Almost everyone will agree that reading books is useful. There is also no doubt about the diversity of literature with which it is desirable to get acquainted. This should be done with high quality, maximally assimilating the read. But working or training tasks do not always allow you to spend a lot of time on one book. How to be in this case? How to read books quickly and with high levels of memorization? Specially created for these purposes speed reading technique.
What is fast reading?
Speed reading is a skill of fast and high-quality perception of textual material, exceeding the speed of normal reading. At the same time, the information must be correctly “fit” in the memory, otherwise you can talk about banal page turning, or “scanning” of the text with your eyes. In a different way, we can say that speed reading is a quick reading technique with a high level of memorization. This is the key difference of this method from other types of acquaintance with literature.
Of course, it is better to read books thoughtfully, analyzing each sentence, delving into the essence of what was written, trying to understand the thoughts and motives of the author. But an accelerated pace of life dictates other rules. Sometimes we need to prepare for the exam, on the eve of the exam itself. Or at the end of the working day, the chief "pleases" that tomorrow a detailed report on the topic of cooperation with foreign partners should be made. The most fun becomes when you find out that their offer is set out on several hundred pages and will be printed out for about an hour on the printer. It is at such moments that a person wonders how to learn speed reading.
Since the speed of perception and information processing depends on a number of physiological and mental processes, some people were able to read quickly, even before the appearance of speed reading techniques. For example, according to contemporaries, the French philosopher and scholar had a similar skill. Jean-Jacques Rousseaulegendary warlord Napoleon I Bonaparteas well as a famous writer Honore de Balzac and many others.
For the first time from a scientific point of view, this phenomenon was started up in 1878, when studies of a French ophthalmologist were published. Emile Louis Zhavalya. He experimentally found that during the reading the human eye makes periodic stops (fixations) in the text, and does not smoothly "slide" in content, as previously thought.
Professional courses, teaching speed reading techniques, first appeared during the First World War. Their audience was military pilots, for whom it was vital to learn how to quickly distinguish between allies and opponents. The trainings used a tachistoscope - a device that helps to capture information quickly and with a minimum image size.
Successes in training the military inspired the popularization of the tachistoscope among civilians, but its use for the development of reading speed did not differ in the stability of the results. This caused a wave of criticism. So, the opponent of hardware methods was Evelyn Wood - the author of the method of fast reading called "Dynamic reading", which published its revolutionary book in 1959. Her work created a stir among Americans, which lasted more than 10 years.
The main followers of this speed reading technique were people who decided to make up for pupils "gaps" and become familiar with the obligatory school literature in an accelerated way. Over time, the enthusiasm of the verse, but the method of "Dynamic reading" has not lost its relevance now.
In 1994, the phenomenal result of reading speed in Russian was recorded, which was entered into the Guinness Book of Records. It was established by Svetlana Arkhipova, when in one minute she read more than 61.5 thousand characters. Also, American Sin (Sean) Adam (4550 words per minute) and Englishwoman Ann Jones (4253 words per minute) wrote their names in the fast-reading history.
But this already goes beyond the perception of ordinary people, who, thanks to the speed reading technique, can learn how to read with speed 700-900 words per minute. For comparison, the reading speed of an average Russian-speaking person is in the range of 120-180 words per minute. In America, the figures are different. Features of their language allow you to read at medium speed 200-300 words per minute. But, all the same, the specialists of speed reading equipment exceed this figure by more than 10 times. How do they manage to do this? Let us examine the physiological features of the perception of the written text.
How to develop speed reading?
In the process of research, it was found that the speed reading technique, most often, is due to these features of working with text:
- Simultaneous reading of several words;
- The perception of the text in whole words, not in letters;
- Vertical eye movement on the page (as opposed to progressive sliding);
- No regression - return to previous text fragments;
- Reduced subvocalization - internal pronunciation of the text.
These skills allow you to perceive the text entirely, creating a general information picture and not being distracted by details.
For example, for the sake of experiment, you can ask a friend to participate in an entertaining game. Take texts in which to mix the inner parts of words, leaving only the first and last letters unchanged. And then give each other read these texts. Scientists claim that this will not affect the quality of text perception, but the speed of reading will noticeably increase.
It is generally recommended for each specific skill to apply a separate technique.. For example, to develop speed indicators, not paying much attention to understanding the text. Then, try a more thoughtful reading. And only having mastered both approaches, combine them together.
Understanding the basic laws of the visual analyzer helps to answer the question of how to quickly read books. First of all, practice is necessary. For these purposes, the book is suitable, at least 200 pages thick, a pencil and a timer. It is advisable to exclude possible distractions during training. Practice should be about 20 minutes. Then it is worth taking a break.
Most attention should be paid to such moments:
- Eliminate regular gaze stops on parts of the text;
- Minimize the number of returns on the text;
- Extend the field of view, go beyond line-by-line reading.
Following these recommendations significantly saves time spent on reading the text. So, only regression (re-reading) takes about 30% of the time. If this drawback is eliminated, one can increase the speed of reading almost one and a half times.
Anyone who wants to quickly work out a large number of suitable speed reading technique. It is best to learn to read quickly yourself, without the use of aids, thereby developing intelligence and attentiveness. But if the situation allows, nevertheless, it is better to read books in depth, thereby obtaining from them the maximum benefit and knowledge. Express methods are needed only in the case of haste, depriving a person of the pleasure from the process of reading.
