Speed Reading Tactics: Comprehension and the Myth of Expanding Eye Size and Word Groups
As you begin to research and select an approach to developing your speed reading skills, you will inevitably find continual references to the fact that untrained readers need to expand the number of words that catch the eye with each stop. These stops are called links. In theory, the more words your eyes catch per fixation, the faster your reading becomes. Programs that focus primarily on training to increase the number of words per fixation are misunderstanding the nature of comprehension. This approach will inevitably lead to failure in developing lasting speed reading results. Here is the truth.
As you read marketing materials and even participate in training for these misguided programs, you’ll see and hear references to eye-width (the actual distance and number of words per fixation). You will be encouraged to expand the number of words in these “word groups”, “word groups” or “word groups” as if the number of words were the real goal. But that’s not what reading comprehension achieves.
The approach to expanding the width of the eyes is most often achieved through a mechanical rhythm, especially if the student is using a software program. This mechanical approach almost always uses flashing words on the screen, sometimes four to six inches wide. The size of the “group” does matter. Its natural span of clear focus at a normal reading distance is between one and three inches in diameter. Expanding beyond 3 inches can be harmful because it changes the way your muscles work.
Your natural viewing experience is dimensional, which means it has vertical and horizontal measurements. What this means is that your eyes naturally see the words above and below the particular line you focus on. Eye training programs that expand visual space too horizontally are an unnatural approach and miss the important point of reading comprehension.
To master speed reading, you must also understand the meaning of print or comprehend it. Focusing on the number of words for each of your eye stops doesn’t allow your mind to respond to the impression. Your mind will respond faster to some things and slower to others. It all depends on your familiarity with the content being read. As a learning specialist, I naturally read faster in materials related to reading and most psychology. Since I am not a physicist, I will be slower when reading books and articles on quantum theory. Also, if I focus on how many words my eyes see for each stop, I can’t focus on the meaning of the letter and therefore lose comprehension.
Knowing that the mind’s response to print is the goal of all reading, mechanical approaches, especially software applications that maintain a steady pace for speed reading, are flawed and ineffective.
Speed readers need to go beyond focusing on individual words and see more for each eye. However, the reason for expanding the stop size is not simply to count the number of words for fixation, but to increase the meaning of the printed material in general. For example, I can read the word “car”, but I understand more if I also see “the red car speeding”. Additional words expand the meaning of the whole idea. My mind gets a better picture and faster. Reading in this way is called expanding “word meaning groups”.
Instead of focusing on physical eye-width expansion, word clusters, word clusters, and artificial rhythm, the speed reader needs to learn to expand their search to “Word Meanings.” The meanings of the words give rise to understanding. Remember, you can only read as fast as your mind can comprehend the material. It’s not just about quickly moving your eyes from point A to point B as fast as you can. You want to get from point A to point B and understand what you have seen.
As mentioned above, these word meaning clusters can appear in areas ranging from 1 to 3 inches in diameter. Learning to move your eyes more efficiently is necessary in all speed reading training, but it is not the only goal. If you look at some printed material and try the “dimensional” statement mentioned above, you’ll also notice that you see the print using your dimensional view which shows the words seemingly out of grammatical order.
Can your mind interpret the impression with this “out of order” appearance? Yes you can. However, that takes some training, practice, and learning more about understanding.
So if you really want to master speed reading, you now know that the myth of expanding the width of the eyes is really about widening the stops of the mind for comprehension. Beware of programs that focus primarily on eye movement and look for programs that focus on training your mind to respond and understand faster. In fact, with the right training, you’ll understand better at a faster rate with the right approach to learning to read fast.