Speed Reading and Sub Vocalization

Eliminate subvocalization exercises

While we probably agree that most 5 or 6 years old kids are incredibly bright, incredibly perceptive, their ability to articulate is relatively limited. It's simply because the verbal part of their brain and their vocabulary is relatively limited at that age. However, this doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.

speed reading exercise

This is for speed reading beginners who want to eliminate up to 80% of subvocalization. Its easy, but it takes persistence over 21 days of practice.

Either you subvocalize – mentally-hear the words you are reading, and that requires silence and concentration, or you speak aloud the 2,4,6,8, 10, and that game takes prominence. We are not organize to hear both.

Forget speed reading and read slowly for this practice - about 100 words per minute. Remember, the average college graduate reads 250 wpm, so this practice is really s-l-o-w to make a point.

Repeat out-loud as you are reading the words, sentences and paragraphs, 2-4-6-8-10. Your job is to multiple by 2s as you read along. After you reach 10, continue reading, but start-over, 2-4-6-8-10, and so forth, to the bottom of the page. Don't focus on the counting, let it become a mindless song, a jingle. Your job is to focus above the words and feel you eyes sweep left - middle - right, sentence-after-sentence.

Last thing - another option is to "silently" do the "2, 4, 6, 8, 10s", while reading. You can mentally raise-the-volume on hearing the numbers, and it will drown-out the subvocalization of the words. Remember - our left-brain is a serial-processor, it can only run one-program at a time. When we focus on hearing the numbers it's like a jingle that gets in your mind and won't leave, and that song takes prominence over the subvocalising the words.
The objective is to not need the numbers, and not hear the words you read.

The loudness is emotional, (run by your amygdale, located in the limbic system of your brain), and is a bully. Emotions always push to the front of the serial-processing line in front of auditory- reinforcement - which runs subvocalization. That's the why of it.

You will begin not to mentally-hear your still-small-voice, repeating the printed words as you read. The reason is that you are short-circuiting your audio-reinforcement with the multiplication-table of 2s. Our left-hemisphere - the seat of reading - is a serial-processor, and can only run one information-program at a time. That means our reading brain-modules, the perisy lvian area, Brocas and Wernickes areas, freak- out when you introduce a second program before the first-one is completed.

Eliminate sub-vocalization

One of the greatest inhibitors to reading is speaking. Often as people read they make the word sound, either with their mouth, or in their head. Since you're reading the text, and not performing it, eliminate this sub-vocalization. Personally, this was the hardest bad habit for me to break. If you can't seem to stop `hearing' the words, try focusing on key words and meaningful concepts to force yourself to read faster. If you can force your mind to pay attention, your speed will increase, as well as your comprehension.

Related subvocalization articles

• Eliminate the habit of pronouncing words as you read
• Stop talking to yourself when you read
• Elimination habit of subvocalization
• Is the subvocalization bad thing?
• How to eliminate subvocalization in order to increase speed reading
• Scanning texts and subvocalization
• Vocalization and human brain
• Eliminate subvocalization exercises
• Read and count for elimination habit of pronouncing words
• Skimming texts and subvocalization

Bad habits manifest themselves in a number of ways. For one, you've got people who have MOTOR habits as they read. These are the people who are tapping a pencil when they read, tapping a foot when they read, moving a book, flicking their hand, etc. If they're sitting next to you, they drive you nuts. But they are the people who have to be moving while they read.

Some may even move their lips. If they do that, they're kind of edging over into another bad habit where we find AUDITORY readers. This is the bad habit that we have that is the hardest to drop. Auditory reading is difficult to beat because we are used to reading and hearing the words in our minds. Some people even go so far as to mumble the words. You can see their lips moving sometimes, or you can even hear a guttural growl as they go through the words.

Related articles

• Strips word game
• Survey reading
• Snailing method of speed reading
• The first steps in speed-reading
• Flipping the texts while reading
• Speed readers do not read every word.
• Speed reading rate adjustment
• Knowing what you want to know
• Before speed reading
• Skimming speed reading
• Scanning speed reading
• Knowing how deeply to study the material
• Speed read rate adjustment
• Human mind has an almost infinite potential
• Phonics or look-say?

Well, this not only slows you down, it causes you comprehension problems. For instance, lets say you have a sentence, "The man jumped over the log." Well, if you back-skip, you read that passage like this: "The man jumped," "the man . . . jumped. . . over the log," "jumped over the log." So, what your brain is processing, "The man jumped," "the man jumped," "jumped over the log." Our brain is used to processing our flaws, so the brain thinks, "OK, I know what this clown is saying, "The man jumped over the log." But this takes time to sort out. And it's confusing. Think how much easier it would be if you simply took the sentence in in one sight, "The man jumped over the log." There's no confusion there. Then you move on to the next phrase. Regressing or back-skipping is the most harmful thing we do to slow our reading speed.