Reading thought-units is more than just ‘speed reading‘. Reading thought-units will improve your: reading speed, reading comprehension, reading concentration, and reading retention. It can also help with learning English as a second language (ESL), and with developmental reading disabilities (DRD).
1. Reading Speed
Reading in groups of words is not new. All ‘speed readers’ take in whole groups of words at each glance. This has been known for over a century, and is the foundation of all other speed reading techniques, taught by all reading courses. Whether it’s ‘eye span widening’, or ‘eye movement exercises’, or using your hand as a pacer; all speed reading techniques rely on reading faster by learning to take in multiple words at once.
2. Reading Comprehension
Thought-units are also more meaningful than individual words. You improve comprehension when you read meaningful groups of words as a complete unit of thought. By reading whole thoughts, you are actively paying attention to the ideas rather than just listening to the words. Instead of concentrating on phonics, you are focusing more attention on comprehending thoughts and ideas.
3. Reading Concentration
Focusing on thoughts rather than words is a skill that takes practice. Taking in more information in less time means you have to make an effort to focus more on what you are reading. This ability to focus gets better with practice, and whether you’re a student learning how to focus on schoolwork, or a senior interested in maintaining mental sharpness—reading thought-units is an excellent way to increase your power of concentration. At the same time you are learning to widen the focus of your eyes, you will be learning to sharpen the focus of your attention.
4. Reading Retention
When you increase comprehension and concentration, you will naturally improve retention, because the more you understand and the more you pay attention, the more firmly ideas will get planted in your mind. You increase reading retention because meaningful ideas are ‘stickier’ ideas.
5. English as a Second Language (ESL)
Thought-units can also be helpful for improving English fluency. Readers who are learning how to read English as a second language (ESL reading) will have an easier time accurately understanding text if they take one thought-unit at a time instead of trying to decipher longer sentences. This is how we learn our own native languages when we are children; we don’t start off speaking in long sentences. We start by communicating in short meaningful phrases, and only later do we connect these into longer sentences. The same thing applies to learning English as a second language. Reading thought-units can be a very helpful ESL activity which can make reading English easier to learn.
6. Developmental Reading Disabilities (DRD)
There are also many who must work to develop fluency in reading their own native language. Some developmental reading disability (DRD) courses teach students to stop and think about each phrase. Many have had success with techniques such as ‘picture-at-punctuation’ that teach DRD students to pause when they come to each punctuation mark, and to visualize what the preceding phrase meant. There are many types of reading disabilities, but we all could improve our reading abilities by learning to read thoughts rather than words.
Other Advantages to Reading Thought-Units?
It’s exciting to have a powerful reading skill. The more you can read, the more interesting your world becomes. But everyone has slightly different reasons for wanting to increase their own reading power.
Which has been your biggest benefit from reading thought-units? Which ones have I left one off the list?
