Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Give Your Reading Speed a Quick Boost With This One Simple Strategy

Reading... you either love it or you hate it. You're either someone who sprints to your nearest bookstore, or someone who takes a diversion into the music store next door.For many people who don't like reading, I believe that the problem lies in the technique used for reading. It's like watching a movie upside down, and listening to it back to front. You can pull out some meaning, but it the end your brain gives up trying to process it.In school we are taught to read every word. This is because we are still learning the meaning of words and the context in which they are used. It's critical to read word by word for comprehension.By the time we've left school, however, we have a good foundation of the language we learnt in school, and understand context through experience. It's not necessary for adults to read every single word but this is what many of us are doing. To make matters worse, so many adults have retained the school taught habit of 'saying' the words mentally when reading.I read a book recently called '10 Days to Faster Reading' by Abby Marks Beale. In it she said, "In oral reading, you were forced to read word by word. This habit probably carried over into your silent reading. If you are reading a word at a time silently, you read no faster than you speak - 150 words per minute."The voice in our mind is a direct representation of our physical voice, and with that, the same pitch, speed, tempo etc. Having a voice in your head is positively normal, but it's this habit that is slowing down the speed of reading. And by a big margin too.Now other than recommending 10 Days to Faster Reading, I came up with a technique of my own just the other day. I call it bookmarking.I know what you're thinking - using a bookmark is not exactly a new idea. But my technique involves the use of two bookmarks.Through placing a bookmark on your current page (the age old method) and placing a bookmark at the beginning of the next chapter, you assist your reading skills in many ways. Allow me to explain with a quick story.I have a trail near my house, and I use it to keep fit. It's beautifully scenic and I like nothing more than to go for a long run along it.When I first started my jogging regime I would be quite happy trundling along for the first 10 minutes. Then I'd start to feel the burn. I kept on at it, and gradually ran further and further. But quite often I found it was difficult to keep up the motivation.That's when I hit upon the idea of using checkpoints. Instead of having in my mind Hailsham to Horam (town to town) I started to think in terms of closer checkpoints - bench, road, old station, first bridge, second bridge etc. This meant that when I approached a new checkpoint I was more motivated to go on to the second because it wasn't as far.Instead of being overwhelmed is dispirited by thinking of the next town, I was thinking, "12 minutes to the road, I can make this". This thinking made me push myself harder because I was taking baby steps, as opposed to big steps.Bookmarking gives you the benefits of:* Motivation

* Control

* Scope

* Speed



If you like this article I invite you to visit my website full of quick strategies to help you get the most out of your mind! Right now you can also sign up to receive my Mini Action Guide to Emotional Intelligence free - http://www.emotionali.com/

Related Posts :

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)