Brian Schultz on Reading Fluency
"I just finished reading an interesting article on what I will call the mechanics of reading, entitled “Reading—From Behind the Eyes,” chapter 2 of Frank Smith’s book Reading without Nonsense.
The author highlights the fact that what makes for easier reading is to avoid what he calls “tunnel vision.” “Tunnel vision” in this case is not having one’s vision restricted or wrongfully focusing one’s vision on only a part of what can and should be perceived, but that our brains become overloaded with too much information it cannot process in the available time. The result is that the brain selects a portion of the input and ignores the rest, a kind of self-imposed “tunnel vision.” (He points out that it has been shown that the brain can only handle a certain amount of visual input, and that this does not change with age, skill or practice. See p. 16) If in reading, therefore, one is ‘bombarded’ by too much information that needs to be processed (rather than that which is already familiar), it becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to read.
One of the ways we avoid tunnel vision while reading is by being able to “predict,” so to speak, what might come next as we read. Smith points out that after any word, an author has an arsenal of 50,00-100,000 words to choose from (in English). But if I were to ask you to give your best guess as to what word might come after another word (A), you would not feel as though your are having to choose among 50,000+ words. Rather, word A in and of itself (assuming you know the language well) is allowing you to already restrict your choices from among about 200-300 words only (p. 24). “Not only do all readers have this prior knowledge of their language—generally without being aware they have it—but also they constantly use the prior knowledge without being aware of it” (p. 22; italics in the original).
The point Smith is trying to make is this: “It is therefore a basic skill of reading… to make maximum use of what you already know and to depend on that information from the eyes as little as possible” (p. 13).
If you read too slowly you will get tunnel vision, since the visual system will become clogged with all the visual information you are trying to get from the page. If you are reluctant to push ahead, reading and rereading in a hapless endeavor to remember every detail, then you will get tunnel vision. If you strive to get every word right before you look at the next, you will get tunnel vision. Unfortunately, these bad reading habits are something deliberately taught in the belief that they will help children learn… [Children] have been influenced too much by an adult who misguidedly says, “Slow down, be careful, and make sure you get every word right.” (p. 29)
From between the lines, it becomes obvious that good reading is based on a fluent control of a language."
Let’s go back to the point about reading too slowly:"
(The aforementioned tunnel vision paragraph) suggests that "when a reader slows down and consciously processes individual words their high-level comprehensive skills are impaired.
The implied solution is that one needs a natural fluency in a language in order to do high-level reading. This would even apply to literary analysis and ‘close readings’, where one needs to keep the whole ‘in memory’ while contemplating an author’s choice of pieces."
https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/fluency-reading-comprehension/