The Need for Speed: The Trendy Evolution of Speed Reading and Language Acquisition

Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I have been swamped by my work life in the past-few-months-that-felt-like-a-decade phase… is it the Year of the Horse already? Happy Chinese New Year!  Papers to grade, students to entertain, documents to edit, and hooray for technology, emails upon emails to send… and read of course!  

While watching one of the early morning shows on ABC in early March (with half-open eyes and a wandering mind) and finishing the remains of my breakfast, a demo of a new app snapped me back into the present moment.  One bold colored word at a time flashed onto the TV screen, starting rather slow but gradually (no wait, rapidly!) getting quicker… and quicker. The show’s host was speaking in a stunned tone but her words couldn’t grasp the attention of my mind that was transfixed with the flash of words which, surprisingly, made sense when strung together. I was speed reading without knowing it; perhaps my one wish to be a faster reader has come true?

Enter the most recent delivery for the future (of sorts) of reading: Spritz. Cute name for an app, huh? The concept is simple enough: A smart phone (specifically sprouting from Samsung) pops up one word at a time in a central location and wills the viewer to acknowledge the word and comprehend the lexical meaning within milliseconds. Then, repeat. It has been suggested that readers comprehend words by focusing on a single, left-of-center letter in each word, categorized by two events: the eye seeks the “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) represented by a single letter and is followed by eye movement, known as a “saccade”. Why waste time moving your eyes from left to right when all the words can just appear in front of you?

Many wonders will surely be displayed with the use of this app. Who would not want to read twice, if not three or four times the amount of books as allowed during a limited time frame filled with work, obligations, and socialization? The freedom to choose the WPM on the app is also reasonable, as some speed readers still need to read “slowly” to savor their personalized imaginations. And perhaps most impressively, the technological advances of Spritz has brought increased awareness to the mystery of reading – both fast and slow paced.

Despite having an undeniable bright future, there are three realms that remain to be analyzed in order to further capture the strong potential of a speed reading app.

The first realm being: language structure. By the sound of it, the current app offers speed reading in English, one of the many phonic-based languages in the world. I suppose this makes sense as English is still predominantly known as the universal language. But what about character-based languages, such as Chinese, Korean, and Arabic? Would reading these characters in “flash attack” mode also follow the same hypothesis that the eyes do less work and ultimately results in more words absorbed? There are no phonetic letters in these characters that the reader can sound out, as the sounds are ingrained in the character itself. Also, will readers have similar comprehension of words they read in isolated versus shared environments? 

Reading quickly does not always entail quick comprehension. The second realm relates to language acquisition for L2 (second language) learners. From my experience of teaching English to Chinese students (albeit the beginning level), translation is three-fold: search the vocabulary bank in Chinese for the corresponding word that is seen or heard, visualize the meaning (concept) as the know it, and translate back to the English definition in words they comprehend. How can the concept of speed reading be integrated more effectively in language learning settings to increase vocabulary retention and contextual understanding? Can students use a reading app to improve reading skills offline (i.e. good old fashioned hard copy textbooks)? This brings up the paradigm of lexical learning (phonics based) and contextual learning (also known as the whole language approach). Although debates have flourished between these two acquisition methods, it seems that each compliments the other, to varying degrees. Especially regarding English Language Learners (ELL’s), some students are highly proficient in writing and reading, less so in speaking and listening. Alternately, some students are highly proficient in speaking and listening, and less so in reading and writing. 

There must be more to gain from a speed reading app than literary pleasure. Despite the novelty and intrigue generated by a new technological add-on, the third realm deals with purpose. What is the purpose for reading at lightning speed? Is it a sign that some of us are getting so… lethargic (if I may) as to avoid eye strain in our momentary “saccade”? Is it just me, or is the flashing somewhat much to take in? Something about each word appearing and then “poofing” into thin air within a second (like the feisty rabbit pulled out of the magician’s top hat, except backwards) makes me a bit uneasy. I want to read that line again! Or as mentioned earlier, perhaps it will give busy bees more knowledge within the limited time frame? Maybe, just maybe it could be a way to determine our reading ability and learn to think quick. That seems to be the golden ticket to thriving in our society. 

I can sense this need for speed is gaining full steam in the area of reading, with great potential in the future for writing, listening, and even speaking. I can see elementary school students speed reading Dr. Suess’ “Green Eggs and Ham” on the bus, college-bound teenagers speed cramming for the GRE test in the house, and working professionals absorbing the data analysis before the important presentation in the office.  

If a speed reading app is able to offer more language options, encourage language learning students to expand their vocabulary comprehension, and define a more specific purpose for use, the possibilities will be limitless and effective for years to come.