Learn to speed read? Most people admit that this is definitely a skill that they want (and sometimes need), but so few people even attempt to learn. Unfortunately for them, it’s so easy to learn to speed read. You can literally learn to speed read in an hour or two, and if you practice it for longer than that, then you’ll have that skill for life.
Learn to Speed Read With These Two Tricks
To learn to speed read effectively, you only need to know two things: metaguiding and subvocalization.
Metaguiding is the first speed reading technique which is often taught to people who want to learn to speed read, but don’t have a lot of time for practice. Metaguiding is basically just a fancy word for guiding your eyes across the page faster by using your finger. This helps you learn to speed read simply by making your eyes hurry across the page, increasing your reading speed physically rather than mentally. You’d be surprised at your ability to still be able to read all of the words on the page if you move your finger at an appropriate pace, not too quickly, not too slowly.
Using metaguiding is the first step in learning to speed read. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Well, the second part of how to learn to speed read, subvocalization, or rather eliminating subvocalization, is highly important as well.
Subvocalization is a process that we all learn when we first learn the alphabet and words, and it is an elementary skill that has no place in our ability to read after we initially learn the techniques of putting letters together into words. Subvocalization is simply reading to yourself in your mind. You use your inner voice to tell you what the writing says. This is an extra step that really complicates the reading process. The simple fact is that in America, the average person talks at a rate of 110 words per minute or so, which is about the same rate that you hear words while subvocalizing. One hundred ten words per minute is simply not an acceptable reading speed when a slow reader is often considered to read at about two hundred words per minute.
To learn to speed read the fastest way, you need to work to eliminate subvocalization. There is no reason why you should be doing this as an adult. To get rid of subvocalization, try saying the alphabet while you read, or chewing gum.
If you want to learn to speed read, try these two techniques.