I’m a slow reader. Always have been. When I read, I say every word aloud in my mind. I’ve been reading online that this “subvocalization” actually slows reading WAY down and doesn’t help with reading comprehension (once you know how to read). Is this true, and if so, how can I read without subvocalization? I’d like to become a better reader that can read books in weeks, not months. Thanks for any help!
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Is this different than seeing the book play out like a movie in your mind?
Read “how to read a book” by mortimer adler
Have some white or brown noise playing in the background. I had a bad inner monologue issue awhile ago and that sorted it out.
Read what’s comfortable. If you subvocalize, it’s totally fine. If you try to think about how fast you’re reading you’re more likely to end up missing the content because you’re actively detracting away from what you’re reading.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, but if you insist on trying to wear out the idea, I would try practicing with books you would like to re-read. Familiarity with the content will make it easier to re-learn what you’re taking in.
Good idea, thanks!
I read this in my Morgan Freeman subvocalization tone
I don’t think faster readers get rid of the subvocalization. They either speed it up to match or they stop being conscious of it. You want it to at least match your speaking speed or the speed a person would use if they were telling you the story out loud. I’m assuming that you don’t…talk…like…this…in…your…daily…conversations.
Ideally, when you glance at a word, you say it in your head instantly. You don’t stop to think about what word that is or how to say it out loud or study the spelling of it. Even more ideally, you glance at the first couple of words, have the context of the scene/moment, know the character’s personality, and instantly predict the entire sentence/paragraph. < — This is what happens when you get into a zone with a book that is written in a generally modern, easy style of writing. Classics with older writing styles and more complicated language are going to slow you down until/unless you get very used to them.
I took a speed reading class once, I think the first lesson was how to remove the sub-vocalization. I don’t have an inner voice anyway so I can’t tell if it actually helps but the other students seemed to buy that it made them faster.
It probably took me 6-7 years after noticing I was doing this to effectively eliminate it from how I was reading. I found that deliberately attempting to stop myself from doing so over time allowed me to start reading in sentence fragments instead of word-by-word. As a result, I don’t subvocalize all the words anymore. Though I might still subvocalize some fraction of them, it is greatly reduced, as well as its impact on my reading.
It’s not a race. You’re reading to relax, not break a speed record.
I’ve been reading online that this “subvocalization” actually slows reading WAY down and doesn’t help with reading comprehension (once you know how to read).
[citation needed]
I don’t think this will help you, but I’ve found that if I just push myself to keep reading eventually the inner monologue goes away and I just start to absorb the words. Everyone is different however.
When I read for fun I love the voices in my head. If I need to read fast I learned to make the voices mumble. Intentionally them say important words and then move to block reading. You read things as a picture. I think of it as how you look at a whole painting as one thing not a series of lines. I’ve been able to do the same with blocks of
Yep, same. I’m a massive overthinker lol so when I start a reading session it takes me a couple of pages to properly get into it - but after that my mind just switches off and I’m absorbed. Helps if it’s engaging and well written of course!
I think you’re putting too much thought into this. Just read the book at your own pace. Reading isn’t meant to be a race of who reads faster. Just sit down and relax with a good book. It’s that simple.
I would start fallowing along to some audiobooks while reading the physical. I swear it helps turn off the inner voice that is thinking about other things and will push your eyes through the words faster, its great to because you can speed up the audio book and really get through it quicker. There’s nothing wrong with being a slow reader and never give up. the more you do it the more seasoned you become and then in a few years you’ll look back and see the progress.
Read aloud. I do. It’s fun.
Some books are just meant to be read aloud too. I read to my cat, he starts purring and falls asleep and when I stop reading he wakes up and tries to get me to start again.
Getting rid of subvocalization is a speed reading technique, not something to do if you just want to read faster but still enjoy what you’re reading. When I do this, it’s to just be able to scan the words on the page and just “understand” what I’m reading without thinking about it. You can train this by focusing on your breath rather than your thoughts, scanning steadily with your finger, and stopping every paragraph or so to summarize what you just read to test your comprehension. But this is only useful to me when I just want to get the information and am not looking to enjoy the writing whatsoever.
I find I read faster (while still being able to enjoy what I’m reading) by starting each book slowly, reading at least a good chunk of pages, 40-50, deliberately getting my inner monologue used to the sound of the author’s voice (their writing style), the setting and characters and other basic things about the story, while not getting too caught up on minute details. Once I have a feel for their writing style and get familiar with the characters, I naturally start to speed up until I don’t even think about whether I’m vocalizing in my head or not.
There should never be a rush to read. Allow every single one of your sub-vocalizations to flourish while reading anything. You want the fullest and most genuine relation/dialogue to text/art.
It absolutely helps with comprehension, at least for me. Plenty of books I can read without out, but I need to subvocalize for more ‘difficult’ books or I’ll come to the end of a page and realise I haven’t understood much.