Kilani Excellence
Speed Reading College
Module
II: Speed Reading Techniques
Chapter 7
Eyes,
Hands and Brains
Overview
This chapter covers the following:
The
mechanics of the eye, its field of vision and how the eyes see text
Moving
the eyes faster over a printed line of text; fixations, span and grouping
Wandering
eyes and regression (re-reading previous text)
Guiding
hands; using your finger or a pointer as a reading guide
The
underline/submarine Forward (F) technique
F Reading Exercise
Your
Brain’s Eyes
The eyes can read a printed word when they
are fixed on it for a ¼ of a second. This is the time it takes for the eye to
see the printed text and transmit it to the brain, where it gets recognised, processed, interpreted, connected with previous
words read, and retained for future recall. The eyes then move to the next word
and perform the same process, with the brain following in continuous,
harmonious fashion. However, the brain does not need a ¼ of a second to do its
business, and practically sits idle most of the time, waiting for the eye to
jump to the next word and transmit its contents.
Eyes
Field of Vision
The
eyes are fantastic machines, contain billions of pixles,
differentiate among millions colours and visualise
the world in 3 dimensions. We generally judge the eyes by how far they can see
(short and long sightedness). But, how high and wide can the eyes clearly see,
along the horizontal and vertical dimensions of a textual page?
To start with, let us show you how to feel your eyes field of vision:
This is an amazing experiment, as most
people will feel that they can actually see their index fingers wiggling. Your
eyes horizontal field of vision is quite wide.
Now, let us test your vertical field of
vision by repeating the same experiment above, but with your index fingers
touching on a vertical plane. Slowly, move your index fingers apart where your
right hand index finger goes up, while the left hand index finger comes down.
Stop when you can not see your right hand index
finger anymore.
Your vertical field of vision is shorter
than your horizontal
field of vision
simply due to the fact that your eyebrows are in the way!
So,
the eyes see in an (almost) elliptical field of vision.
Testing
Your Field of Vision
On the diagram above, try the following
experiments:
Your
Brain’s Eyes Field of Printed Text
If we superimpose the above two facts: (1)
eyes fix on a word to read, then jumps to a new word, and (2) your eyes have an
elliptical field of vision, it would seem that the eyes will read each printed
word as follows:
However, we have discussed above that the
eyes have a much wider and higher field of vision than a mere printed word. So,
the eyes can ‘see’ more than one word at a time, but can they actually ‘read’
them, as in understand their meaning as a unit or a group of words, rather than
individual words connected together in a sentence?
The answer is yes. Your brain does not need
to read each letter in the word ‘excellence’ and then connect them to form an
identifiable entity. It simply ‘knows’ what excellence is. The brain can
process a group of words together as a Chapter, rather than have to treat them
separately as words and then connect them. So, what’s holding your brain back?
Well, it is your eyes. They are not moving fast enough in a consistent pattern
to allow the brain to maximise its recognition
potential.
Moving
the Eyes Faster
In order to read a line of printed text
faster, you shall need to read it with:
Fewer
eye fixations, and
Wider
horizontal field of vision, and
Understand
groups of words as Chapters
So, you can increase your reading speed if
you focus and move your eyes to read 2 words at a time like this:
Or 3 words at a time like this:
Obviously, as each fixation is ¼ of a
second, a 6 word line will take 1.5 seconds to read with 6 fixations, ¾ of a
second with 3 fixations (2 words per fixation) and ½ a second with 2 fixations
(3 words per fixation). You are doubling and trebling your reading speed simply
by appreciating the true power and flexibility of your eyes.
But, can you brain process 2 words and 3
words together, and allow you to not only to understand what you reading, but
to remember it well for future recall? The answer is yes. The brain can process
many words as a group if your eyes ‘transmit’ them as a group. However, just
like you must train your eyes to transmit groups of words, you must also train
your brain to receive and process in the same manner (in group of words).
Wandering Eyes
So, if it is really that simple: just jump
less and transmit more, what is holding most people back from reading faster?
It is their wandering eyes. Chapter 2 ‘Amazing
Readers’ have more details, but we shall mention here what is relevant to
control the eye movements.
The
eyes, despite our best intentions, tend to wander about the lines and pages of
printed text, rather than do what we like them to do: jump quickly and neatly
from one word, or group of words, to the next along the printed lines in a
linear fashion. Linear reading is reading groups of words, in a forward eye
movement, one line at a time.
The most common, and undesired, movements
of the eyes that do not contribute to linear reading are regression. Regression
is the tendency of the eyes to drift back to previously read words to read them
again. This can be done consciously or subconsciously, and is mainly due to a
feeling that you missed something or did not understand it properly the first
time round. So, your eyes return to a previous fixation, re-read the word or
group of words, then try to find the point where they ‘left off’ and continue
to read from that point, or close to it.
If done on the same line, it may look like
this:
Guiding
Hands
High speed-reading pioneers discovered
early that the eyes need guidance to stop their wandering ways, especially
regression. The hands act as the best guides possible, as they are always with
you. You can also complement your hands with your favourite
pointer, such as a pen or pencil, stylus, weaving needle, or even chopsticks.
In early schooling, we were taught to slide
our index finger under the words when reading. The idea was to ensure they eyes
are guided along the line. By itself, this is not really a bad habit unless it
slows you down. To turn it into a good habit, we shall use this ‘old’ technique
to control the eyes movements along the printed line of text in a forward
movement, which is from left to right in the English language.
So, from this moment on, you shall use your
hand’s index (or middle) finger or a favourite
pointer to slide under the words of each line you are reading. This will ensure
that the eyes will:
Advocates of using a pointer, rather than
hand/finger, as a guide, point to the fact (bum intended) that the hand and
finger tend to hide some of the text much more than, say, a pencil would. We
recommend that you practice with both, and decide which one is more comfortable
and natural for you. They both achieve the same objective: guiding the eyes.
Obviously, as the eyes will need to stay on
the line, the finger/pointer will be sliding under the line, in the empty space
between the current line and the next one. The finger/pointer can be touching
the paper or ‘hovering’ slightly above it, if you wish to avoid the friction
sound of the moving finger/pointer.
Now,
it is time for your exercise.
The
Underline/Submarine Forward (F) Technique
In order to visualise
this technique, you can think of the finger/pointer underlining the words as
you read them, hence call it the Underline
Forward (F) technique, or as a submarine stealthily diving under the
ships (words!) so as to ‘read’ their intentions, hence call it the Submarine Forward (F) technique.
If you prefer classical reading, you would probably go with Underline and if
you prefer action/adventure reading you may go with Submarine. Whichever name
you use, make sure you ALWAYS move your finger/pointer under the words as you
read them.
The Forward technique is the standard
reading technique of most people, with our without a reading guide. You read
each line sequentially in a forward eye movement with a fixation on each word
or group of words. This is also called Linear Reading. At the end of each line,
the eyes will ‘jump’ back to the beginning of the next line and continue
reading.
The
Forward Technique Exercise
This exercise will ask you to use your hand
index/middle finger or your favourite pointer to
practice gliding under the lines and guiding your eyes in a linear reading
fashion. The emphasis is not reading speed, but the mechanics of the
finger/pointer movements. You should repeat the exercise until you are
comfortable with using your ‘new’ guides.
PS. Every exercise adheres to our Framework
covered in detail in Chapter 5 Exercise
Framework. It is strongly recommended that you cover that chapter first before
attempting exercises to gain maximum benefit.
1.
Expectation
The
objectives of the exercise are to:
·
Learn
to use your hand index/middle finger or a pointer as a guide to your eyes
·
Increase
your speed gradually in each repetition (cycle) of the exercise
You should focus on comprehension and
recall in the first cycle (rather than reading or guide speed), then on guide
speed in the next 3 cycles.
2.
Preparation
·
Reading
Material:
o
Type:
Any book, non-fiction
o
Level:
Easy
o
Content: New chapter
o
Length: 6 pages
·
Accessories
o
Markers: None
o
MF: Memory Friend diagram
(Mirror/Martian/Centipede)
o
WI/WP Writing Instrument or Word Processor
o
Timer: Watch, Stopwatch
·
Timer
Device Settings:
o
Length: None
o
Intervals: None
·
Reading
Guides Hand/Index Finger or your favourite Guide pointer
·
Pre-Reading No pre-reading marker guides
required.
3.
Orientation
The
exercise context is using your hand finger or a pointer (reading guides) to
guide your eyes along printed text, in a liner forward movement. This guidance
will help avoid regression (re-reading of text) and gradually increase your
reading guide speed as you feel more comfortable with the technique. You will read
faster than your ‘comfort zone’ in succeeding cycles (repetitions), which may
cause you to lose comprehension and recall. This relative loss is expected, and
should not hinder your early attempts to use your reading guides.
The reading
technique used is the underline/submarine Forward (F), reading one line
at a time in a forward eye movement.
1) Open your exercise
book to a new chapter
2) Optional: Mark your starting point with the number
‘0’ (zero)
3) Start your timer
device: record your watch starting time or press your stopwatch to start
4) Start reading using
your reading guide (finger, pointer) under each line, including headings,
numbered lists, diagrams, etc.
5) Upon completing the
6 pages stop your reading and mark that point with the number ‘1’. This
completes your first reading cycle.
6) Record the elapsed
time on your stop/watch.
7) Optional: Write on your Memory Friend diagram
(Mirror/Martian/Centipede) the main theme/topic (in the circle) and keywords
(on the lines), starting on the right middle line and going clockwise. Try to
include 1 keyword for each page read.
8) Repeat steps 3, 4,
5 and 6 (start timer, read, stop after 6 pages, record time) one more time,
completing your second reading cycle, but with faster finger/pointer moving
speed. You should aim to reach mark ‘1’ before your first attempt time is up,
by at least 20 seconds. Focus on speed, not comprehension or recall.
9) Repeat steps 3, 4,
5 and 6 (start timer, read, stop after 6 pages, record time) TWO more times,
completing your third and fourth reading cycles, but with a faster
finger/pointer speed in each cycle. You should aim to reach your mark ‘1’
faster in each cycle by at least 20 seconds off the previous cycle. So, your 4th
cycle will eventually ‘chop’ 1 minute off your 1st cycle reading
time.
|
Exercise
X |
Cycle
|
Material |
Time |
Technique |
Post
Read |
|
|
(1) (2) (3) (4) |
6
Pages 6
Pages 6
Pages 6
Pages |
X m X-20
sec X-40
sec X-60
sec |
F1L F1L F1L F1L |
C+R |
4.
Execution
The technique for
the whole exercise is the Forward, where each line is read in a forward
horizontal eye movement, gradually increasing reading guide speed, ‘coercing’
the eyes into fewer fixations, wider horizontal span and elimination of
regression. The reading guide (finger/pointer) can move touching the page or
hovering slightly above it. The finger/pointer movement must be smooth with no
jerks or stop/starts.
The eyes focus is
on the words at the tip of the finger/pointer moving in the space line below
the printed text line. The exercise requires faster reading guide speeds (hence
corresponding faster eye movements) in each subsequent cycle for a fixed number
of pages. Since you are using the same forward line technique for each cycle,
the only way to read faster is to read each line faster, so in each subsequent
cycle:
o
Decrease
the number of fixations per line.
o
Increase
your line horizontal vision (grasping more words per fixation)
The emphasis of the
exercise is reading guide speed with (optionally) some comprehension and recall
in the first cycle. So, use the first cycle to grasp as much as possible of the
main concepts or themes presented (comprehension), and pay particular attention
to chapter heading, section headings, numbered/bulleted lists and any bold, italicised or underlined
text.
Use the standard
page turning movement and book holding position. You may need your speed page
turning movement if you’re reading in any cycle with a speed exceeding 2 pages
per minute (estimated 700 WPM).
5.
Reflection
At the end of the 4th reading
cycle, you could, optionally,
contemplate the following:
o
What
was the main theme/topic of the material?
o
Were
there any new concepts or ideas presented?
o
Who
were the main characters, if any
o
What
were the main events, if any?
·
Recall
o
Review
your Memory Friend and update as needed
o
Add
any specific highlighted (italicised, bold,
underlined, etc.) words or phrases
o
Try
to recall the sequence of section headings or main points, and write the
sequence numbers on your MF diagram
6.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
All KPIs are OPTIONAL for this exercise,
but should you wish to measure them then try the following:
·
Optional Reading
Speed
Use the Page
Average calculation method to calculate the speed of Cycle 4 in WPM.
·
Optional
Comprehension Rate
Review the reading
material again, and estimate roughly your % perception and understanding. No
exact figure is needed for this exercise. However, you should, at least, know
the main topic and the general context of each section/sub-heading.
·
Optional Recall
Rate
Review the reading
material again and estimate the % of list of facts or important points/ideas
presented. No exact figure is needed for
this exercise, however, you should recall at least:
30% of the points,
items and/or ideas presented
30% of italicised, bold or underlined words and phrases
7.
Conclusion
The exercise aimed to allow you practicing
using your finger/pointer as a reading guide to your eyes and encouraged you to
read faster using the same Forward (F) technique for a fixed number of
pages. You have observed that to achieve a faster speed in each subsequent
cycle, you needed to read each line faster, by executing fewer eye fixations,
increasing the horizontal span (number of words) of each fixation and avoiding
re-reading any text.
Using your finger/pointer helped to guide
your eyes along the lines, but you also needed to move your finger/pointer
faster in each cycle. You used your first cycle to get most of the
comprehension and recall, since it was the slowest reading speed cycle. The
subsequent cycles helped to get you accustomed to a faster reading guide and
eye movement.
Workout 1
After completing this chapter,
you should practice Chapter 15 Workout 1 exercises, until you feel comfortable with the technique. This may
take 3-4 days; so dedicate 20-30 minutes each day for practice. Remember, Speed
Reading is all about PRACTICE. You have been reading slowly for years;
‘miracles’ won’t happen in few days.
When you feel you have achieved
mastery of the techniques, proceed to Chapter 8
Reading Backwards Naturally.
