Chapter 6. Your enemy – articulation!

Do you know how the scandalous work of the mid-20th century begins? “Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta”- this is exactly how Nabokov, using the description of the articulation process, describes the tenderness that causes the name of the beloved in the main character.

Try to pronounce any word. Feel how your tongue moves? As with the pronunciation of the letter “s”, the tip of the tongue rests on the teeth, and the sound “m” makes the lips close and open? That is how speech is born. By letters, syllables we are taught to read in school.

The mental process of reading is very similar to the examples I described. Ocular receptors are closely related to the speech apparatus. Just imagine this way: here the look fixes the word, here it seeps through the eye shell and slides into the speech center, bypassing the moment of reflection, reproduced with the help of the larynx, the image of the word begins to form in the consciousness. The word as a set of characters and signs is recognized, deciphered by thinking, after which the reading and, not so often, memorization is realized.

If we present all our actions as factory operations, then calculate how many high-grade products you can make with such irrational use of your capabilities?

Studying the issue of articulation, I was confronted with the opinion of physiologists, with which I fundamentally disagree. I will cite here an excerpt from one, most popular, work: “The visual perception of a word ends with its recognition, that is correlation with a certain meaning. For this to do it’s necessary to recreate the auditory-motor image of the graphic word, since in the long-term memory the words are stored primarily as auditory-motor complexes endowed with a certain meaning. Visual perception is therefore always accompanied by pronouncing the perceived; while reading to himself, it’s carried out in internal speech and is of a collapsed character”.

Let me decrypt that for you. The printed or written word enters the long-term memory only by speaking. The reader in the process of reading involves such brain centers as the visual, the transformer from the visual to the sound, the auditory and the logical. Of course, thanks to X-ray photography, minor articulation processes were detected, even for those who read relatively quickly.

However, I am sure that it is possible to suppress this process, to reduce it to practically the minimum. The stumbling block, as I understood in the process of passing the methods, is internal speaking, which significantly slows down the process of speed reading. An internal monologue, not only at the moment of reading, but also in everyday life, prevents the assimilation of information, like the way it interferes with listening to a television set by a loud radio.

At its core, articulation is the following chain of actions: reading information → information passes through speech centers of the brain → information is perceived by the brain → speech apparatus (larynx, lips, language) reproduces sounds → understanding and memorizing information is performed. Thus, the text enters the brain without understanding in the speech center and is absorbed only through the speech apparatus.

The inefficiency of this method of reading, I realized on the third page of the test book.

Articulation is the number one enemy when learning to read speed because it slows down the process, making it automatically ineffective and putting the following steps at risk: regression, concentration, analysis, memorization. Therein lies the danger – loss of control over the ability to combine speed and assimilation of information. As mentioned above, the more slow the process is, the lower the quality of its understanding.

Getting rid of internal pronunciation can reduce the emotional aspect of text perception. Of course, fiction is the least affected, but every day we are confronted with text files of completely different directions.

By emotionality I mean not only one or another emotional coloring of a single word or phrase (a pleasant sensation or not), but also a moment of recognition and comparison with the facts and data already in the baggage of memory. Speed reading helps to “tamp down” the moment of analysis into the reading process. But more on that – later.

Visual perception of information requires training. Do this experiment. Open any text, take a look at it and immediately close your eyes. With absolute certainty, it can be said, that one or two words were recognized. Not read, but it is instantly recognized. It is on this technique that articulation elimination exercises are built.

Acquiring fast reading skills, I usually recommend choosing the following strategies:

Let's look closely at each of them.

The method, proposed above, is aimed at finding and recognizing information. At the level of the first strategy, the moment of recognizing information occurs without any pronunciation. For example, among the bulk of scientific work, you need to highlight key findings. At this stage, the reader is most likely looking for recognizable patterns – individual words, phrases in bold or italic.

The second strategy involves thoughtful reading related to speech activity. This is primarily due to texts that are replete with new terms and concepts. Stumbling over every unfamiliar word, you should only linger slightly on it, note in your memory and continue reading at the same pace.


Remember! It is almost impossible to completely get rid of internal pronunciation, but you can suppress it to the maximum, so that it does not distract the brain to articulation activity.


In training to get rid of articulation, it’s necessary to combine two layers of strategies, i.e. apply the so-called dynamic reading mode. From the preview part go to in-depth reading with the understanding of the facts and data. During the preliminary assessment of the text, you can already get an idea about it and install some templates, after which attentive reading will take place in a smoother mode.

By fast reading, I don’t mean imply the haste of the process. Reflection not excluded at the speedy assimilation of information. That’s why I recommend using the technique of preliminary study.

After the preparatory work, you can proceed directly to those exercises that neutralize at the limiting level of the action of the speech-motor center in the brain.

There are quite a lot of techniques, aimed at getting rid of articulation. I collected the most useful ones:


It’s worth mentioning, that these techniques are not mastered in a few hours of training. For example, reading without speech reproduction with a subject in the mouth is obtained only at the twentieth hour of training. Therefore, my most significant recommendation is the systematic nature of the classes. Spend this process for an hour every day – half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening.

An important factor in the process of weaning off internal speaking is energy mood, by which I understand the totality of the emotional and physical states of the reader.

Exercise should be in the most comfortable environment in a relaxed state. In the chapter on concentration, I will tell you about techniques, that contribute to achieving concentration and inner peace. Smooth breathing, comfortable posture, the brain, freed from the daily hassle to a large extent contribute to the passage of training.