Lesson 5 of Acceleread is only 7 minutes, and includes a mix of the five exercise tools described previously. The speed is increasing bit by bit every day and within each exercise. Hopscotch is included two times, the first time with the little graphic icons, the second time with words from a book. The words leap back and forth just like the graphic icons. At just 230 WPM, it's very hard to keep up! The purpose is to cause the eyes to focus rapidly on words and entrain the brain to comprehend their meaning within the fraction of a second available before jumping across the screen to the next word. I admit I did not follow the story very well; just seeing the words so quickly was a challenge. A good challenge, I am sure!
While my greatest weakness still seems to be increasing the range of my perihperal vision, today's Diamond Highlighter exercise was easier today than yesterday; I could nearly read both the farthest words in the widest chunks -- reading them plus all the middle will be the challenge!
Word Flash isn't going faster than 502 WPM, which I could easily keep up with comprehension-wise -- if I allowed myself to run my eye across the 5-6-word lines. But I try to do as the exercise instructs: gaze softly at the center and focus the far words in peripheral vision exclusively. Comprehension suffers for technique for now.
READING "GETTING STARTED WITH ACCELEREAD"
As I mentioned in the last post, this is an excellent handbook within the app Acceleread that explains in detail the app's function and speed reading in general. Notable quote: "Speed reading is not sorcery; it's a skill." I am highly encouraged by its language, for it really seems like the silver bullet training tool.
I'm reading it at various speeds between 700 and 800 wpm with five columns and 5-word chunks in Columns Highlighter with complete comprehension. I still feel like I'm subvocalizing -- I can hear the voice reciting in my head still. But isn't this much faster than a person can talk? If my brain has adapted by time-compressing the same subvocalized phrases -- or, to be specific and not to confuse it, internally vocalized phrases -- that is an interesting consequence.
Some notes from the handbook:
3 Components to Effective Reading:
- Speed
- Comprehension
- Recall
Focus on one aspect at a time, and build skill accordingly. Speed itself is largely a "mechanical" skill physical to the eye. To improve speed, Acceleread will help the reader reduce subvocalization, shorten fixation time, expand vision span, and reduce regression.
Comprehension is the primary goal of reading, not mere speed. While initially trading off comprehension for technique in speed, trust that comprehension will come. Eventually both will be optimitized through sheer practice.
Recall is ultimately the most important of all. Having a specific intension on what the goal of the reading is can be very helpful to prepare the brain for absorbing and retaining what is sought after.
On bad habits:
Regression is not always bad and sometimes deliberate by the reader, but usually automatic because concentration was initially poor, and getting out of the habit keeps it from controlling the reader. Complex ideas sometimes require it.
Subvocalization, like regression, is not necessarily bad. It is intrinsically slow, which is the problem; it shifts processing power in the brain to the auditory system. But it can be used as a skill deliberately, like regression. Otherwise it can be trained away to aid rapid reading.
For fixations, reduce time hesitating on a chunk, and increase chunk size to reduce number of fixations per line.
Other topics:
Pushing limits is necessary to move beyond one's comfort zone, just like building physical strength. In the app Training Center, set the speed at 2 to 3 times your current reading speed. Further commentary continues with how to train with Accelread, the benefits of taking breaks, and flexible reading (different speeds for different matieral). One needs an ideal mindset in order to concentrate. I can vouch for that. Attempting to speed read in environments where I am distracted by others is extremely irritating, much more than normal reading, like when forced to slow down in sudden traffic after driving at cruise (driving a manual in rush hour comes to mind).
The transition to reading on paper will be interesting -- evidently one reads on average 25% slower on a screen. The passage further recommends the use of a hand to help guide the reading in the way that the app does for you. It also exhorts the reader to become an "active reader," thinking ahead about what you want to get from any particular passage before you read it. Thus, rather than default to slow mode, the active reader chooses his speed and flexibly adapts to conditions as they change, all the while keeping in mind what he wants to get from the text.
THE THREE MUSKETEERS ON ACCELEREAD
To practice with Acceleread, I am going to take on the adventures of The Three Musketeers by Dumas, which comes with the app. It's 700 pages printed. I'll be using Columns Highlighter primarily, starting with 5 columns, 5 words each, 700 WPM.
As mentioned above, I find myself fully "hearing" the sound in my head despite the fact that the WPM rate is well beyond my ability to verbalize. I still see the images and get the jokes quite well, pausing occasionally only to laugh, or to hesitate on a French name.
Something I've noted in particular with this sort of extended practice is a different sense of time. If I've read at a 3x faster than old-normal accelerated rate for an hour, it feels more like three hours have gone by. The full experience in all its necessary recall exists in memory, but it's as if I've lived more time in the enjoyment of the story than was actually available. You'll have to try it to know what I mean. This would seem to make sense, as accomplishing an amount of information absorption that was previously only possible in a much longer period gives the illusion of more time having gone by.
This keeps getting more fun every day!
Tous pour un, et un pour tous!
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