Because avoiding subvocalization – saying or “hearing” the words in your head as you read – is one of the keys to good speed reading, you might not think that proper pronunciation has anything to do with learning to read faster. However, it’s important to learn how to pronounce new words as you learn them, because that will put the pronunciation of the word in your long-term memory where it forms part of your unconscious brain, and when you next see that word on the page you’ll automatically process it without stopping to think about it. But when you don’t know how to pronounce a word, you’ll probably stop without even realizing it and try to sound the word out as you read, because that part of your word knowledge isn’t already stored in your memory. Your brain will see this as a “hole” that needs filling. Once you know the pronunciation, you’ll be back to smooth and automatic reading.

One of the problems that people often have with English pronunciation is that the same letter patterns can represent entirely different sounds. Take a look at this popular and funny rhyme about some of the ways that English words are a bit confusing, even for native speakers:

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

When you read through that verse, did you find yourself “stumbling” over some of the words and their pronunciations? Practice the things that trip you up, and you’ll eliminate one of the things that’s slowing down your reading speed. Remember to always add pronunciation to the checklist for learning new words, and you’ll increase your reading speed as you increase your vocabulary.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.