How not to subvocalize?

weaksauce

Regular
This is just so dumb I can't believe it. Why do I have to ask how not to do something?

Well I'm still gonna do it. Can you look at text without automatically subvocalizing the words? EXACTLY how did you get there?
 
Are you talking about moving your lips while reading or "internal speech"?
 
Do you actually say the words or just hear them? I do "hear" the words spoken as I read, but only in my mind.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm an insanely fast reader)
 
Yeah, I don't do the "Evelyn Wood" method of speed skimming...I just read really fast.

I used to read a ton as a kid. From age 10 or so and up to about 25 I was a total bookworm. It wasn't unusual for me to read like 14-21 books a week sometimes.
 
Do you actually say the words or just hear them? I do "hear" the words spoken as I read, but only in my mind.

(DISCLAIMER: I'm an insanely fast reader)

Hm, well in that case, I think I've got my focus on the wrong thing here... :smile:

By the way, can you read with Ed Strachar's "dolphin method"? You draw your look in an "S" pattern, and thus read in both directions. I find the subocalization to be an obstacle then, but I suppose you can come to ignore it and not stumble over the words.
 
Never tried that, I prefer to read the words in the order the author wrote 'em...I figure they put 'em that way for a reason. ;)
 
Never tried that, I prefer to read the words in the order the author wrote 'em...I figure they put 'em that way for a reason. ;)

Well here's the thing I've begun to understand, that a writer does not write words, he writes ideas and points of which words are the building blocks, which do not, by themselves, convey any message.
I mean it's like trying to see a wall, brick by brick. It's easier to see the wall if you widen the focus a bit.
 
That is true, but you will lose the beautiful detail of the hand laid brickwork and masonry.

In this sense, I read in different ways depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. Pleasure reading of fiction usually involves me 'hearing' every word in my head, in order; sometimes in different voices.

Reading for business is usually skimming over the jumble of words to pick out the important bits I need.

ttfn.
 
I think deaf people still subvocalize. They associate the movement of their hand with the friction they learned when reading.

So if they sweep their entire palm over a text, somewhere in their brain they are interpreting it like it was successive lines of their finger tracing. So there is a natural order.

I'd be curious to know how fast a pure mute can read though and the variance in it, thats an interesting question.

AFAIK there is controversy about subvocalization. Many researchers disagree with the speed reading guys. Outright vocalization (lips moving) is a bad thing, but having it in the back of your head is almost impossible to get rid off, nor is it clear you want to minimize it to such an extent.
 
I think deaf people still subvocalize. They associate the movement of their hand with the friction they learned when reading.

So if they sweep their entire palm over a text, somewhere in their brain they are interpreting it like it was successive lines of their finger tracing. So there is a natural order.

why would they do that theyre not blind you know :D
 
Well here's the thing I've begun to understand, that a writer does not write words, he writes ideas and points of which words are the building blocks, which do not, by themselves, convey any message.
I mean it's like trying to see a wall, brick by brick. It's easier to see the wall if you widen the focus a bit.

Sometimes the brickwork is exquisite:

Shakespeare said:
What a piece of work is man!
how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!
in form and moving how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world - the paragon of animals!

Cheers
 
You will usually subvocalize automatically, as the text you read tends to activate your phonological loop (a brain system responsible for auditory processing of the language). Still, it does not matter. Just don't pay any atention. You can read much faster then the vokalization speed, the trick is just to do it :) It is similar to avoding internal monologue (thinking without words). Once you don't pay attention, it does not matter.

To make things clear, subvokalisation is not required for reading!
 
Speaking of Shakespear, I HAVE to subvocalize (or even vocalize) anything I read from him (or any of the more modern stuff written in vernacular, like Huck Finn).

Otherwise the words written just don't form coherent thoughts to me
 
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