{"id":2,"date":"2011-10-20T19:08:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T19:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2011-10-30T12:29:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T19:29:31","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/sample-page\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview of Silent Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWhat is reading but silent conversation<\/em>?\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

Walter Savage Landor<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Reading silently is generally accepted as the norm for accomplished readers today. \u00a0There are times when people read aloud to other people or enjoy being read to but in terms of concentrated reading, most of us read \u201ceyes scanning the page, tongue held still\u201d (Manguel<\/a>, 1996, p. 42). \u00a0Silent reading is much faster than reading aloud and is a solitary event (Gavrilov, 1997). \u00a0What is clear in an overview of the history of reading is that the predominance of silent reading was not always the case. \u00a0When did we shift from reading aloud to reading silently? \u00a0Why did it change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Understanding the differences in reading processes, both orally and silently, is important to understanding the shift in reading mode (Saenger<\/a>, 1997). Saenger (1997) describes the physiology of reading and notes that two factors in written texts are involved in the process. \u00a0The first is the language structure which determines the cognitive processes the mind must use to decode. \u00a0The other factor is the graphic method of transcribing the language which can affect the length of time it takes to decode. \u00a0The study of modern languages and pedagogy gives clues to the cognitive processes in both oral and silent reading in ancient times. For example, Chinese graphics provide easier access to meaning than phonetic based graphics since the reader does not have to reconstruct the word. \u00a0Therefore, this leads to early silent reading when learning to read. \u00a0In graphics based on alphabetic scripts, the decoding process is slower and in the case of Ancient Greeks and Romans slowed even more by the lack of spaces between words as was common at that time. \u00a0Ancient reading required more complex eye movements (Saenger, 1997) to decode the text and a smaller amount of text could be retained. \u00a0Reading aloud made the retention easier and aided in comprehension (Lyons, 2010; Saenger, 1997). \u00a0Reading silently would not have increased the reading speed (Saenger, 1997) since it \u00a0was still limited by the requirement for a smaller focal field because of the continuous script <\/a>(Saenger, 1997).<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There are three stages in learning to read<\/a>: \u00a0reading aloud, sub-vocalization (under your breath) and silent reading (Gavrilov, 1997). \u00a0Silent reading is a visual and mental process which allows for variations in speed and the ability to skim backwards and forwards. \u00a0A greater reading speed leads to greater comprehension but Gavrilov points out that the two reading modes are \u201cmutually complementary\u201d (p. 61) and the two types are closely connected. \u00a0The eye-voice span (EVS<\/a>) needs to be well developed in successful reading out loud and it takes practice, especially in text without spaces between the words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although some researchers (Ong, 2002) promote a polarized view of oral and literate cultures, others (Lyons, 2010) prefer a more graded interpretation where \u201cthe oral and literate co-existed\u201d (Lyons, 2010, p. 17) and provides a context to describe the shift from oral to silent reading.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <———————————————————————————–><\/strong><\/p>\n

Writing absent \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mixed \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Modern western societies<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scholars agree that oral reading was the norm in antiquity (Jajdelska, 2007; Manguel, 1996; Saenger 1997) but the academic discussion on the origins of silent reading has been vigorous and developed over the years in an interdisciplinary field ranging from classicists, linguists, historians and psychologists to paleographers<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although references to silent reading are found in ancient texts, the shift to silent reading was a slow process that came about because of developments in the design of text spaces, in particular, the addition of spaces between words<\/a>, changes to conventions in word order, and the invention of punctuation (Saenger, 1997; Manguel, 1996).<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this video from the C-SPAN video library, Alberto Manguel reads the chapter “Beginnings<\/em>” from his book A History of Reading<\/a><\/em> (p. 177). \u00a0After the reading (at approximately the 33 minute mark), \u00a0Manguel answers a question from the audience about silent reading and word separation and goes on to discuss various issues in the development of silent reading.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.c-spanvideo.org\/program\/76142-1<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Sorry, it can’t be embedded)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Silent Reading History<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reading quote source: \u00a0http:\/\/www.readfaster.com\/readingquotes.asp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWhat is reading but silent conversation?\u201d Walter Savage Landor Reading silently is generally accepted as the norm for accomplished readers today. \u00a0There are times when people read aloud to other people or enjoy being read to but in terms of concentrated reading, most of us read \u201ceyes scanning the page, tongue held still\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1016,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1016"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/originsofsilentreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}