"Orientation Session" [img]2012q1/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_1393_20121[/img] [br] Why

Narrator: Listen to part of a discussion in an orientation class.
Professor:
For the most part, college students don’t read fast enough to keep up with the demands of their reading  Q29
assignments. Let’s just say that the typical college student reads 150 to 300 words per minute. Okay.
The professor in the Western Civilization course uses the topics from Chapter 1 of the textbook for three
lectures the first week of the semester. Each page has about 500 words on it, and that incrudes space
for pictures and drawings. So, at 150 words per minute... let me see... each page will take more than
three minutes to complete, and... if my figures are right... that’s almost three hours just to read the
textbook assignment once through. That doesn’t even count what you need to do to think and connect
the lectures with the book, and you can be sure that there will be additional reading or other
assignments besides the lectures and the textbook  Have you heard about the times two rule?
Student 1:
Isn’t that... doesn’t that mean a student should spend two hours of study time for every hour of class
time in every subject?
Professor:
Exactly. Okay. I think you’ll agree that reading faster is important to success in college. So it’s only
practical to learn to read faster. And, uh, that’s why I’m going to talk with you about the human capacity
for reading... and some habits that you may have that could be slowing you down. First, I want you to  Q31
think about reading like you think about running. The more you run, the faster and farther you can go...
and the more you read, the faster you’re going to read. In fact, researchers hypothesize that our
physical capacity to read surpasses our ability to turn the pages. In other words, our brains can take in the
information faster than our hands can move. So reading 700 to 1000 words a minute should be a
reasonable goal for almost everyone. That would be quite a time saver, wouldn’t it? Student 1:Yeah. It sure would.
Professor:
Now, let’s talk about why most of us probably aren’t reading at that speed... at 1000 words a minute...
why we’re not doing that now. We know that we have the capacity—that our brains can take it in. But
there are a few habits that prevent readers from reaching that target speed of 700 to 1000 words. In the  Q33
first place, some people are auditory readers. That means that they hear every word in their minds.
Some people even move their lips so they seem to be speaking while they’re reading. This is a serious
problem because we can only speak about 300 words per minute, but, uh, our capacity to read... it’s
many times faster. So if you’re hearing the words in your head or moving your lips, you know that you’re
preventing your mind from processing as fast as it can. Can any of you relate to that?
Student 2:I can. I hear every word.
Professor:
A lot of people do. Now, another problem is something called fixations. Fixations are the actual pauses  Q33
that the eye makes. We can’t see while the eye is moving so we have to stop to take in the text.  
Everyone has to fixate to see the print, but, uh, some people... they stop their eyes on every single word and
that will really slow you down. So if you’re looking at every word or even at every few words, that habit
is something to work on. When you’re not reading word by word, your mind has to connect and, uh,
build associations and... and patterns. You can do this because so much of a written text is
redundant—that means that there’s a lot of repetition, so quite a few words can be skipped without losing the
meaning.
Student 3:So you’re saying we should try to guess the meaning?
Professor:
I think I would use the term predict rather than guess, but basically the answer to your question is "yes."
Now this may surprise you. Using a dictionary is a good habit. Right? Well, yes, in moderation. But
stopping to look up every new word is a bad habit because you don’t need to know every word in order to
understand what you’re reading. Remember what I just said about redundancy. So, uh, stopping to use
the dictionary too often... that interrupts your train of thought and, uh, prevents you from reaching your
potential reading speed.
Student 3:I’ve heard that before and it makes sense but...
Professor:But you’re afraid to try it?
Student 3:That’s probably true.
Professor:
Well, I’ll come back to that in a minute. First I want to point out one more problem. A lot of readers go  Q32
back over the words they’ve already read to clarify the meaning. But this is probably the worst habit
because, uh, when we’re repeating twice or even more times, that causes our reading speed to drop
and it goes to 50 or even 30 percent of our capacity. Did I mention that this is called regression? Okay,
well this regression not only slows us down, it also makes it more difficult to understand the meaning
because, uh, the way that we comprehend... we understand by connecting with the next phrase, so
going back all the time makes us lose the connections.
    And this is what’s really important in all of this—research demonstrates a correlation between speed  Q30
and comprehension. In an overwhelming number of cases, when students increase their reading speed,
they also increase their comprehension of the material. So how can you do this? First break the habits
that are causing you to read slowly. Don’t think the words in your head or move your lips to sound out each word. Don’t let your eyes pause on every word. Don’t look up every new word in the dictionary.
And try not to go back over paragraphs and, uh, sentences that you’ve already read. But, that’s hard to
do if you have these habits, isn’t it? Especially if you’re also trying to read in order to learn a new
subject. That’s why you’re afraid to try it... because, uh, you have to learn the content in order to pass the
course and... you don’t want to try something new... to take a risk.
Student 3:Yeah. That’s about the size of it.
Professor:
Well, I understand that. But you can take a risk and try to change some of those habits, but it helps if you  Q34
do it in a structured environment like the Learning Center. It’s free and you’ll more than make up for the
time you spend in one of the reading courses they offer when you begin to read all of your assignments
at twice the speed you’re reading them now.