Why is reading silently in your head faster than reading out loud?
When you are reading silently, you don’t have to spend as much time reading each word, as it might take if you were to read them out loud. That is why reading silently can be significantly faster than reading aloud.
In this post, we go through different speed levels of reading silently, as well as whether it is better to read out loud or silently in your head. Let’s get started!
Why is silent reading faster than reading out loud?
Silent reading is faster than reading out loud because you don’t have to spend time pronouncing each word when reading silently.
There are different speed levels of reading silently as well. Some people will still pronounce each word in their mind when reading, making their reading slightly slower.
If you can teach yourself to not pronounce the words in your head while you read, you can read a lot faster.
However, for some people, it can take more time to “register” the information they are reading. That might mean you have to pronounce each word in your head to understand the written text better.
In some cases, people might understand the text even better if they read it out loud. Even though it takes a longer time to read things out loud, it can greatly benefit the comprehension of the text.
Especially if the topic is new and something you should learn, instead of speedreading it through in your mind, reading the text out loud can help you understand and learn it more efficiently.
Here is a post about how reading out loud can help you to study.
In short, reading silently can be significantly faster because you don’t have to spend time pronouncing each word, compared to reading out loud. That can cause a slightly lower comprehension of the written text, depending on the reader and the topic of the text.
Loud reading vs silent reading
There are pros and cons for both reading silently and reading out loud. Let’s go through both of them:
Pros of reading silently
- Reading silently can be faster
- You can read in places where there are other people
Cons of reading silently
- It might be harder to understand the topic if you read too fast
- For some people, it can be difficult to stay on the right line without reading out loud
Pros of reading out loud
- Reading out loud can help you understand the text better
- It can prevent you from reading too fast, giving you enough time to read each word correctly
Pros of reading out loud
- Reading out loud can be significantly slower
- Reading out loud in crowded places can be difficult
Is it better to read silently or out loud?
Whether it is better to read silently or out loud depends on several factors. For starters, how difficult and complicated the topic is?
If the topic is easy to understand and not new, reading it silently faster can be a better option.
On the other hand, if the topic is complicated and new for you, reading it out loud with time can help you better understand and learn the topic.
Is it faster to read or speak?
It can be a lot faster to read silently in your head than it is to speak something out loud.
That is because you don’t have to spend time pronouncing each word, even in your head. You can just read through the text silently without reading each word even silently in your head.
It can take some time to learn not to pronounce words in your head, but it can really speed up your reading speed.
I also have a post on how to measure your reading speed.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, reading silently is faster because you don’t have to spend time pronouncing each word.
On the other hand, reading out loud can help you to understand the topic of the text better, compared to just skimming through it fast and reading silently.
There are pros and cons for both, reading silently as well as reading aloud. It depends on the text as well as the person whether you should read silently or not.
Try it out yourself and find the best way to read for yourself.
Reading out loud can also improve speech, here is a post on 3 ways it can.
I have a post on how long it takes to read 100 pages, check it out so you can better plan on how long it takes to finish a certain book.
I hope this was helpful, have a wonderful day!
