【托福培训-阅读】如何提高托福阅读速度？（四）

So, we are going to increase the number of words we see and we are going to group them according to context. One of the key things that we are also going to work on is RETURN EYE SWEEP. When you get to the end of the sentence or the end of the line on the written page, if your eye meanders back to the other side, you have a chance to pick up words. If you're picking up words and you're sight reading, that can be confusing. So you want to dramatically, quickly, forcefully, go from the end of one line to the beginning of the next one. Using a fingertip or pen as a pointer is a great way to quickly and directly to the next line.

　　The other thing that helps us increase our speed is CONFIGUATION. As you read faster and faster, you've got to learn to rely on your increased recognition of how words are configured, how they look, as you do it. In other words, "material" looks different than "response". "Recognition" looks different than "perceptual". The words have visual configurations. As you learn to read faster and faster you learn to pick up on the configurations and, as you do better and better, your skills at this improve with practice.

　　So, we are going to have no REGRESSIONS, no VOCALIZATIONS, and increased EYE SPAN. That's the way to true sight reading. How do we do this?

　　First, we avoid the problem areas. We avoid the limited eye-span by expanding the number of words that we take in. We get rid of regressions and we get rid of the return eye sweep problem by using a pointer. You can use a pen, a pencil, even your finger. That gives you a point of focus for your eyes. It helps you focus on the page, and you move faster because you can dictate how fast you are moving across the page. Your eye will follow your finger, or pen, or pencil.

　　Absolutely stay away from the vocalizations. You have got to be a sight reader. You have got to read fast enough so that you don't have time to hear the words. This way you are comprehending simply with your eyes.

　　You also need to keep in mind that you don't always read at the same speed. If you've got a car that will go 120 miles per hour, you're not going to drive that care 120 miles per hour in a shopping center. You'd get killed and get a heck of a ticket. But you may, on a highway when you are passing a car, get it up to a high speed. When you are in that shopping center, you are going to be driving about 30 miles per hour.

　　It's the same thing with reading. This is specifically addressed in our Better Reading section. But you must learn that you speed read in certain areas and there are other areas that may be particularly dense, that may have something that's particularly confusing to you, when you will need to slow down and read in shorter phrases, smaller groupings of words so that you can comprehend it clearly. It may be a particularly dense passage where each word has great deal of meaning. It may be even an unusual or specific word.

　　Let's look at what we've got to do to practice it. The big step here is to simply read faster. It sounds like such a simple statement, it almost sounds stupid. But it's what you have to do. You have to focus on "I'm going to read faster," first.

　　Comprehension comes later. Practice reading without a great concern for comprehension. In clinical terms, we call this the comprehension lag. It takes the mind as many as ten to fifteen days to adapt to the new reading rate.

　　You are going to go through periods, practice periods, you can't use on school books, but it's a practice period where you are simply adapting to reading that much faster. Comprehension lags for a while but when it catches up it makes a stunning difference.

　　A good place to practice this is magazines or newspapers. They have narrow columns that almost make a perfect thought unit. You can almost go straight down the column, taking that finger and puttting it in the middle of the column and moving it straight down the page. You will be stunned how soon you will be able to improve and comprehend what you are reading that way. You find that it's quick. It's easy reading.

　　WEEKLY PLAN TO IMPROVE READING SPEED

　　Read 2 chptrs ---------------------------- 3 Min -------------------------2 Min

　　no regressions -----------------------no vocalization ---------------Maximum Speed

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　　Following this plan you will move from being a say reader, to a hear reader to a sight reader.