Slow reading to yourself is a type of reading. Slow reading. First rule. Methods and techniques for teaching speed reading

The culture of speech of a single person reflects his general cultural level - education, good breeding, self-control, the ability to understand people of other cultures, susceptibility to works of art, modesty ... By the way a person builds speech, selects words, one can judge about his moral qualities.

Academician D.S. Likhachev, with his modesty, sincere respect for people, with his highest general culture, with his understanding and love for the true treasures of art, became an example and the most striking example of a person who owns a high culture of speech. The announcer of the Central Television, I. L. Kirillov, says this about the speech of D. S. Likhachev: “If I were asked to give an example of a sample of Russian speech, I would, without hesitation, name the speech of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. She, as I often say, is flowing, free, born right there before your eyes. The standard for Dmitry Sergeevich was the language of the actors of the Maly Theater, who cherished the tradition from Shchepkin's times.

With the acquisition of freedom of expression of their thoughts and views, a low culture of speech was revealed: people were unable to clearly and intelligibly express their thoughts. As D.S. Likhachev said in one of his last interviews, “the general degradation of us as a nation has affected the language first of all.” A wave of borrowings, an increasing number of archaic words, the obsolescence of truly Russian words, the language of the street - abuse, obscene words - are now not uncommon in literary works and in public speeches. Dmitry Sergeevich spoke about this with pain: “If the shamelessness of everyday life (scoldness) passes into the language, then the shamelessness of the language creates an environment in which shamelessness is already a common thing.”

What to do? How can this process be resisted? To instill a taste for beautiful speech, Likhachev advised children to read aloud and generally teach them to read slowly.

But few people know that, having entered the university, Dmitry Sergeevich, by his own admission, "could hardly express his thoughts in writing." The fact is that at school the future academician and his classmates did not write classwork and homework. Classes were not heated, the students were sitting in mittens, and there was no time for teachers to check their homework, everyone worked part-time. And after graduating from the university, Dmitry Sergeevich came up with the following system: firstly, to read well-written books a lot, to make extracts from them, phraseological turns, individual words, expressions. And secondly, write every day, write without stopping, “without leaving the paper”, write down your own, inner speech.

The perception of literature largely depends on the quality of reading. If a work of art has had a strong positive or, conversely, negative impact on the reader, or even left him completely indifferent, and this happens more and more often, then he is inclined to attribute this more to the quality of the work itself than to the quality of his reading. And the quality of reading any literary text depends on many factors: the level of culture, the amount of knowledge and life experience, the level of working capacity at the time of perceiving the text, and even mood.

To improve the quality of reading, the Soviet writer, literary critic N.Ya. Eidelman proposed a special reading technique, which he designated by the term, which was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries - SLOW READING.

The term "slow reading" is convenient in that it is immediately clear. Slow means not fast. “Slow reading,” Eidelman wrote, “is an old term: this is a situation where the reader not only glides over the surface of a verse, story, novel (however, on a beautiful surface!), But also plunges into amazing depths.

Slow reading is a journey through literature with frequent, constant stops at a word or verse. Slow reading of the classics, let's say a secret, is the fastest, that is, effective: and fast is the slowest, unprofitable "

In the seventies of the XX century, the technique of speed reading began to gain increasing recognition and distribution, the followers of which claimed that it was also acceptable for fiction.

N.Ya Eidelman, whom we have already mentioned, in his article “Learn to read!” wrote: “Speed ​​reading courses, as you know. spread: beautifully, progressively, we dare not argue... On one condition. If slow reading courses are also recognized!

Let us make a seditious judgment: teaching more people to really read is more important than releasing an extra million or two book copies: what's the point if we fail to use that wealth! .. "

From the middle of the 20th century, M.O. Gershenzon, D.S. Likhachev, A.V. Zapadov wrote about slow reading, who, unlike N.Ya. Eidelman, considered slow reading more as a virtuoso art, and not as a specific technique improving the quality of understanding of the text being read. Thus, it turns out that the very reading of a work of art is also a kind of art, creativity.

D.S. Likhachev repeatedly spoke of the need to learn to read slowly, deeply and thoughtfully. “It is very important to read aloud to children. For the teacher to come to the lesson and say: “Today we will read “War and Peace”. Do not disassemble, but read with comments. So our literature teacher Leonid Vladimirovich Georg read to us at the Lentovskaya school. Most often this happened in those lessons that he gave instead of his sick fellow teachers. He read us not only "War and Peace", but also Chekhov's plays, Maupassant's stories. He showed us how interesting it is to learn French, rummaged through dictionaries in front of us, looking for the most expressive translation. After such lessons, I studied only French for one summer.

The saddest thing is when people read and unfamiliar words do not interest them, they skip them, follow only the movement of intrigue, the plot, but do not read deep. It is necessary to learn not high-speed, but slow reading. Academician Shcherba was a propagandist of slow reading. He and I managed to read only a few lines from The Bronze Horseman in a year. Each word seemed to us like an island that we had to open and describe from all sides. From Shcherba I learned to appreciate the pleasure of slow reading.

Let's turn to poetry. In the poems of the 19th century, there are often words, details, at first glance, incomprehensible to the modern reader and causing difficulties. And the whole point is that we know little about those features of life that were close to the poets. “Eugene Onegin” is not in vain called the “encyclopedia of Russian life”, and even if this expression has become a cliché, you can’t say it better. If you read the poem creatively, i.e. slowly, thoughtfully, without missing unfamiliar words, turning to dictionaries, historical sources, comments, how much deeper our understanding of Russian life itself will become. What a good and qualified lesson of history we will learn for ourselves.

Likhachev also cites excerpts from "Eugene Onegin": stanza II of the fifth chapter begins with lines familiar to everyone from childhood:

Winter!.. The peasant, triumphant,

On firewood, updates the path;

His horse, smelling snow,

Trotting somehow...

Why is the peasant triumphant? Has it become easier for him to ride? Why is the "renewal of the path" on the freshly fallen snow associated with a peasant with some special celebration? Pushkin knew peasant life, and everything that is connected in his poetry with the countryside is very accurate and not at all accidental. The “triumph” of the peasant does not refer to the “renewal of the path” on pure white snow, but to the fallen snow in general. The preceding first stanza of the same chapter says:

That year the autumn weather

Stood in the yard for a long time

Winter was waiting, nature was waiting.

Snow fell only in January

On the third night...

If the autumn weather had stood longer, the winter crops would have died. The peasant triumphs and rejoices in the snow, because the harvest was saved by the snow that fell on the third night.

In our fast-flowing twenty-first century, we are constantly fussing, in a hurry somewhere, and we have almost no time left to read classical works carefully and slowly. And you need to read the masterpieces of world literature slowly, without missing anything: not a single detail, not a single word, not a single comma.

The ability to see in every word, in every expression, sentence and even in punctuation marks a hidden poetic meaning that is not on the surface - this is a subtle art, this is co-creation with the writer.

“Classic is not aggressive, it teaches goodness...”, D.S. Likhachev considered. Readers of past years were supposed to have a high degree of education, but now, following the advice of the great Russian scientist, academician and just an intelligent person, from whom we should take an example, we need to learn to read thoughtfully, without missing unfamiliar, incomprehensible words. How enriched will our vocabulary be if we speak the same language with a writer of the 19th century. And add to this modern progress, new phenomena and words that call them, borrowings, expansion of the lexical layer. But only in aggregate, only by superimposing the new on the basis of the already existing wealth of the Russian language, not replacing it with borrowings, thereby displacing it from use, will we achieve the highest level of education. In no case should one pass by the disappearance, oblivion of good, kind words, one cannot fully adapt to modern trends in the Russian language. “Learning good, calm, intelligent speech should be long and attentive - listening, memorizing, noticing, reading and studying. Our speech is the most important part not only of our behavior, but also of our personality, our ability not to succumb to the influences of the environment, if it is “dragging”.

Oksana Klibanova, teacher of Russian language and literature, Pushkin Lyceum No. 1500

What are the reasons for slow reading?

Data processing The human brain has been studied by scientists for decades. Of course, processing process models a lot has been considered, but any complex model of information processing during reading ends with the same conclusion about the the reasons slow reading.

main reason it is considered to be an elementary habit to coordinate what is read with the inner voice. This comes from the fact that everyone, without exception, learns to read. aloud. First, by syllables, and then pronouncing syllables and phrases faster and faster. However, after learning, and reading to ourselves (not out loud), we all get used to listening to our thoughts and clinging to a complex syllable, placing two consonants side by side, or thinking about a soft sign at the end of a word.

Speed ​​limit such a reading ends at 900 characters per minute, or about 150 words, that's all.

During the period of teaching a person to speed reading, the most first thing remove the habit of reading with a speech-auditory analyzer. This is exactly what stops the speed of thinking and processing what you see on the sheet.

You can also call this training suppression of hidden pronunciation.

Forced suppression gradually sends from the visual analyzer to the semantic analyzer faster and faster, skipping the sound channels. But, not everything is so simple. Even this long process of learning to read quickly can simply come to naught if a person inclined to reading aloud. Sooner or later, this skill will outweigh the acquired "filter" and the speed of reading to oneself will return to the previous numbers.

Second Barrier between reading and capturing information faster is small field of view.

Jumping between words, we are forced to make 4-7 eye movements, constantly restoring focus, seeing up to three words maximum or up to 15 characters. This is quite an adapted speed for reading with pronunciation. Exposure of intonation, pronunciation of sounds and a pause between phrases, allow you to focus on the next pair of words, having processed the previous one. But in speed reading this time is simply unacceptably spent and lost in processing.

Developing peripheral vision, reading speed can be increased three times, gradually losing the ability to "swim" next to the word in the book.

After some training, which, by the way, are not limited to theory and two or three practical exercises, human visual functions improve markedly and up to three fixations are enough for reading. This means that any person who has trained peripheral vision, able to read three times faster than any normal educated person.

If you start the exercises to eliminate the obstacles of fast reading immediately, then the result will be clear to you in two weeks, but you need to work on yourself daily.

Try boosting your reading speed and you'll be craving more in two weeks!

Without a book in the world, night and mind

human miserable,
Without a book, like a herd,
senseless peoples.
In her virtue, duty, in her
power and salt of nature,
It is your future
and sure blessings.

Victor Hugo

Good morning dear friends!

Today we continue our conversation about books and slow reading. First of all, I would like to clarify that the rules are purely advisory in nature, but lecturers and teachers of literature from the world's leading universities turn to them, and this is not accidental. They should not be taken as an attempt to limit the freedom of the imagination. On the contrary, they help him gain wings and reveal himself as the book you are reading. The purpose of the rules of slow reading is not to show the reader that this is how you should always read and this is the only sure way. Their task is to show how the reading experience can expand, what treasures can be discovered by starting to read slowly and patiently. It also teaches you to take small steps without trying to learn and get everything at once. This skill we acquire and train with slow reading, and it will also serve us well in other areas of life - in communication, in work, in sports and in acquiring good habits.

So, the first and most important rule, followed by all the others - Be patient.

By patience, the author means a lot. We should show patience when engulfed by the complexities of the book . We must allow ourselves to be confused and confused in order to figure out by trial and error how to ask the book the right question. We must exercise patience and invest the time and effort necessary for deep thoughtful reading.

Any project that is worth something always starts with uncertainty, and reading is no exception. Every reader remembers how it all began, when we were just learning to add the letters of the alphabet. But over time, this process turns into joy - we begin to recognize the words and their meanings. So, even in childhood, we get the necessary experience - we continue to make many attempts, refusing to get bogged down in difficulties. As adults, we continue to learn to distinguish between what is worth working on before understanding and what is worth just letting go. But before you understand this, you need to be patient.

Patient reading also means joyful and somewhat obsessive attention to detail. The power of reading increases enormously when we we fix attention on the heroes of the book and their reasoning in the smallest, but significant moments. These moments are islands in the flow of poetry or prose, in which we anchor our perception.

When reading, one should not rush to a quick understanding of the meaning or require the author to present his point of view easily and appetizingly, in accordance with our expectations. If we are disappointed that the author's style is rather evasive and difficult to understand, if he refuses to simply and clearly convey his main idea to us, then we need to remember that in trying to find the meaning of the book is what we read for . This skill is also very important in life - after all, not all important answers lie on the surface.

There is joy in the very process of finding the answers you need. This the process should not be painful or violent . Forcing people to read is like forcing them to eat, and it will only cause the reverse process in a person at any age. Therefore, if you feel that you are literally tormented by finishing a book, hoping to find something important in it, and at the same time the process does not give you any joy, then it is better to put this book aside and do something else. There is a very important lesson in learning to discern your condition. Sometimes you just need to be patient and give a book a chance, even if you don't like it right away. And it is quite another matter to persistently continue to read something that causes obvious antipathy. However, even in this case, it is important to ask yourself the question - why this book causes such feelings, what values ​​in it contradict yours.

Patience is a necessary skill for the development of reading, which in a broader sense is a cognitive skill, including the development of imagination. With slow mindful reading, we make an effort and thereby train these skills, and the more we practice, the better shape we are and the more we read becomes available for understanding.

Never skip part of the text in a book just to get closer to its end.. Patient and slow reading is not compatible with such a strategy. By asking yourself the right questions, you will be able to discover the many shades of meaning put into it by the author and his personal experience, and this makes reading especially rewarding.

Exists a few key questions , which you can ask yourself while reading - "Who says this?", "How does this hero manifest himself?", "What images and turns of phrases attract the most attention and why"? "What can you say about the heroes in their words?" At each moment of reading, it is necessary to remain active and keep in mind the topics and questions that arise as you read.

You need to be prepared for the fact that some parts of the book will remain inaccessible the first time. It is impossible to cover everything at once, so you can and should return to books, reread them time after time. and each time they will open from new, previously unknown sides.

When reading a book, you need to show the same patience as when communicating with a new person. The golden rule of communication is the ability to listen . Before making judgments about a book, you need to give it a chance to be heard. She always directly addresses the one who holds her in her hands and every time she has something to tell you. The more attention you put into a book, the more return you get. One can agree and argue with the book. At some point, a book can make you reconsider your views on yourself, on the world around you, just like a conversation with a good friend does. But before you answer anything, you need to be patient and listen to the book first.

Stay with us. We will continue talking about the rules of slow reading in exactly one week.

HOW TO OVERCOME SLOW READING IN SCHOOLCHILDREN.

According to the study, almost 30% of primary school students are characterized by a slow pace of reading. This disadvantage reduces the effectiveness of educational activities in general. In order to effectively overcome this shortcoming, the teacher must first of all understand well that the slow pace of reading can be due to various kinds of psychological reasons. The teacher will be able to provide effective assistance to the student only when, in each specific case, he is able to find and eliminate the cause that impedes the reading process. This task of a psychodiagnostic nature, facing the teacher, is not easy, since there are a lot of psychological reasons for the slow pace of reading among schoolchildren.

Slow reading is manifested in a low speed of pronouncing words and is accompanied by frequent more or less long pauses, letter-by-letter or syllabic reading, incorrect naming of letters and reading words, etc.

Let us point out 3 groups of such reasons. First - associated with shortcomings in the development of cognitive processes of students. So, a slow pace when reading may be due to difficulties in the implementation of the mental operation of synthesizing sound-letter elements (individual sounds into syllables, syllables into words, words into a sentence); lack of formation of strong associative links between letters (one or more) and their corresponding sounds; insufficiency of visual analysis, leading to indistinguishability of letters that are similar in style, or words that differ in one or more letters, which makes it difficult to differentiate them; a small amount of perception in the student: he cannot “grab” the entire readable word, especially a long one, as well as “run ahead” with his mind’s eye of the word currently being read, thus preparing for subsequent articulation. Second group reasons associated with shortcomings in the development of the psychomotor sphere of students, in particular, manifested in difficulties in articulation, affecting the tempo-rhythmic characteristics of loud reading. For this reason, when reading, letters that are similar in articulation characteristics “mix”, which leads to misunderstanding. Difficult articulation, which prevents the formation of auditory-motor interaction, negatively affects the speed characteristics of the reading skill.

Third group associated with the natural slowness of the student, reflecting the inertia (inactivity) of his nervous processes. In addition to these reasons, reading difficulties can also be caused by other, sometimes very unexpected circumstances. We met 2 primary school students, one of whom had a low reading speed due to difficulties in reading printed text, while the text written in written letters, They read it quickly and easily. For another student, this was due to hereditary features of the functional organization of the brain, namely, with a high level of development of the right hemisphere, as a result of which, in the process of reading, the student vividly imagined what was being read in visual images, mentally "drawn" its content. And although the motor skill of reading itself was quite well formed, an attempt to slightly increase the speed of reading led to difficulties in the process of “drawing” and, consequently, to a deterioration in reading comprehension.

As you can see, there are a number of psychological reasons that negatively affect the speed characteristics of the motor reading skill. I will give some correctional and developmental tasks aimed at overcoming the psychological reasons that determine the slow pace of reading.

Tasks for the synthesis of sound-letter elements.

"FOLD THE WORDS". Words are written on two small cards so that the first half is written on one card, and the second on the other (for example: pet-tukh, boots-gi, notebook). On the left they put cards with the beginning of words, and on the right - with their second halves. You need to fold the cards so that you get a meaningful word. In more complex versions, the halves of the words are mixed up, and the student himself finds their beginning and end, sometimes they are asked to pick up words similar in spelling (for example, milk-ko, ).

"SYNTHESIS of sound elements".Separate sounds (s), (a) are pronounced to the student and they are asked to say which syllable the result is. The material for tasks is direct syllables (SA, nu), reverse syllables (ap, om), closed syllables (sas, lam), syllables with a confluence of consonants (hundred, one hundred). In a more complex version, individual sounds are pronounced, for example (s), (y), (m), (k), (a), and you need to say which word it turned out.

"Predictive Synthesis".Predicting a word based on the perception of its individual elements: the student must determine the missing syllable in the word.

"Word Hills".The student is asked to sequentially read 15 words written one under the other in the form of a slide, that is, each lower word is longer than the upper one by one letter. The topmost word consists of two letters, and the last word consists of 15-16. The lower the student descends, the more difficult it will be for him to read. Will he be able to get to the very last word?

"Reading dotted words."Children are given cards with words in which the letters are not written in full, but with the absence of some of the parts, however, in such a way that the reading is unambiguous. Assignment to the student: "The words are destroyed, but they must be read." The degree of destruction of letters gradually increases each time.

Tasks to strengthen the associative links between the letter and sound.

"Search for a given letter."The student must within 30 s. find the given letter in the text. Having found it, he underlines or circles it. Student errors (missing a letter, underlining another letter) are analyzed. Then a similar task is given to find another letter.

"Soft letters". The student is given a string and is asked to spread it out on a sheet of white paper so that a given letter (lowercase) is obtained.

Tasks for the development of visual analysis.

"Find the words." The student is given 18-20 cards, each of which has one word written on it. You need to find words that, when written, differ in one or more letters. For example, a car is a raspberry, Masha is Misha, Tonya is Tolya, a stand is a flock, etc.

"Read Fast"(for the development of integrity and differentiation of perception). For quick perception, pairs of words are given that differ in one or more letters: close - neighbor, grandfather - girl, rare - sharp, downy - furry, neighboring - neighborly.

Tasks to increase the volume of perception.

"Reading lines with the upper half covered."A blank sheet is superimposed on the text like this. Make sure the top stitch is covered and the bottom is open. You have to read only the lower parts of the letters. Wanting to make it easier for himself, the student, reading the top line aloud, will strive to simultaneously quickly read the bottom, next line to himself, while it is open. The transition to this way of reading is highly desirable, as it forms the ability to quickly grasp several words in their entirety.

"Word Columns".The teacher quickly opens and closes the 4-letter words, and the student reads until he grasps the word in an instant. Then the student is given cards with words from more letters. The exercises continue until the student learns to read words consisting of 10 letters. Examples of words: father, field (4); city, address (5); crow, lilac (6), boots, basket (7), pencil, volleyball (8); currant, tiny (9); birdhouse, quantity (10).

"Instant perception of words and phrases".To expand the “reading field”, the student must instantly cover so many words with his eyes. How many can in one perception, and pronounce them without looking at the text.

Tasks to improve articulation.

"Say it fast."A sentence or a stanza of a poem is given and they are asked to say it out loud 10 times in a row - without pauses and as quickly as possible. All words must be pronounced very clearly. Complete the task daily. You can keep track of time. Reducing the time of pronouncing a phrase from the same number of letters indicates an improvement in the process of articulation."Pronounce the vowels."Students need to pronounce vowel sounds, for example (i-e), (i-o), (e-o), (e-u), (e-i), at different tempos, raising and lowering their voice.

"Let's pronounce it clearly."Children should clearly pronounce consonants, which are often poorly differentiated (sh - s), (g - s), (r - l), (s - Z), and pairs of words that differ in one sound (cape - mouse, knife - nose , hot - sorry).

These corrective and developmental exercises are recommended for all slow reading students. However, those tasks that students perform with difficulty require special attention and careful working out.

Back in 1998, Princeton University hosted a Project PX seminar on high speed reading. This article is an excerpt from that seminar and personal experience of speed reading.

So, "Project PX" is a three-hour cognitive experiment that allows you to increase your reading speed by 386%. It was conducted on people who spoke five languages, and even those with dyslexia were trained to read up to 3,000 words of technical text per minute, 10 pages of text. Page in 6 seconds.

By comparison, the average reading speed in the US is between 200 and 300 words per minute. We have in connection with the peculiarities of the language - from 120 to 180. And you can easily increase your performance to 700-900 words per minute.

All that is needed is to understand the principles by which human vision works, what time is wasted in the process of reading and how to stop wasting it. When we analyze the mistakes and practice not making them, you will read several times faster and not mindlessly running your eyes, but perceiving and remembering all the information you read.

Training

For our experiment, you will need:

• a book of at least 200 pages;
• pen or pencil;
• timer.

The book should lie in front of you without closing (press the pages if it tries to close without support).

For one exercise session, you will need at least 20 minutes. Make sure that no one distracts you during this time.

Before jumping straight into the exercises, here are a few quick tips to help you speed up your reading.

1. Make as few stops as possible when reading a line of text

When we read, the eyes move through the text not smoothly, but in jumps. Each such jump ends with fixing your attention on a part of the text or stopping your gaze at areas of about a quarter of a page, as if you are taking a picture of this part of the sheet.

Each stop of the eyes on the text lasts from ¼ to ½ second.

To feel this, close one eye and lightly press the eyelid with the tip of your finger, and with the other eye try to slowly slide over the line of text. The jumps become even more obvious if you slide not along the letters, but simply along a straight horizontal line:

Well, how do you feel?

2. Try to go back through the text as little as possible

A person who reads at an average pace quite often goes back to reread a missed moment. This can happen consciously or unconsciously. In the latter case, the subconscious itself returns its eyes to the place in the text where concentration was lost.

On average, conscious and unconscious returns take up to 30% of the time.

3. Improve concentration to increase the coverage of words read in one stop

People with an average reading speed use central focus rather than horizontal peripheral vision. Due to this, they perceive half as many words in one jump of vision.

4. Practice Skills Separately

The exercises are different and you don't have to try to combine them into one. For example, if you are practicing reading speed, don't worry about text comprehension. You will progress through three stages in sequence: learning technique, applying technique to increase speed, and reading comprehension.

Rule of thumb: Practice your technique at three times your desired reading speed. For example, if your current reading speed is somewhere around 150 words per minute, and you want to read 300, you need to practice reading 900 words per minute.

Exercises

1. Determination of the initial reading speed

To begin with, we consider how many words fit in five lines of text, divide this number by five and round it up. I counted 40 words in five lines: 40:5 = 8 - an average of eight words per line.

And the last thing: we consider how many words fit on the page. To do this, we multiply the average number of lines by the average number of words per line: 39 × 8 = 312.

Now is the time to find out your reading speed. We set the timer for 1 minute and read the text, calmly and slowly, as you usually do.

How much did it turn out? I have a little more than a page - 328 words.

2. Landmark and speed

As I wrote above, returning through the text and stopping the look takes a lot of time. But you can easily cut them down with a focus tracking tool. A pen, pencil or even your finger will serve as such a tool.

Technique (2 minutes)

Practice using a pen or pencil to maintain focus. Move the pencil smoothly under the line you are currently reading and concentrate on where the tip of the pencil is now.

Set the pace with the tip of the pencil and follow it with your eyes, keeping up with stops and returns through the text. And don't worry about understanding, it's a speed exercise.

Try to go through each line in 1 second and increase the speed with each page.

Do not linger on one line for more than 1 second under any circumstances, even if you do not understand at all what the text is about.

With this technique, I was able to read 936 words in 2 minutes, which means 460 words per minute. Interestingly, when you follow with a pen or pencil, it seems that your vision is ahead of the pencil and you read faster. And when you try to remove it, immediately your vision seems to spread out over the page, as if the focus was released and it began to float all over the sheet.

Speed ​​(3 minutes)

Repeat the tracker technique, but allow no more than half a second to read each line (read two lines of text in the time it takes to say "twenty-two").

Most likely, you will not understand anything at all from what you read, but this is not important. Now you are training your perceptual reflexes, and these exercises help you adapt to the system. Do not slow down for 3 minutes. Concentrate on the tip of your pen and the technique for increasing speed.

In 3 minutes of such a frenzied race, I read five pages and 14 lines, averaging 586 words per minute. The hardest part of this exercise is not to slow down the speed of the pencil. It's a real block: you've been reading all your life to understand what you're reading, and it's not easy to let go of that.

Thoughts cling to the lines in an effort to return to understand what it is about, and the pencil also begins to slow down. It is also difficult to maintain concentration on such useless reading, the brain gives up, and thoughts fly away to hell, which is also reflected in the speed of the pencil.

3. Expanding the field of perception

When you focus your eyes on the center of the monitor, you still see its extreme areas. So it is with the text: you concentrate on one word, and you see several words surrounding it.

So, the more words you learn to see in this way with the help of peripheral vision, the faster you can read. The expanded area of ​​perception allows you to increase the speed of reading by 300%.

Beginners with a normal reading speed spend their peripheral vision on the fields, that is, they run their eyes through the letters of absolutely all the words of the text, from the first to the last. At the same time, peripheral vision is spent on empty fields, and a person loses from 25 to 50% of the time.

A pumped reader will not "read the fields". He will run his eyes over only a few words from the sentence, and see the rest with peripheral vision. In the illustration below, you see an approximate picture of the concentration of vision of an experienced reader: words in the center are read, and foggy ones are marked by peripheral vision.

Here is an example. Read this sentence:

Once, students enjoyed reading for four hours straight.

Technique (1 minute)

Use a pencil to read as fast as possible: start with the first word of the line and end with the last. That is, there is no expansion of the area of ​​​​perception yet - just repeat exercise No. 1, but spend no more than 1 second on each line. Under no circumstances should one line take more than 1 second.

Technique (1 minute)

Continue to set the pace of reading with a pen or pencil, but start reading from the second word on the line and finish reading the line two words before the end.

Speed ​​(3 minutes)

Start reading at the third word of the line and finish three words before the end, while moving your pencil at the speed of one line per half second (two lines in the time it takes to say "twenty-two").

If you don't understand anything you read, that's fine. Now you are training your reflexes of perception, and you should not worry about understanding. Concentrate on the exercise with all your might and don't let your mind drift away from an uninteresting activity.

4. Checking the new speed

Now it's time to test your new reading speed. Set a timer for 1 minute and read as fast as you can while still understanding the text. I got 720 words per minute - twice as fast as before I started using this technique.

These are great indicators, but they are not surprising, because you yourself begin to notice how the scope of words has expanded. You don’t waste time on fields, you don’t go back through the text, and the speed increases significantly.

If you tried this technique right now, share your success in the comments. How many words per minute did you get before and after?