[Easy] Tips for Reading English Faster: Advice from a US Resident

I want to read English faster! But for those of us who aren't native speakers, the difficulty level of speed reading in English is very high.

However, speed reading is **necessary for English tests and exams**,

and **speed reading news or books increases the amount of information** you can take in.

When searching the internet for "tips for reading English faster,"

• Read aloud 50 times or more
• Understand word order
• Read a book through without a dictionary

All of these study methods seem quite difficult...

Is it just me who feels discouraged from starting to study when search results like these come up?

In the midst of that,

I'll share a tip for reading English faster that was introduced in a YouTube video. It's very interesting and seems easy for anyone to imitate.

A-I-U-E-O Phonics Video

Allie, Fuzzy, and Super Fuzzy, who live in Los Angeles, provide detailed explanations of English "Phonics" and

the very basics of English. It's a channel where anyone, from children to adults, can study in a fun and easy-to-understand way.

Each video is about 5 minutes long, so the appeal is that you can watch them anytime in your spare moments.

This is the YouTube channel I watch most often for my English studies.

Introduced in A-I-U-E-O Phonics' "[I Didn't Know This] Tips for Reading English Faster! Training with This Method Changes Your English Reading Speed: Phonics for Adults [#308],"

This is the tip for reading English faster!

Read while listening to audio

Reading English sentences while listening to audio

Many research results have been published stating that when humans read sentences, they read while pronouncing the words in their heads.

This method **utilizes that inherent human characteristic to help with English study.**

By actually listening to the pronunciation while looking at the English text, you don't have to vocalize it in your own head, allowing you to read faster than just reading silently.

I actually tried it

In fact, I tried reading a news site for children introduced in the video while listening to the English audio.

Scholastic News (Children's News)

$5.39/year

First time: Reading text without audio – completed in **12 minutes**

3 times: Reading text while listening to audio

Second time: Reading text without audio – completed in **5 minutes**

This was the result.

While it's true that the second time was the same text, I had the sensation that as I repeat this, the time it takes to read text for the first time without audio will also decrease.

By reading the text while listening to the audio, I was able to read twice as fast as my original speed, and I could understand the content immediately.

Personally, I was more surprised that **reading while listening to English improved my understanding of the content** more than the fact that I could read faster.

There were other opinions and comments too!

There were also comments like these in the comment section of the video.

The content of this video was a total blind spot! I used to do a correspondence course called "Kodomo Challenge"... I remember back in the 1st grade of elementary school, I used to solve Japanese reading problems while listening to cassette tapes (that shows my age lol), but from the 2nd grade, the tapes stopped coming and I remember struggling because I had to read on my own. It was a moment where I truly realized the content of this video.

Quote from body less, partial excerpt

I tried using audiobooks (Flowers for Algernon and Holes) and reading while listening to the narration, and my reading speed changed surprisingly fast. As mentioned in this video, it felt like a switch for my brain's senses, a feeling of being connected. I especially recommend reading while listening to audio for those who have the knowledge but for some reason can't read, or for whom existing reading aloud alone hasn't been effective.

Quote from Hidewo Ishida, partial excerpt

These were some of the comments.

By listening to the audio while looking at the text many times, or reading a whole book while listening to the English audio with an audiobook, you gradually get used to reading faster.

Then, you will become able to read the text itself faster even without listening to the audio.

What should I do when my comprehension can't keep up with the speed?

The important thing is to listen to audio of text that fits your level.

If the text is full of unknown English words, no matter how much you listen to the audio, you won't be able to understand what it means.

If you can't understand the meaning, your reading speed will inevitably drop.

What should I do if my understanding can't keep up with the reading speed...

Quote from wasabi furikake

To this comment, A-I-U-E-O Phonics gave this advice:

Apps like Speechify allow you to slow down the speed (if there are too many words you don't know, the level might simply not be right for you).

Quote from "A-I-U-E-O Phonics" English Pronunciation

Shouldn't I just read aloud myself?

Wouldn't it be killing two birds with one stone to read aloud myself?

I thought so too, but someone in the comment section asked a similar question.

Can I get the same effect as reading aloud?

Quote from Kenji Nanitabe

I think you should do this first before reading aloud. (If you learn your own incorrect pronunciation by reading aloud, it's very hard to relearn the correct pronunciation later—speaking from experience).

Quote from "A-I-U-E-O Phonics" English Pronunciation

I see...! So if I read aloud by myself while my pronunciation is still shaky, there's a risk of learning it with my own incorrect pronunciation!!

True, there are several words I studied in junior high school that I've memorized with very Japanese-style phonetic pronunciations.

Along with increasing my basic English vocabulary, knowing this method of reading while listening to audio made me feel like "I might be able to read English faster!", so I've introduced it here.

How can I listen to English audio for free?

The children's news site is good, but I want to start for free if possible.

You can listen to English text being read aloud through many methods other than children's news sites.

• English news sites
• Google Translate
• Ondoku, etc.

Ondoku is especially recommended.

With Ondoku, you can listen to the audio of any English text you want read aloud.

Many English learners also recommend Ondoku.

[Material Creation/Learning Tool] #Ondoku is a tool that turns various languages from text to speech. It reads aloud not only in American and British English but also in Indian and Australian English. Plus, various voice qualities like Amy, Emma, and Brian are available. Amazing! #TeachersBaton #Englishhttps://t.co/NmhRLNuya1

— High School English Teacher (@high_school_JTE) August 2, 2022

For those not good at presentations in English... I recommend the automatic text-to-speech service "Ondoku." If you enter English text, it reads it aloud with natural intonation.

When giving a presentation or academic presentation in English, it might be effective to have Ondoku read the English manuscript you've prepared and practice with shadowing. pic.twitter.com/PSKQl3zmR2

— Ko Harada (@Ko__Harada) August 24, 2022

Ondoku is recommended by many English learners and instructors

Ondoku is a strong ally for students studying English. It has many convenient features.

• Free up to 5,000 characters per month
• 47 English speakers
• Text-to-speech from images
• Audio can be saved as MP3
• Conversation feature allows you to create your own listening audio with male/female or multi-person dialogues, or in English/Japanese

Free up to 5,000 characters per month.

In Ondoku,

For the Free Plan

• No registration: 1,000 characters
• With registration: 5,000 characters

For Paid Plans

• Basic: 200,000 characters
• Value: 450,000 characters
• Premium: 1,000,000 characters

This character count is updated every month.

Changing settings or even slightly altering the text counts towards the character limit, so be careful when using it for free!

Because English uses a lot of characters, you'll run through 5,000 characters in no time if you study seriously.

In such cases, it's also an option to pay for just one month.

47 English speakers in Ondoku.

Even though reading aloud is so popular, aren't there a lot of people who don't know "Ondoku"? Just like the name says, it reads the text you input aloud. Free registration gives you 5,000 characters, and 980 yen a month gives you up to 200,000 characters. You can select dialects for English, it supports multiple languages, and you can choose the voice type and speed. Reading aloud is only effective when you hear the correct sounds. It's useful for English diaries or example sentences when there's no audio. pic.twitter.com/ZqxTl65duB

— Ellieఌ (@ColorOfEllie) October 18, 2022

English in various dialects, voices from children to adults. Multiple males and females.

You can choose your preferred voice, so if you think "this voice is hard to hear," you can switch to another one.

Furthermore, the reading speed can be made slower or faster. The appeal is that you can create audio that fits your level.

You can listen to samples of Ondoku's English voices on this page, so please make use of it.

For English learning listening! Native pronunciation, listen to samples from 67 speakers. Voices of women, men, girls, and boys!

Ondoku is a text-to-speech service that can pronounce languages from all over the world. You can listen to samples of 67 types of English audio from Ondoku.

Text-to-speech from images

This feature is extremely convenient.

Paper media like textbooks cannot be copied and pasted, making text entry tedious.

However, if you take a photo with your smartphone and upload it to Ondoku, you can turn it into audio instantly. You can easily turn the materials you have on hand into audio.

How to use image-to-speech | How to use free OCR to turn text in photos into audio

Explaining the "Ondoku" feature that reads text from images and photos (OCR) and reads it aloud. It can be used for free. On both PC and smartphone, reading is completed in just a few seconds by simply uploading an image.

For example, I copy text from an English problem, and... hmm?

I can't...

Actually, it's because the PDF is protected and can't be copy-pasted.

But no worries, the amazing thing about Ondoku is that you can just screenshot it and upload it, and it will automatically analyze the text. This is crazy good.

Source: The English text-to-speech software is too amazing | Kazuya Takahashi | Practical learning theory and brain science column that can be read in 3 minutes! @kz8_takahashi

With Ondoku, you can also create your own original audiobooks.

[Free] Let's make an audiobook with speech synthesis! Summary of self-publishing methods using reading services

Detailed explanation of the method and flow for creating audiobooks using free AI text-to-speech services/software, along with recommended services and software.

Audio can be saved as MP3

The audio read aloud can be downloaded as an MP3, so you can listen to it offline anytime, anywhere.

A strong ally for those who are studying.

Conversation feature allows you to create your own listening audio with male/female or multi-person dialogues, or in English/Japanese

You can create audio exactly as you want, such as alternating male/female dialogues like in a textbook, or audio for English word listening.

It's highly recommended, but it's a feature that isn't very well known. Please give it a try.

Between you and me, it's even used in English listening tests at schools! ❗

[Must-see for Teachers] Create English listening problems for free! Detailed explanation of the method requiring no recording.

For teachers struggling with listening tests, there is a very easy way to create listening test audio that I want you to try. No recording, no microphones, and no troublesome capturing are required. It's easy to try for free, so please take advantage of it! I will introduce it in detail.

Learn the tips for reading English faster and use them in your studies

The tip for reading English faster is to read the text while listening to the English audio.

By consistently building up your skills every day, you can reach your goals.

I'll do my best with my English studies too. Let's work hard on our English studies together!