LITERAL READING

Atri Dewi Aziz, M.Hum

Comprehension Skill

Increasing
Reading Speed
 Reading Speed
Increasing reading speed makes you both
effective and efficient

Effective: You comprehend what you read and

learn well

Efficient: You comprehend and learn at a faster rate

Goal: To become effective AND efficient

Strategy 1: Be Flexible
Adjust reading speed according to
1. Your purpose for reading
Ex: recreational: narration, essay informative: fiction,
non-fiction persuasive, scientific, historical
2. The difficulty of the passage
3. Organization of the passage
4. Your prior experience of the subject
 Strategy 1: Choose Your Approach
• Scanning Very rapid: run eyes down page
for specific details
To get the basic idea of the
selection
• Skimming Entertaining or easy- to-read
material
• 350 - 500 words per
minute Important Novels, textbooks,
• Average reading rate to science and history books,
slower biographies, and difficult to
understand material
Strategy 3: Set Goals for Speed
Find the number of words
Choose a short passage
Add up the number of words in 5 lines
Divide by 5 to get the average
Add up the number of lines and multiply by the average
Time yourself (3 minutes? 4? 5?)
Begin to read. Stop when time is up
Divide number of words by minutes
Strategy 4: Check Reading Rate
Rate per minute Status
120 wpm or below poor, slow
121 to 180 wpm below average
181 to 240 wpm average
240 to 350 wpm college level if good retention
350 to 500 wpm above average
Over 500 wpm superior
Strategy 5: Practice Pacing
• Try to pace yourself to read faster each time
• Force your eyes to read faster
• Practice techniques of moving eyes across the page and
down for skimming and scanning
• Read more than one word at a time to widen your eye span;
read groups of words instead of one word at a time
• Try not to “subvocalize”
• Try not to re-read words or phrases. Just keep going
 Warning Note

Sometimes fast reading results in lowered

comprehension
Be aware that reading rate MUST be adjusted
according to how difficult material is for YOU.
You may adjust pace as you are reading, reading
fast when you need to skim and scan and slowing
down when you need to stop and think or take
notes.
Strategy 6: Adjusting the Light
Make sure the lighting is correct for YOU
Some people need more light
Some need an almost dark room
(scotopic sensitivity)
Strategy 7: Using the hand to increase eye-movement and
reading rate (A)

Move the hand quickly across the

letters in a zig-zag motion.
Try to catch groups of words with
your eyes.
Do not read every word,
Strategy 7: Using the hand to increase eye-movement and
reading rate (B)

Run the finger down the

middle and try to catch key
words and phrases quickly.
Use a rapid curving
motion.
 Reading Groups of Words

• Read at least two words at a time.

• Try to increase the number of words you can grasp
(at least to three) as you practice.
• Use your hand to trace or grasp the words
Strategy 8: Increase Vocabulary
Use vocabulary strategies
Be aware of the role of prefixes, suffixes and roots
Look for word clues
(inside parentheses)
After or before a dash –
Definitions of a word after a comma
Ex: ADHD, an attention deficit disorder characterized by
hyperactivity ,
A synonym apprehensive (fearful)
A contrasting word (Instead of being confident, she was diffident .)
Strategy 9: Understand how sentence structure can slow
down reading rate

Long complex, compound, or compound-complex

sentences may be confusing.

Try to separate the ideas and to understand each

clause separately.
Strategy 10: Read and Re-read
Skim: Read through fast the first time
Each time you read a paragraph, try to understand the “point”
or the main idea of each paragraph.
After you are finished, try to understand the general idea.
Scan very quickly to grasp details
Re-read again more slowly to comprehend the more difficult
ideas.
Practice often to increase comprehension and speed