Improving
Reading Speed
and Recall:
A Workshop with Richard
Spacek
1.
2.
3.
4.
Language Tricks and Traps
Enhanced Reading for Recall
Factors in Reading Speed
Reading Strategies
Language Tricks and Traps
Tricks vs. Techniques
Math tricks:
1. Take advantage of mechanical
procedures
2. Reduce memory load
Tricks vs. Techniques
• Mechanical tricks for multiplication
Multiplying by 11
3 + 1=4
431 x 11
31 X 11=341
Multiplying by 11
2 + 5=7
7 5 x 11
2
25 X 11=275
3-Digit Numbers?
2 + 5= 7
3 + 5= 8
3 x 11
22783
7253
253 X 11=2783
No Tricks Zone
• There are no equivalent reading
“tricks,” only “techniques”
• Practice is the key
• There ARE effective tactics for longer
readings
• Major problem: reading is not a very
effective way of learning; it needs
enhancement
Nature of Language
• language is a neural network: each element
is connected to every other element
• recognition occurs as a result of the
operation of connected units
• letters that have occurred together in the
past are more readily recognized
• the system is robust—even when there are
errors. . . .
Read Me
Fo_ ex_mp_e,
y_u c_n r_ad
_hi_ se_te_ce
_it_ ev_ry _hi_d
l_tt_r mi_si_g.
Read Me
• Difficulty and learning: a passage like
the one you just read is more likely to
be recalled than one printed properly
• Why?
• Desirable difficulty
Challenges: Arbitrariness
• language depends on a network of
conceptual and phonological links
• this mixed system of arbitrary
connections is especially prone to
error because sound is often at odds
with sense
Sound & Sense?
• Pulchritude
L. pulcher, ‘beautiful’
turpitude
pulverize
decrepitude
puling
Sound & Sense?
• Bucolic
L. būcolicus, ‘rustic, pastoral’
colic
puke
Challenges: Size
• Adult speakers: 50,000 “words”
• 1 Million words in English
• Amalgam of 5 languages (AngloSaxon, Danish, Norman French,
Classical Latin, Greek)
• 40 distinct sounds written 176 ways
Enhanced Reading for
Recall
Read/Recite
• 1917: students studied brief bios
• Group 1: read & reread
• Group 2: looked up and recited the
content to themselves
• Recitation group showed better
retention
• Best results: 60% reciting/ 40% reading
Read/Test
• 1939: 3000 6th graders—read/test
• The longer the delay in testing, the
greater the forgetting
• Once a student had taken a test,
forgetting nearly stopped,
• Student’s subsequent scores remained
almost steady
Massed Study/
Spaced Retrieval
• 1978: Massed studying (cramming):
higher scores on an immediate test but
resulted in faster forgetting
• Multiple sessions of retrieval practice
worked better
• Spaced testing (retrieval practice)
worked better still
Learning from Reading
• Encoding: creation of a mental
representation of the information
• Consolidation: new learning is labile:
easily altered or lost.
• Over hours/days, brain reorganizes
and stabilizes memory traces
• Retrieval: strengthens the memory
traces.
Illusion of Fluency
• Tendency to confuse fluency (in
reading a text) with mastery
(successful encoding of its contents)
• Leads students to overestimate
retrieval ability
• Learning from reading works best over
time
Factors in Reading Rates
Factors in Reading Rates
1. Familiarity with vocabulary and
concepts
2. Habitual approach to reading
3. Concentration/motivation
Factors in Reading Rates
• Familiarity: determined partly by
exposure to specific knowledge but
partly by the general readiness of the
linguistic system
• Approach: habit and practice
• Concentration: under the conscious
control of the individual
1. Familiarity/Vocabulary
• determined partly by exposure to specific
knowledge but partly by the general
readiness of the linguistic system
• We read far more than we need to
• specialized forms literature do not convey
information from a real context:
– novels, stories, drama
• some forms encourage language play:
– jokes, songs and poetry, slogans, epigrams
Antimetabole
outlaws
If guns are outlawed
only
will have
Read More to Read Faster
• ALL reading renews linguistic
understanding
• Leisure reading complements any
course of study
• Time spent reading determines
vocabulary development & this
determines reading speed
Speed and Vocabulary
• Beyond primary education, most
vocabulary development comes
from personal, self-directed reading
• Literacy rates have risen until recently
• Adolescent scores have declined—
why?
Challenges to Literacy
1. “rise of a self-contained adolescent
culture, birthed in the 1950s, that is
impervious to parents' vocabulary”
2. More limited vocabulary of school
textbooks
3. Cultural changes. . . .
Reading comprehension percentile
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 -
20 10 00
l
10
l
l
l
l
20
30
40
50
Hours TV per week
l
60
( Anderson et al. ,1988)
To Kill a Mockingbird (movie versus novel)
(words that begin with "u")
Script
ugly, under, until, up, upstairs, us, used
Book
up, ugly, us, use, used, upon, until, upstairs, unveiled
unpainted, uncontrollable, uncrossed, under, undress,
unhitched, unique, unless, unlighted
Build Vocabulary!
• 60% of English words in common use
based on Latin/Greek roots and affixes
• Basis of scientific terminology
• Consider: what is the etymology of the
word “education”?
• ex (“out of”) + ducere (“to lead”)
• Study classical languages!
Software
• Teach yourself Latin!
• http://mnemosyne-proj.org/
Online
• Modern languages!
• www.duolingo.com
Online
http://www.memrise.com/
Self-Taught
• When you have mastered a vocabulary
appropriate to what you are reading,
you are ready for speed—but it may
not come by itself
2. Habitual Approach
• Sign on an Olympic training pool:
The
Theonly
onlyway
waytoto
swim
readfast
fast
is is
to to
swim fast.try to read fast
• Force your pace to increase speed
How Fast?
• Speech flows at a rate optimal for short
term memory:
• Speech: 250-350 words per minute
• Actual reading speed tends to lag
behind this
• Largely habit: children reading to meet
stated target rates learn to read faster
• Practice reading for speed!
3. Reading & Concentration
• PURPOSE of reading affects intensity
& focus (Linderholm et al., 2008)
• Greater sense of purpose usually
means greater concentration and
thus faster rate and higher retention
What About Speed Reading
Courses?
• Gains have been noted, but these
come mainly from focus (elimination of
multitasking), motivation, and
quantity of reading
• Claims for specific techniques (e.g.,
using unfocused gaze, eliminating
“subvocalization,” reducing fixations)
are mostly false
Real Factors . . .
Factors in Reading Speed :
• Familiarity with vocabulary and
concepts
• Habitual approach to reading
• Concentration and motivation
Strategies for Better Recall
Factors in Better Recall
• Reading strategies may not
substantially change speed
• They do affect comprehension &
retention
Reading Strategies
1. Learn structure of text
• Goal is to increase understanding by
gaining an overview of the
organization of the text
• This will improve comprehension thus
retention
Internal Organizers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
preface
introduction
table of contents/headings
glossary
index
end of chapter summaries
review questions
Chapter-Level Organizers
Reading Strategies
• Skim-read text quickly
• Note key features: tables, graphs,
illustrations, specially-marked text
• Tables are high-value information
sources
Reading Strategies
2. Maintain understanding by selective
re-reading
• look-backs to pertinent regions of
the text:
– topic sentences conveying main ideas
– topic headings signaling content
structure
– Medium reading rate, but highest recall
Remarks
• Simple linear reading is not effective
(though it can be fast)
• Good reading involves re-reading
• Build a conceptual framework by
examining advance
• Building motivation by looking for
answers is powerful
Self-Explanation
• Tactics such as self-explanation
(during which you phrase new ideas in
your own words and reason WHY you
know them) improve learning
• “The participant recalls information
from the current text or his/her own
background knowledge to self-explain
the current sentence” (p. 341).
Create a Personalized
Strategy
ACTIVE Reading Strategies
3. Use an active reading system
1. Review the text’s internal
organizers
2. Skim rapidly over chapter
3. Read closely, circling, marking,
annotating
4. Develop questions
5. Test yourself
Mark/Lookup/Test
• sharpen focus by marking the text
• Dr. Robert Bjork (UCLA) dismisses the
highlighter!
• Look up terms & test yourself on them
• Test yourself on all new material
• Use creative, high-challenge
questions with limited prompts
Self-Testing
• Using the information makes it
memorable
• “Flashcard” approach has merit—but it
is limited
• Short-term memory effect makes
people overestimate their knowledge
• Use testing with delayed feedback
Sketching
• graphics are integral elements—
sketch graphics for better recall
Speed/Learning
• Speed reading is for material that is
highly predictable & redundant
• Yours is denser and unfamiliar
• Expect greater effort and lower speed
. . . For more:
www.unbwritingcentre.ca/Workshops