Subvocalization is a Necessary Part of Reading

The reason subvocalization, or silent reading, is not being advised by teachers is that professional academics believe it is unnecessary.

The three areas of the brain involved in such activity (excluding our eyes) are the Auditory Association Area (AAA) that handles complex processing of sound, Vernicke’s Area (VA) that gives us comprehension of written and spoken language, and Brok’s Area (BA) that creates speech production and articulation.

In simpler terms, without subvocalization, (or auditory reinforcement), there is no reading, nor understanding of the spoken word. Subvocalization is a necessity but not for every word, just the ones not within our vocabulary.

Speed Reading and Subvocalization: Good or Bad?

Subvocalization is the tendency to pronounce words as they are read. Activating parts of the brain related to pronouncing limits the reading speed to 250 wpm only. This common flaw is what limits performance of average readers.

On the other hand, subvocalization is not always such a bad thing. Although it helps slow things down, it has a number of benefits rather than disadvantages. At the same time that verbalization reduces your reading speed; it might be helping in retaining information in the mind, simply because it repeats the ideas as they are formed in your mind.

Also, slowing down to subvocalize may help one to find meaning, or, depending upon the source, subvocalization may only provide meaningless distraction. Sometimes it may be wise to choose to comprehend without listening. Sometimes, without listening, we may not comprehend.

The trouble with this is, you tend to lose a certain amount of processing on the info. If you speak this way, it may result in the phenomenon of "opening your mouth without thinking".

Eliminating Subvocalization to Increase Reading Speed

Although subvocalization may be advantageous in certain ways, it limits your reading to the speed of normal speech to about 200-300 wpm only – not to be considered a “good” reading rate.
So how can we get rid of the “inner voice” that reduces our reading speed? Here are a number of ways to speed-read by eliminating subvocalization:

• Increased the rate at which the eyes move across the page to the point where it would be impossible to subvocalize. 
• See -> Understand seems much more efficient than See -> Say -> Understand.
• Adjust the focus of the eyes (or attention). As a practice, look at any nearby image and zoom in on a particular aspect, say for example a button on a shirt. Adjust then the focus of your eyes so you can see the entire shirt.

These are the primary processes in which you can use to increase your reading speed by increasing the number of words you take in at each eye stop.

Next Page Do You Vocalize Words in your Mind as you Read?