Diagnosing Slow Reading for Non-Native Speakers

Fast reading gives you an edge in this very fast-paced and competitive world. With overwhelming information to digest, the ability of speed reading is luring. (Just imagine how many more books you can read in a month or a year!) There have been numerous resources teaching speed reading. While some of techniques are very useful indeed, they are however more suitable for native speakers than nonnative ones. Since nonnative speakers face an additional linguistic barrier, different pointers for speedier reading are needed, most of which are linguistically related. As a bilingual in English and Chinese, I have observed that there are some impediments to faster reading for nonnative speakers, which are detailed below to give useful pointers for faster reading.

1. Limited vocabulary

Nonnative speakers do not have as wide a vocabulary as natives. New vocabulary can not only slow down reading but also hinder understanding. The key to faster reading is therefore to build a bigger vocabulary, which can be achieved through extensive reading. In fact, extensive reading and vocabulary growing complement each other, so stay in this good cycle.

2. Unfamiliarity with language flow or sentence constructions

Languages differs vastly in ways of expression. Some languages use verbs before objects, while others may be the other way around. If you are unfamiliar with this construction and flow, you may end up spending more time figuring out what the sentence means. It must become more spontaneous before you can speed up reading. Sometimes your native language interferes with the English language as well, which also reduces the speed.

3. Insufficient sensitivity to words

In English, some words spell similarly but have vastly different meanings. The subtle differences are easier to identify for native speakers because they have a better sense of what is the "right" word in this context as other close-spelling words would not make sense. In fact, a research conducted at Cambridge University has shown that as long as the first and last letter are given, the order of the middle letters of a word can be randomly placed without affecting reading.

However, if you don't have such sensitivity, relying solely on identifying the spelling differences can slow down the reading, as you have to pay extra attention to details. This part is particularly difficult for people whose native language is not alphabet-based, such as Chinese.

4. Unfamiliarity with slang and colloquialism

Some articles are more formal while others are more colloquial. The latter often comes with frequent use of slang and colloquialism. Unfamiliarity with slang and colloquialism -- which are often not taught in books or schools -- could impede understanding and therefore slow the reading.

5. Unfamiliarity with cultural and other background knowledge

Language and culture go hand in hand. Culture influences language and language communicates the culture. Depending on what you read, some articles may demand knowledge of, for instance, American history or American pop culture. Lacking such background knowledge often prevents you from understanding culture-related humors and other similar contents.