In modern society, the number of books, newspapers, periodicals and materials has increased exponentially. Take scientific magazines and academic articles as an example, it is now about twice as much as it was 50 years ago, and it is10/000 times as much as it was 50 years ago! But today, most people's reading speed is still 100 years ago, with one or two hundred words per minute. In fact, anyone with moderate ability can improve reading speed. In the early 1970s, experiments were conducted abroad: trainees trained twice a week, each time 1.5 ~ 2 hours. After a month and a half, most people's reading speed has steadily increased by 2 ~ 3 times. Many experiences have been summed up in the world about improving reading efficiency, and now people choose to introduce them for reference.

First, the concept of reading efficiency

Reading efficiency is related to reading speed and comprehension rate. If there is speed without comprehension rate, or if the comprehension rate is high, there will be no reading efficiency. Dr. Stauffer, an American reading expert, put forward a reading efficiency formula in his book Fast Learning: E = R C, where e stands for reading efficiency; R stands for reading speed, that is, the number of words read per minute; C stands for comprehension rate, which refers to the ratio of the number of correctly answered questions after reading to the number of subjects. In the formula, speed and understanding rate are mutually restricted.

In order to achieve a certain reading efficiency, when the speed is fast, the understanding rate will decrease; On the contrary, if you pursue high understanding rate excessively, the speed will be greatly slowed down. Therefore, it is not conducive to improving reading efficiency to emphasize reading speed or comprehension rate in isolation. Christopher believes that if the comprehension rate is lower than 70%, it means that the reading speed is too fast; If it is higher than 90%, it means that the reading speed is too slow; The comprehension rate is between 70% and 80%, indicating that the reading speed is moderate. When a person's reading ability is improved, that is, when the product of R and C in the reading efficiency formula increases, E will also increase accordingly. The reading efficiency formula and its related parameters are suitable for general reading materials. In practice, we should also consider the key factor of reading content to determine the reading speed and understanding rate. Regarding the relationship between content and comprehension rate, Bacon has a famous saying: "Some books are to be tasted, some books can be swallowed, and some books are to be chewed and digested."

Second, choose the appropriate reading method according to the reading purpose.

1. Anesthesia reading method

Reading for pleasure, you can use the anesthesia reading method. The reader is like taking an anesthetic, almost forgetting his own existence and putting himself completely out of the book. Just like watching martial arts videos, it doesn't matter whether you master the names, story lines and artistic techniques of the characters. If there is anything to gain, it is to relax physically and mentally, unconsciously broaden our horizons and increase our knowledge.

In the process of reading, the focus should be on speed, and browsing and skipping can be done.

It is worth noting that you should never use the anesthesia reading method when reading famous works, otherwise it will reduce immortal masterpieces to the level of vulgar works in your eyes. If you look at a dream of red mansions with anesthetic, you will think that Xue Baochai is cuter than Lin Daiyu. If you read Anna karenin casually, you will feel that you are reading a poor love triangle novel, and even the characters are distorted in essence.

2. Scanning reading method

Reading for the purpose of searching, consulting or capturing information and understanding the situation can adopt scanning reading method. We usually use scanning reading method to access information, read newspapers, read instructions and so on. Reading speed is often ten lines at a glance. What the eyes see is not the strokes of words, nor specific words, or even specific words and sentences. Instead, you bring what you see into your field of vision like an image and reflect it to your brain, and then make a judgment based on experience and one or two characteristics in this image. The mouth is silent, and the eyes scan quickly between the lines like electronic scanning, catching what they need in time and discarding irrelevant parts.

In the process of scanning reading, whether it is necessary to interrupt, intensive reading or pause for a little thinking depends on the material read.

In practice, we can adopt methods such as extensive reading, skipping reading, reading titles, reading paragraphs and sentences. For reports and news, you can extend from the title to the introduction, and then decide whether to continue reading; In argumentative writing, you can look at the title, the beginning, the paragraphs of each natural paragraph and the end of the full text.

3. Intensive reading method

For articles that need to grasp the basic content, basic viewpoints and spiritual essence, intensive reading can be used. For example, all the contents of textbooks, important editorials or comments in newspapers, important speeches of policy makers, scientific papers related to their work and life, and legal provisions of governments at all levels should be read intensively. Intensive reading doesn't have to read every sentence. The key is to master the framework and essence of the object you are reading.

In practice, panoramic reading can be adopted. That is, first read the title, abstract, table of contents or subheadings of the article, analyze its internal relations, and roughly grasp its context. Then read it carefully along this vein. After reading it, I will look back and see that the context is unreasonable. The full text talks about several questions, what is the meaning of expression and what is the point of view? Is there any new regulation, formulation or strategy? Intensive reading can repeat the contents of the text completely and accurately in your own language.

4. Learning methods

For textbook knowledge, literary classics, philosophy, history, economics, military science and other classic works, learning method can be used. For middle school students, college students and self-learners, most articles in textbooks should be studied. The study can be conducted according to the following procedures:

The first step is to read the full text. Read the article from beginning to end and get familiar with the new words in the article by looking it up in the dictionary.

The second step is to divide it into segments and layers. That is to extract the meaning paragraphs of the article, summarize the general idea of each meaning paragraph, and then understand that each meaning paragraph contains several levels.

The third step is to summarize the center. This is a general formulation, specifically, it should be: for practical writing, summarize the central content; For narrative, summarize the central idea; For literary works, summarize the theme; Argumentative writing, summarizing the central argument.

The fourth step is to appreciate the rules. That is, to master the structural features, language features and expressions of the article.

The fifth step is to extract and recite. That is, for valuable contents such as famous sentences and articles, you can extract cards, and it is best to recite them.

Third, strengthen reading ability training.

In addition to mastering reading skills to improve reading efficiency, we should also pay attention to improving the ability of eyes and brain to receive and process text images and improve reading efficiency. In the printing and dyeing factory, there is a kind of equipment called cylinder printing machine, and its maximum linear speed reaches 80 m/min. For a novice operator, when the machine turns, it is dazzling; For skilled workers, you can find every tiny defect on the printed fabric running at high speed. This is because exercise greatly improves people's visual acceptance. This gives us enlightenment: people's reading ability has great potential, and this potential should be tapped through exercise.

Reading is a skill as well as an art. Flexible mastery can enhance learning effect, and diligent exercise can improve reading efficiency. Students might as well give it a try.