Research prof. A. N. Sokolova convincingly showed that the increase in reading speed, which is achieved by suppressing articulation, not only does not reduce the quality of perception of information, but also contributes to better assimilation of meaning due to the predominance of visual representations, i.e., the work of the brain in a new generalizing code.
Researchers studying the mechanisms of speech have developed various methods of suppressing articulation, they can be reduced to three groups.
1. Mechanical, forced delay in articulation (for example, in the fact that the tongue is clamped between the teeth, or an object is held in the teeth, such as chewing gum, etc.). The disadvantage of this method for our purposes is that, in principle, it allows you to slow down only the peripheral part of the speech-motor analyzer, while the central (brain) part remains free. Therefore, it is impossible to completely suppress articulation when reading using this method.
2. The method of speech-motor and speech-auditory interference consists in the forced pronunciation of an extraneous text aloud while reading to oneself at the same time. The action of these interferences in that case already extends not only to the peripheral, but also to the brain part of the speech-motor apparatus, which is an undoubted advantage of this method compared to the previous one. However, it is not advisable to use it to completely suppress articulation, since in fact one type of articulation is replaced by another, and a lot of energy is spent on this. In fact, pronunciation of extraneous material while reading the main text to oneself, although it excludes the possibility of pronouncing the text being read, at the same time completely occupies the speech-motor analyzer with extraneous actions, while its participation in the main reading process could significantly improve the quality of perception of the necessary information.
3. The method of central speech interference, or the method of arrhythmic tapping. This method was developed by Prof. N. I. Zhinkin and used by him in the study of the patterns of inner speech. The essence of the method is as follows. While reading to himself, the subject taps with his hand a specialized rhythm that does not correspond to the usual rhythm of Russian speech. One of the rhythms given here includes a two-beat tapping with four percussion elements in the first measure and two in the second, and with a significant increase in the impact on the first element of each measure.
This constantly audible arrhythmic pattern of acoustic influence should destroy the usual rhythm of natural melodic speech movements when reading a Russian text, that is, become an obstacle to any articulation - both external and internal. The interference here arises as a result of the fact that the words in the Russian language that make up the speech flow have variable, different stress. Such arrhythmic tapping becomes an insurmountable obstacle to external articulation. The main feature of this method is that there is no direct effect on the activity of the speech organs (lips, tongue, pharynx, larynx). The pharynx, tongue, larynx, lips - all mechanisms of speech remain free, and when a special rhythm is tapped out by hand around the corresponding points of cerebral excitation, an inductive inhibition zone appears in the cerebral cortex, which makes it impossible to pronounce readable words, i.e., suppresses peripheral articulation from the center . To understand how this happens, let's look at which areas of the brain control the processes of speech and its understanding.
Modern neuropsychology distinguishes between sensory speech - understanding what the partner is saying, and motor speech - pronouncing the sounds of speech by the person himself. Of course, both of these forms of speech are very closely related, but still they differ in the mechanisms for implementing their main functions. It is also important for us that sensory and motor speech are controlled by different parts of the brain.
Back in 1861, the French neurosurgeon P. Broca discovered that when the brain is damaged in the region of the second and third frontal gyri (Fig. 11), a person stops speaking articulately and makes only incoherent sounds, although he retains the ability to understand what others say. This speech motor area, or Broca's area, in right-handers is located in the left hemisphere of the brain, in left-handers in most cases - in the right.
In 1874, another scientist E. Wernicke established that there is also a zone of sensory speech. Damage to the superior temporal gyrus leads to the fact that a person hears words, but ceases to understand them. Here, the logical connections of words with the objects and actions that these words denote are lost. In this case, the patient can mechanically repeat words without understanding their meaning. This area of the brain is called Wernicke's area.
In the Wernicke zone, as in a kind of card file, all the sound images of words learned during a person's life are stored. Of course, they are there not literally in the form of a chain of coded words (such storage is uneconomical), but in the form of so-called neural traces of sound images. A person uses this card index all his life. On fig. 11 shows the paths of nerve impulses from the speech muscles and impulses coming from the ear when pronouncing words. This figure shows us the great importance for the normal functioning of the brain of the muscular sensations that arise during articulation. As we already know, articulation suppression is a prerequisite for fast reading. Obviously, for its implementation, it is necessary to find a means of purposefully influencing Broca's area in the process of reading in order to block the path of control impulses coming from this area in order to maintain normal articulation. How to achieve this? You can use arrhythmic tapping with the hand. As scientists have established, the movements of the fingers in the course of human development turned out to be closely related to speech. The initial form of communication of primitive people was gestures, the sign language - praxis - gradually began to be combined with guttural exclamations, cries. Thousands of years passed before verbal speech developed, but for a long time it was associated with gestures. The speech accompaniment of praxis lasted a long time.
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RICE. eleven |
The movements of the fingers improved - from generation to generation people performed more and more subtle and complex work. At the same time, the area of the motor projection of the hand (praxis) in the human brain increased. The development of the functions of the hand and speech went in parallel and they are still controlled by one nerve, the so-called nervus vagus (vagus nerve). Here it is appropriate to recall the well-known idea of I. M. Sechenov that “the hand teaches the eye”. The essence of this idea is that the hand, as it were, conveys to the organ of vision the gnostic experience of touching specific objects of the external world. I. M. Sechenov brilliantly showed that the natural basis of the rhythm of ordinal counting is the signals of rhythmic muscle contractions (obtained, for example, when walking).
Acting as a kind of internal metronome, such abbreviations not only prepare the idea of counting, but are also part of this action, like a pacemaker.
The skill of typists and linotypers (compositors) who can work with the “blind” method speaks eloquently about the functional connection between the hand and the eye. For them, the operations of typing and reprinting text at high speeds are not accompanied by analytical actions related to meaning. The perception of the text occurs in blocks, and only the stereotypical image of the text is imprinted - its form.
It is also known that a child who is learning to count objects includes movements of the index finger in this process. If he is forbidden to use his hand, he cannot count the objects, although he perceives them visually. Obviously, the pointing gesture has an unconditionally important function.
The pointing gesture has, as it were, two sides: external and internal. The outer side of the gesture - pointing the finger at the object - actually highlights the latter: the inner side, as it were, is turned towards the body and “introduces” this object into the system of My Self, for example, counting in the form of signals for active muscle contraction in an acceptable rhythm of the body. All this applies equally to descriptive gestures and to imitating ones.
When an adult considers objects with his eyes, then pointing movements of the eyes act as pointing gestures of the hand. The outer side of these movements consists in the direction of gaze at the next object, for example, a line of text, the inner side - in the production of discrete muscle signals. Such signals are formed as a result of jumps that set the eye on the desired line, and “inform” the brain about each next line. You will learn more about this in the next chapter.
Research carried out in recent years in Leningrad by prof. M. M. Koltsova showed that the speech areas of the brain in children at an early age are partially formed under the influence of impulses coming from the fingers. Observing children aged 10-12 months, she found that their speech, figuratively speaking, is at their fingertips. It is known that speech is the second signal system, and it is not given to us from birth. If a child is not taught to speak, he will be dumb.
Prof. M. M. Koltsova recommends special exercises for training the fingers of children 6-7 months of age. Thanks to this, the child begins to pronounce full words much earlier, which are usually difficult for this age. Thus, there is a direct and natural connection between the movement of the hand and the utterance of words.
This means that there is a constant functional interaction of subject and speech information, which was explained by Acad. IP Pavlov as the interaction of the first (objective) and second (speech) signal systems.
Now we can give examples showing three different ways of implementing communication: visual, auditory, motor.
Imagine that you are talking with a friend who has come to see you on business. After discussing all the issues, you said goodbye to him. He left. And suddenly you remembered that you forgot to tell him something important. You need to return it. How can this be done using each of the above methods of communication?
Visual. Having quickly sketched a poster with a felt-tip pen: “Come back, please!”, You go out onto the balcony and show it to your friend, who, leaving the entrance, turned around to wave goodbye, saw you, was surprised at the strange form of address, but nevertheless complied with your request.
Auditory. Stepping out onto the balcony, you simply shout: “Come back, please!”
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RICE. 12 |
Motor. Stepping out onto the balcony, you make an expressive movement with your hand, calling for a friend to return. Body language, facial expressions and pantomime work - a friend returns.
So, three different ways of transmission, and the result is the same - the message is accepted, understood and implemented. The analyzed examples are a direct analogy with reading. The only difference is that when reading, we only receive messages, and it basically depends on us in what way (in what code) this technique is implemented: visual / auditory or motor. At the same time, the following conclusion can be drawn from all this: if hand movements make it possible to implement verbal communicative actions, then, obviously, such movements certainly excite certain parts of the cerebral cortex, sending appropriate impulses there. The fact that the hand really plays a big role in the organization of various functions of the brain can be judged from Fig. 12. Here is shown a conditional little man, the so-called homunculus. The sizes of various parts of his body correspond to that part of the cerebral cortex, which is associated with the analysis of certain sensations entering the brain from various parts of the body. Notice how much of the cerebral cortex is engaged in active activity each time the hand performs certain actions, such as tapping a rhythm. . When the rhythm is tapped out by hand, the speech-motor channel of perception is occupied with this work and it is no longer possible for counter nerve impulses to pass through it. Now imagine that, while continuing to move your hand (tapping out the rhythm) and at the same time generating interference in the speech-motor channel, you begin to read the text to yourself. Broca's area is covered by negative induction due to interference, and the channel for the passage of control impulses to articulation is closed. In this variant, you can read only if your reading is not accompanied by sonorous articulation. As soon as the readable word is pronounced aloud, immediately the rhythm goes astray. And vice versa, while the rhythm is being tapped out, it is impossible to pronounce what is being read: Broca's area is locked, the motor speech channel is closed.
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RICE. 13 |
The above explanation, of course, is very arbitrary, but it reflects the main idea of the tapping method: rhythmic hand movements block the speech-motor channel and articulation becomes practically impossible. Naturally, the question arises: do fast readers really tap all the time while reading? Of course not. It is enough to read for 20 hours with rhythm tapping for a new program of the brain to mature and strengthen, a new stereotypical code is formed that ensures the processing of information entering the brain through the visual channel without pronouncing it.
The main thing in mastering the method is to learn and tap the rhythm correctly. To learn the rhythm, you must first carefully read the rules for performing this simple exercise, then tap the rhythm itself and repeat it many times. It must be remembered that the effect of the method is manifested only if the reader independently works with the text - continuously taps out the rhythm and controls the correctness of the sound by ear. It is possible to read the text with percussion only after the rhythm has been learned; to check the correctness of the rhythm pattern, it is necessary to control it by musical notation (Fig. 13) and use a special geographical aid.
As our experience shows, with persistent and accurate performance of the exercises given at the end of the chapter, almost all students achieve the desired effect. For successful suppression of articulation, as a rule, it is enough to read while tapping the rhythm for 20 hours. However, depending on the type of the nervous system and other individual psychophysiological characteristics, the development of exercises proceeds differently for some students. Features of this exercise will be discussed in Chapter 9 (Lesson Five).
Speed reading is a set of text manipulations that help to significantly increase a person's reading speed without a significant loss of understanding of the book read. It should be borne in mind, by the way, that there is no official separation between "slow" and fast methods of information perception, for the reason that many readers use reading exercises that are suitable for them.The main features of speed reading
- Elimination, stops, recurrent eye movements, regression. In the traditional way of reading, returns to previous words are very common, which significantly slows down the speed of reading and reduces understanding of the text.
- Expanding the field of view. Special exercises are used (for example, the Schulte table), aimed at increasing the coverage of two or three words, several paragraphs. Due to the wide angle of view, a reader can capture much more information in one stop of his gaze than an untrained one.
- Suppression of pronunciation of the text - development of a different reading strategy: . The average reader has the necessary reading skills. For example, logos are immediately understood, (“Pepsi”, “Ford”, “GM”, “Nike”,). Many familiar phrases are perceived without sound decoding. At the same time, it should be understood that unfamiliar words should be read by decoding words into sound images, that is, reading the text aloud.
- Review reading. Scanning without carefully focusing on bits of information of little value.
- Formation of the skill of highlighting the main idea of the text, filtering garbage information and reading only effective and useful information.
In almost all speed reading methods, three main speed reading limiters are indicated: articulation, small field of view and regression.
And often as the main enemy they call articulation , or speaking aloud (or in a whisper) the text you are reading.
True, many got rid of such whispering, but still internal pronunciation remained - or vocalization (subvocalization).
It is from these two types of pronunciation of a readable text that almost all methods of speed reading are proposed to get rid of.
Will it help?
Let's look at our own example.
We take the text - no more than 100 words (or the following excerpt from the book T. Buzan "Speed Reading Textbook", in him 118 words).
“Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the quickest and most insatiable readers of all government leaders. Various sources report that he was able to read an entire paragraph at a glance, completing any book, usually in one sitting.
It is known that Roosevelt started in this area with average reading speeds, which he decided to seriously work on increasing. Among his first achievements was to increase the area originally covered by the suspension to four words, and subsequently Roosevelt increased this number to six and then to eight words.
He then practiced reading two lines at once, after which he began to zigzag through the pages, reading small paragraphs with a single movement of his eyes. His approach was identical to that used by speed-reading leaders today.”
Experience 1: read aloud in your normal speech.
Turn on the stopwatch - start reading - finish reading - turn off the stopwatch.
Count the number of words per minute: (118/number of seconds)*60.
For reference: the average speech speed of a Russian person is 100-120 words/minute.
Experience 2: we read aloud at our maximum speed, but so that the speech can be understood.
Usually at a speed of more than 200 words / minute - speech is poorly intelligible.
Determine the number of words / minute at an increased speed.
For reference: The current speech speed record belongs to the English actor and presenter Steve Woodmore - 637 words per minute.
True, it can only be understood by writing down and scrolling at a reduced speed, since there is a speed of perception, and at 300 words speech is no longer distinguished.
But nevertheless, there is such a record, although perhaps one of your friends is also close to such a record. This occurs.
Experience 3: We do not read aloud, but to ourselves.
We determine the number of words / minute for internal vocalization.
What have we learned from these experiments?
1. Indeed, articulation and vocalization reduce the speed of reading.
2. The speed of reading with internal pronunciation is higher than when reading aloud or in a whisper - 2-3 times.
Hence the first conclusion: we exclude unnecessary “muttering” even in a whisper, while reading we do not move our lips.
We figured out the articulation, but getting rid of subvocalization is more difficult.
Inner speech is such an ingrained habit that it is almost impossible to fight it.
And although speed reading techniques insist on exercises that allow you to suppress or displace inner speech, this is very difficult to achieve. Even terms are determined - 20 hours of percussion of rhythms that distract from pronunciation.
Where did it all come from, you ask?
They refer to various fundamental studies of linguists and psychologists.
After all, reading is connected with pronunciation, and it is impossible to work out the text without connecting the muscles responsible for speaking. This is proved by special devices that fix the internal pronunciation of the text - even with silent reading, the muscles of the larynx work the same way as when reading aloud.
M. Ziganov, in particular, writes about this in his book “How to improve the culture of reading or make reading enjoyable.” But, as studies show, READING IS INTEGRALLY RELATED TO SPEAKING. It is fundamentally impossible to work out a text otherwise than by connecting the muscles responsible for speaking. Therefore, a complete SUPPRESSION OF ARTICULATION IS IMPOSSIBLE TO READ WITH A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONTENT".
T. Buzan also writes about this in the book “Speed Reading Textbook”: “ silent utterance cannot and should not be completely eliminated in the true sense of the word». « There is no need to be upset if you occasionally realize that you are silently pronouncing words, since this habit is universal and ineradicable.».
«… silent speaking is not, by definition, a slow and disturbing process. Your brain is quite capable of mentally speaking up to 2,000 words per minute».
Even in the methodology of Evelyn Wood, who is considered the first to systematically engage in speed reading, the following is said: “600-900 words per minute. This is the fastest possible speed for those who use a subvocal-linear approach."
The author of the book is Stanley D. Frank.
The same book points out that even experts in the field of visual-vertical reading use the subvocal-linear method. For example, when reading - poetry, complex technical books with new terminology, when reading jokes, aphorisms.
How to be and whom to believe?
After all, even in the fundamental course of Andreeva O.A. and Khromova L.N. "Learn to Read Fast" Chapter 5 is all about "Articulation" and how to deal with it.
And the mention of such scientists as P. Brock, who discovered Broca's area in the brain or E. Wernicke, who established the area of sensory speech - Wernicke's area, apparently should dispel our doubts about the need to suppress unnecessary pronunciation.
Although I am more inclined to support the point of view of M. Ziganov " Some authors of fast reading methods, authors of articles on fast reading, who are poorly acquainted with the fundamental works of psychologists in the field of speech research, insist on the so-called "suppression of articulation", supposedly allowing you to read without pronouncing the text at all, and therefore quickly".
The emphasis is on the “poorly acquainted”.
But, as with anything, the truth lies in the middle.
Getting rid of pronunciation is impossible, but you can change the information processing scheme.
From the traditional, laid down at school:
saw - spoke - heard - understood.
To a more rational and fast:
saw - understood.
In this case, it is not the sound of the word that is transmitted to the brain, but its visual image in the form of an image.
It's easier to explain it this way - the word is recognized. If you often met a particular word, then the next time you read it, you no longer need to read / pronounce it in full. Looked - visually recognized - understood.
For example, the word: Recession. Rarely seen in most. Therefore, it is difficult to immediately recognize it, we read it in full, to ourselves or aloud.
And here is the word - Score, more familiar. It is not worth reading, it is recognized even without reading.
I think the meaning is clear - what does it mean to switch from the mode of pronunciation to the mode of visual recognition.
Some readers understand to think visually - how to see the image of each word - a cat is a cat, but the word - necessity - how you visualize it.
It is not necessary to invent an image, the word should simply be recognizable by its shape, letters, etc.
Although the process of word recognition itself has not yet been studied, there are several hypotheses, and if the model of the form of the word previously dominated, now the model of parallel letter recognition, although this must be assumed, is not the last hypothesis.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter yet which hypothesis wins, experience shows that the wider the reader’s Thesaurus, the more words he will recognize at once.
Helps recognition and anticipation(guess or guess). It is on this property of our thinking that the system of I.Z. Postalovsky - Reading anticipation. But more on that next time.
Well, at the end of this article - after all, you can increase the speed of speech, as one of the factors in the speed of pronunciation. Although it depends on the temperament of the person, but still.
Tongue twisters are one way to do this.
The ships were tacking, tacking, tacking, tacking, but not catching!
By pronouncing tongue twisters and increasing their speed, you develop fine speech motor skills - the ability of the tongue, lips and larynx to make small muscle movements. “Non-standard” words in the text will no longer serve as an obstacle that they stumbled over earlier, slowing down the pace of reading.
So, a brief summary of today's article:
One of the enemies of reading speed is pronunciation of the text.
You were convinced of this in experiments, and you learned your speed.
Option to avoid pronunciation: I saw, I understood.
Ways:
1. Try to get rid of articulation (moving lips and whispering). It is achieved simply - shut your mouth and read. It's a joke. In fact, there are various ways.
2. Increase the speed of speech. You speak quickly - you read quickly, at least aloud, at least at the level of internal pronunciation. One of the ways is tongue twisters.
3. Expand your vocabulary (thesaurus).
4. Anticipation of words. Example - we predict the word by the first letters. More next time.
And there is no need for any tapping that distracts from internal pronunciation. A habit that has developed over the years is unlikely to go away quickly. In addition, it is not clear whether this is a habit or a natural physiological process.
There are a lot of opportunities to increase reading speed, and we will consider them in the future.
That's all for today, I will continue the topic in the next article.
I hope that you have any questions, please write in the comments.
Sincerely, Nikolay Medvedev.
suppression pronunciation of the text is one of the most effective methods. The problem with pronunciation, or articulation, is that it slows down reading a lot, and at the same time makes it difficult to quickly select the necessary information from the text.
Articulation has pros- it allows you to improve speech, and better understand how certain words sound. This useful property helps, for example, when studying, or when reading poetry.
But articulation is not suitable for informational reading. It is much better and faster not to pronounce the text to yourself, but to create mental images.
Remember how you read an interesting fiction book with exciting plots and colorful descriptions. In this case, you most likely imagined everything figuratively, not paying attention to the words. Reading thus becomes like creating a movie that you mentally view. With this figurative reading, the speed increases significantly.
Speech interference can be used to suppress articulation. The essence of this method is to tap rhythmic fractions with your fingers.
Here it is necessary to make a small digression. The fact is that scientists have found out one interesting thing - a person’s speech and his ability to read are very strongly related to the development of fingers. In Japan, for example, finger training in children begins at the age of two. Scientists believe that finger exercises stimulate mental development. The more developed the movements of the fingers, the more developed their speech.
In ancient times, in primitive times, people communicated exclusively with gestures - the development of speech occurred later, or at least proceeded simultaneously. The child also repeats this path - first, the movements of the fingers are improved, and only then the child begins to pronounce the first words.
In humans, the centers responsible for the movements of the fingers, and for the perception of speech, are nearby. Thus, tapping a certain rhythm with your fingers blocks the speech center, and the person stops pronouncing the words to himself.
In addition, the speed of reading also affects the suppression of the mental pronunciation of words. At high speed, the brain simply does not have time to do it.
Thus, to suppress articulation, and develop your speed reading skills, you should read the text in a certain way:
- Start hitting rhythm with fingers , for example, index and middle alternately, and simultaneously read the text. When striking with the index finger, fix your eyes on the beginning of the line; when striking with the middle finger, fix your eyes on the end of the line. The next hit is the beginning of a new line, and so on. Choose the pace as fast as possible, but such that you understand and assimilate the material you read. Also, make sure the pace is even.
- Exercise regularly constantly increasing speed. After a while, you may notice that it is inconvenient for you to fix your eyes on the beginning and end of the line. The gaze begins to slide as if by itself, in waves. Let your eyes glide over the text in a way that suits you best, without slowing down. If the reading speed decreases at the same time, return to the original hard fixation of the gaze.
- Do not forget about other ways of developing speed reading as well. For example, to improve peripheral vision, work with.
- Read this way as much and as often as possible. During classes, watch the movements of the lips and tongue - they should not move. Usually, to consolidate the skill of accelerated reading without pronouncing the text, it takes about 20 hours of classes using this technique. After you learn how to read without pronunciation, you can stop beating the rhythm with your fingers - you will no longer need this auxiliary tool.
In conclusion - a wonderful program for the development of speed reading, in which all the principles outlined above are applied. You can download this program from the link:
The rhythm in it beats a metronome, the speed of which you can change. The text is loaded into the program, which you then read, fixing your eyes on the beginning and end of the lines in accordance with the beats of the metronome, while the necessary points of fixing the gaze will be highlighted.
This program is free, lightweight, does not require installation, and does not make any entries in the registry.
Text can be loaded from a file or from the clipboard. To load text from a file, you need to go to the item File - Open , and to load the copied text into the program, you must first copy it, and then select the item File - Read from buffer . After that click on the button start, or choose a menu item Start .
Changing the speed of the metronome is achieved by moving the weight on its pendulum, or by changing the parameters in step Mode - Speed .
Happy training!
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