Do you vocalize words in your mind as you read?

[Del]

If not, how did you learn not to vocalize words in your mind as you read?

[simon]

I choose whether or not to vocalize in my head, if I really am paying attention than I read it out loud in my head.

[amuse]

yeah, i hear stories as i read. but they're all in my own voice, like a narrator. only twice have i heard a voice other than my own come through - that was a big wake-up call to the power of the piece.

[IWilKikU]

Tony Buzan writes about subvocalization in The Speed Reading Book. He says that when you're learning to read, people try to tell you to cut out subvocalization to improve your reading speeds, but that's wrong. Subvocalization actually improves your reading speed as most people can speak faster than they can read. When you speed read you only subvocalize the necesary words and take the rest as given.

So the short answer to your short question would be "yes, I subvocalize."

[amuse]

i guess i don't understand what reading/writing sounds like without it? anyone?

[den]

I agree ;) I don't know what on earth reading is like without doing this? I too `hear' myself reading as I go along ...



Originally posted by amuse
i guess i don't understand what reading/writing sounds like without it? anyone?

[GapingStarling]

I think I pretty much always hear the words I'm reading - in my own voice unless I'm reading something I've already heard read aloud by someone else.

But, if I'm reading something I've read very often, so that I know what it says already, then I think I just see the words and know what they say, instead of hearing them...

[Kiwi Shelf]

Well, I appear to be nuts because when I read, my mind makes up voices to suit the characters and I do the narrating....

[Lara]

Yes. lol And sometimes I feel my tongue moving in my mouth as I am reading. I suppose it is feeling the words, savouring them, enjoying every morsel.

[amuse]

btw Del, is your name short for anything?

[Lolita]

I suppose I do. I'd not thought about it before.

[ajoe]

How do you not vocalize??
Unless you want to skim something real quick, and that's not really reading.

[emily655321]

If I'm reading a narrative, I guess I hear my own voice, but somewhere way at the back of my head. But when characters are talking, they always have different voices. I don't know how not to do that, either.

It would be funny to actually meet the people on this forum, because reading the posts, you all have very distinct voices to me, which are constant over time, but get more defined as I get to know someone better. It's hard for me to hear accents in my head, though, or men's voices very clearly. Even people I know, trying to imagine their voice I can only hear the higher part of a man's voice, if you know what I mean.

[Del]

Originally posted by amuse
btw Del, is your name short for anything?

Nope.

[ajoe]

^ Why, what were you thinking, amuse?

[amuse]

i had a friend in college named delorie. always wondered what became of her. lost her address around 10 years ago, after i moved to philly. she's not on classmates.com...she was going to be an elementary school teacher. we met in the dorms, used to hang out, ride bikes, cook; she even read out loud to me - the david eddings books. all :) those things people at the #1 party school in america do for fun.
hey, ajoe. thanks for asking. that was sweet.

[piquant]

The #1 party school--what is it? Do you have to excel at beer pong to get in?;) ...that makes me wonder...do/did you guys have beer pong tournaments at your colleges, or is that only a NE US thing?...And about reading in my head, I'm with the people who do character voices.

[simon]

there is beer pong everywhere

[Zooey]

Interesting question, as for me it always seems that as soon as I'm conscious of it, the natural reading voice in my head dissapears.

From what I can gather, I don't actually read in different voices for the different characters, but I take on different inflections that I think that a certain character would use.

[verybaddmom]

ooohhh, david eddings amuse? i am reading "pawn of prophecy" aloud to my son now!! very cool.

[amuse]

oh no! i never answered piquant. and yes, vbm. we got through about 3 books i think! :) if she's still teaching, are her kids ever lucky!

it was chico state univ. in northern california. they used to bring in sand from the sacramento river, put it in the dorms, and play volleyball. until i got there. in the spring of '87, "Pioneer Days" - little festival supposedly named for people like John Bidwell (think Gold Rush and John Sutter) - got out of hand (it's a town of 25,000 in the middle of nowhere, and students double that number in the fall), there were riots, and the festivities were permanently cancelled. mtv covered it, of course. we incoming students knew it only as university lore...

really must work on the voices thread! :p

[Del]

Tony Buzan writes about subvocalization in The Speed Reading Book. He says that when you're learning to read, people try to tell you to cut out subvocalization to improve your reading speeds, but that's wrong. Subvocalization actually improves your reading speed as most people can speak faster than they can read. When you speed read you only subvocalize the necesary words and take the rest as given.

So the short answer to your short question would be "yes, I subvocalize."

Yea, I've read a lot of material suggesting not to subvocalize and to use your hand (or fingers) as a guide over the text. These really haven't been effective as I can't remember anything if I don't subvocalize.

What does Tony Buzan suggest to read faster? I really want to be able to read faster.

[EAP]

I do it sometimes. Spcially If I am reading through a particularly funny or thought provoking passage because to hear it helps in getting and enjoying the joke as well as pondering on things. But I do it very rarely, I can read much faster then speak, English not being my first language.

[Jay]

Yes, I subvocalize everything I read, especially if it's in a foreign language. To tell the truth, now I read faster English texts than the Czech ones :D. I don't know how to not subvocalize and actually don't even want to know, reading without hearing the words would feel kind of... plain to me.

Oh and welcome back, Zooey :D:banana:, it's been a VERY long time.

[imthefoolonthehill]

... i'm not going to read all that.

i read everything silently (in my head) untill I hit something i didn't quite get... then i vocalize it in my mind.

[Edzabeen]

For me it takes quite a lot of concentration not to vocalize while reading, sometimes it seems almost impossible. Another way as mentioned before is reading very fast but then you can't concentrate on the text and afterall don't remember anything about the text.

[tommytucker]

i dont think i do vocalize different characters. they sound all the same to me, including the narrative. i guess that makes me a boring fellow but nevermind. then again, maybe i do it more than all of you. i just dont know any other way of reading so i have no way to gauge it. unless you consider, when younger, adults reading aloud to you and making giants sound different from cute little bunnies and such like. havent read that sort of book for a while. but i expect they would all sound the same, however hard i try.
another way of looking at it is to consider any stories you yourself have written. do the characters sound different. if i want to emphasise a word i use italics. otherwise, it is mostly spoken with monotone. capitals indicate a bit of anger. if i cant use italics or caps to indicate how i want a certain word to be read then i say how in the following (or sometimes preceding) narrative.
for example: "I have a funny feeling about this," said Carl with 3 parts giggle and 1 part doom.
emily, i hail (hmm? spelling. or hale. not sure. probably should have used a different word. i see i still have time to change it but...) from somerset in south west england. try to picture me with a slooooooow accent if you please. not that i have a somerset accent at all. though i would like one. currently living in newcastle so, im hoping to pick up some geordie dialect eventually. "why-aye man, thats champion" and all that jazz. let me know how you get on, ems.
tommy.

[Ingenieur]

Very interesting thread, this is something I've never really thought about. Try as I might, I couldn't get myself to not vocalize words as I read them. Usually I hear my own voice while reading. This is obviously the case when I read through e-mails, work-related documents and posts on this forum. However, when reading some fiction I find myself using different voices for each character.

[Raven]

I always vocalise words in my head, and I also picture places and people from the descriptions

[Koa]

I never payed attention to this thread cos I thought I don't vocalise... But it came to my mind just a few days ago while I was reading in French cos I realised I really had the tendancy to vocalise... And thinking about it maybe I do it a bit in English too, at least in some moments (maybe when the text is harder...) though I still don't think I do it in Italian... It must depend on the 'foreigness' ;)

[baddad]

I am at a complete loss here!!!!.....How does one read WITHOUT hearing the words as they are processed through the mind? Is this phenomenon even possible????.........Oh sure, maybe the sane perform this feat easily......

[Lizzie]

I never conceived as possible to read otherwise! I mean, without vocalizing the words in our mind while we're reading! Any of you can really do it!? How do you do it? Can you explain it to me? Because i'm curious.
Thanks, Liz

[Tabac]

Tony Buzan writes about subvocalization in The Speed Reading Book. He says that when you're learning to read, people try to tell you to cut out subvocalization to improve your reading speeds, but that's wrong. Subvocalization actually improves your reading speed as most people can speak faster than they can read. When you speed read you only subvocalize the necesary words and take the rest as given.

So the short answer to your short question would be "yes, I subvocalize."

One study a number of years ago showed that people who subvocalized over an extended period of time while reading (several hours) actually developed sore throats. Interesting.

[Taliesin]

Yes, I subvocalise. When I don't, then I can read much quicker, but I don't remember a thing. Well, maybe I remember something, like the main plot, but the details are lost to me.

You know, there is a way how to read very quick, like a page in 10 seconds, but i guess that some things are lost then. I think it is basically a way how to read without subvocalizing, and reading a page diagonally.


I think that subvocalizing has something to do with hearing memory.





Oh, and as a bit of offtopic, sometimes, when the books I read are mainly english, I start thinking in english too. Creepy.

[Lizzie]

At college i always had "tons" of books to read and stuff to memorize so, when i run out of time i would read diagonally, just to grasp the main ideas contained on the pages that i didn't had time to read before. But even then i would subvocalize; otherwise, i would´t understand or remember what i was reading. I always hear my voice in my head when i'm reading or writing... I'm always thinking!

Liz

[Tabac]

I never conceived as possible to read otherwise! I mean, without vocalizing the words in our mind while we're reading! Any of you can really do it!? How do you do it? Can you explain it to me? Because i'm curious.
Thanks, Liz

Deaf-mutes do it all the time!

[Del]

Deaf-mutes do it all the time!

How can a non-deaf person learn how to do it though? =/

[Lizzie]

Tabac, unless you are a deaf-mute person yourself, you can´t be completely sure of that, can you? Because when we think we normally hear our inner voice in our heads. I hear my voice; perhaps a deaf-mute person also hears an inner voice when thinking even though he/her can´t speak or hear, it would be his/her own voice only verbalized in their thoughts. The human brain and the way he works are still, in so many aspects, a mistery.

Liz

[Tabac]

Tabac, unless you are a deaf-mute person yourself, you can´t be completely sure of that, can you? Because when we think we normally hear our inner voice in our heads. I hear my voice; perhaps a deaf-mute person also hears an inner voice when thinking even though he/her can´t speak or hear, it would be his/her own voice only verbalized in their thoughts. The human brain and the way he works are still, in so many aspects, a mistery.

Liz

I guess it's similar to the tree falling in the forest with nobody there: does it make a noise when it hits the ground?

[Lizzie]

Tabac, I guess it is... We can't ever be sure of anything; we aren´t inside their heads, we aren't there to hear the tree falling... which doesn't mean then when it actually does fall it doesn't make any noise! Because, even though we don´t hear the tree falling, it still makes a noise when it hits the ground...
I hope i understood correctely what you ment with the comparison you made, if i didn´t, please explain what you meant with it. Thank you.


Best compliments,

Liz

[simon]

I see no reason why a deaf-mute person would not have a "voice" that verbalizes their private thoughts, makes them clear in words, they of course can understand their own thoughts and words so why should they not be expressed in this manner. Of course they may not think of these words as vocalized though, but a easy way of finding out is to ask one. Afterall communication is not totally cut off.

[Lizzie]

I agree with Simon; why not!
Deaf-mute persons are the only ones who really know, we can only speculate.


Liz

[Northern Wind]

I guess it's similar to the tree falling in the forest with nobody there: does it make a noise when it hits the ground?

Yes, because there is always some squirrel or other small animals near it.. There is always someone in the forest. "Small Gods", right?

To the Subject - Yes, I vocalize the words in my head, but I try not to do it that often, but the words that are really important only..
How to do it? There are two ways - one) - concentrating on one word and repeating it to yourself while reading, and two) - you can vocalize only one word at one time so you can read two or more.. what I mean?
More-words (concentrate at the middle of it, you cant vocalize it!)

I hope you have understood what I meant to say (I didn't at all :P ). And sorry for my poor English, I'm not yet very good at it. But that'll change too.