Speed Reading

The first step you should take when aiming to increase your reading speed is to reduce sub-vocalisation. Let’s start by discussing what this means! While ‘sub-vocalisation’ sounds complicated, it’s actually quite a simple concept to grasp. You’ll already be familiar with it – it’s what most people do whenever they read anything!

In short, sub-vocalisation is the act of sounding out the words in your head, or ‘silently speaking’ as you read, in accordance with the way most of us were taught to read at primary school. While this logical and helps children with comprehension, it is possible to suppress this instinct in order to increase your reading speeds.

There are a few methods you can use to reduce sub-vocalisation. The most straightforward way to do so is to practise using rapid and jerky eye movements (‘saccades’) to get through a sentence, rather than one smooth ‘tracking’ motion that you might currently be doing. This means that you are only actually  looking at a few words in a line, and letting your peripheral vision catch the rest.