2. Self assessment of reading rate

3. Instructions On the following page is some text. To show the text, click the mouse then begin to read as soon as the text appears. After one minute a chime will sound. Stop reading and note the number of the line that you are on (located on the right). That is your reading rate. Go to the next page and answer some questions about what you have read (without going back). Afterwards, go to the final page for comments and tips about reading.

4. Reading quickly vs. speed reading?5 The goal of many students is to acquire the ability to read their required material20 within a reasonable amount of time. As you gain vocabulary and general knowledge33 in a field of study, your reading speed will improve. However, it is important to48 understand some interesting processes that take place which help you during reading60 and to warn you about the risks of speed-reading.69 When reading, you may notice that you hear a small voice inside your head83 that says the words to you. This voice is called your subvocal voice. When first98 learning to read, children read out loud and as they become more skilled, 111 they read silently, often moving their lips. Eventually, the skilled reader reads 123 silently, but the subvocal voice remains for most readers. Subvocalizing during 134 reading may help us remember what we have read. We can see the memory 148 benefits by looking at the case of speed-readers. Most often, people learning to 161 speed-read are asked to suppress or stop this subvocal voice while reading. This is175 because the subvocal voice limits speed of reading to about the speed of your189 spoken voice (for an interesting discussion of speed-reading, see Reed, 1996). The 201 idea in speed-reading is to suppress this voice and thereby increase speed. 213 Suppressing the subvocal voice is not an easy task. Usually you are advised to do 228 something with your spoken voice while you read. It seems that we cannot easily 242 subvocalize while we talk, so to suppress the subvocal voice, we can count, 255 repeat a nonsense phrase, or repeat a chant such as ‘ommm’ while reading. 268 In this way, the subvoice is suppressed and, with practice, reading is faster. Some speed-283 readers are able to process up to 700 words per minute (normally we read about 250 words300 per minute) but have difficulty in recalling details of what they read (Rayner, 1998). 314 You might think of these speed-readers as skilled skimmers. 323 It seems that the subvocal voice is important in later recall of written material. 337 beep Click the mouse then read. Stop reading when you hear the chime and look at the number on the right. That is your reading rate.

5. Can you answer these questions? 1.What is the goal of many students? 2.How can you improve your reading time? 3.What do people notice when they read? 4.Does the subvocal voice go away when we are practiced readers? 5.What might the subvocal voice do for us? 6.What are speed readers asked to do? If you could not answer these questions, you tried to read too fast. Remember, you want to read at a reasonable rate that allows you to comprehend what you have read Go to the next page for some tips on improving your reading rate.

6. Comments Your goal should not be to read quickly, but rather read at a reasonable rate. Reading too quickly can result in loss of comprehension. To improve your reading rate try to: 1.Increase your knowledge in the reading topic 2.Go to lecture to improve vocabulary 3.Read the summary of the chapter before the chapter 4.Read the titles and subtitles in the chapter so that you know what to expect 5.Take short breaks after reading each section (2-3 pages) 6.Ask yourself questions about each section you have read 7.Don’t try to read the entire chapter at once. You will comprehend more by reading the chapter over several days 8.Take study notes on important points in the chapter