reading courses subvocalization is
fought off too early people focus their energy and attention on fighting subvocalization
off (rather than on reading and understanding), which makes it hard for them to
understand anything they get disappointed with speed reading and give up. Therefore,
we recommend fighting off subvocalization no sooner than at the stage of reading over
400wordsaminute.
Usefultips
Count (one, two, three, one, two, three or one, two, three, four, one, two, three,
four)witheverymoveofyoureyesandapointer.Repeatingnumbersdrownsoutthe
words you are reading and help you eliminate the habit of silently repeating
everythingyouread.Assoonasyoumasterit,youareabletostopcounting,andat
thesametimeyouarenotrepeatinganythinganymore.
Anothersolutionistapping(withapenorastick)orscrapingapieceofpaperwitha
pointer. The mechanism is the same as the one during counting a different noise
drownsoutthesilentrepetitionofthewordsyouarereading.
regression
Regression (going back to parts of the text you have already read), either conscious or
subconscious, substantially decreases your reading rate. However, due to the
redundancyoflanguage(theexcessofinformation),itisveryprobablethatevenifyou
misssomething,youwillfindthelostinformationinthenextsentence.
Usefultips
Read with a pointer! This way, the bad habit of going back to the parts of text you
havealreadyreadiseliminatedalmostautomatically.
It is far more reasonable to read the whole paragraph (the whole page or the whole
article)twicethantorepeatedlycomebacktoasentenceoraword.
Make out meaning from the context! If you encounter a difficult word in the text,
insteadofstaringatitforseveralseconds,keeponreadingitisveryprobablethat
youwillguessthemeaningofitfromthefurthercontext.
readingwithoutanticipation
Reading with a belief that missing even one word causes incomprehension not only
makesyourreadingslower,butalsosubstantiallydecreasesyourunderstanding.
Usefultips
Let your brain use its creativity and inventiveness and be glad that you manage to
readtheMAJORITYofthewordsinthesentenceitiscompletelyenough.
Exerciseanticipation,inordertoguesseasierandquickerthanbefore.
readingwithoutawarmup
If you start doing any sport without a warmup, not only do you expose yourself to an
injury,butalsoyoumaybeworseatrunning,playingfootball,etc.Itisthesameinthe
caseofreading.Ifyoustartreadingatext(especiallyalongerone)rightaway,without
warmingupyoureyesandbrain,youreadlesseffectivelythanafterawarmup
Usefultips
Before you start reading, do some exercises to warm your brain and eyes up the
best way to do this is to use one of the exercises presented in the materials, but if
you do not have a computer nearby, draw a curved line and slowly follow its course
withyoureyesbymovingthemaccordingtothedirectionofeverycurveoftheline.
If you have used your eyes for most of the day (e.g. when using a computer), it is
advised to massage them. First, rub your hands together intensively until they get
warmandputthemonyoureyelids.Thengentlymassageyoureyeswithyourindex
andmiddlefingers.
readingwithoutapointer
Readingjustwithyoureyes,withoutapointer,oftencausesyoureyestowanderaround
thepagetheconcentrationdecreases,andyouaresubjecttoregressionandgoingback
to parts of the text you have already read. Using a pointer is the easiest way to
eliminatethistypeofmistakeandtosetanappropriaterateofyourreading.
Usefultips
Buy a set of shashlik skewers or a set of a pickastick game they are perfect as
pointers while reading a printed text. Getting acquainted with a pointer takes less
than an hour, but as soon as you manage it, reading with a pointer becomes
completelynatural.
If you read a text on a computer screen, use a programme which generates an e

pointer(youwillgetitduringthecourse)oruseacursorofyourownmousetojump
throughthegroupsofwords.Thismethodiscommonlyknownasmetaguiding.
readingwithoutbreaks
Reading nonstop for many hours is tiresome for your eyes and, very often, it makes
yourconcentrationdecrease.
Usefultips
Every hour take a 510 minute break to stretch your legs, give your brain a little
rest,drinksomewater.Inthisway,yougetbacktoreadingwithdoubleenergy.

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2017.02.22. Speedread123Anonline,interactivespeedreadingcourse.

Lecture No. 2 What reading

IfyoureadsomethingjustbecauseyouHAVETO or SHOULD, but actually you donot

Concentrate on the bright sides if most of the information on a page is familiar or

If you read a text on a computer screen, use a programme which generates an e

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