Most students tend to read more slowly than their potential. This is because improving the students’ reading rate is one aspect that is seldom taught in school. Regular practice to increase reading speed will work for most students. However, students fail to achieve this because they do not have the sufficient motivation to improve it.
Reading is an essential aspect of the students’ academic life. It will make their essay writing assignments easier to finish since they can easily grasp concepts from materials they have gathered for their research. This will allow them to easily select supporting data for their essays, which greatly contributes to the overall standing of their final essay output.
There are several indicators that reflect poor reading skills amongst students. If these habits can be thoroughly prevented, comprehension can be achieved at a more efficient pace, which will save students more time to contend with their other essay writing-related tasks.
Reading aloud to themselves. One habit that can slow students down is reading orally—consciously or otherwise—as they read silently. In some cases, students move their lips for each word that they encounter in the material. In other cases, they say the words to themselves without lip movement. Any of these cases will only make the student read slower than the pace they normally speak. This is an inefficient way to read.
This habit will not be easily prevented unless students apply real effort to curb it. If they are actually moving their lips, they can correct this error by making a conscious, diligent effort to read silently—and at a faster rate. If they are not actually moving their lips but are still saying the words to themselves, they can try chewing gum or eating candy as they read. This act actually interferes with the students’ ability to move their tongues and throats to form words silently.
Word-by-word reading. Students who read any material word by word are those who make frequent stops on a line or those who usually read individual words rather than word groups. Reading in this kind of manner poses certain disadvantages to the students’ reading improvement, however. It does not encourage students to read at a faster pace, as they are used to read materials per word. It also inhibits students from thoroughly comprehending the read text since they cannot easily make relationships from word groups if they take the words individually.
Finger pointing. Although pointing fingers to the read text does not directly make the students inefficient readers, this act tends to slow down the students by paying too much attention to each word contained in the material. Most finger pointers are word-by-word readers as well. Instead of using their fingers, students can make use of rulers or cards to keep them at pace with their reading. Cards also tend to let the readers read through word phrases and not individual words.
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