4 ms·

How to Read Aloud

19 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

falcolas 6y ago
If only reading aloud to others couldn't be construed as a breach of modern copyright clauses. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means ... without the prior written permission of the publisher
- phobosanomaly 6y ago
  It's unfortunate. I benefit greatly from having audio playing along while I read complex nonfiction. The only way I know of to get audio recordings of a textbook (other than brain-melting text-to-speech) is to....record it yourself. Unfortunately, after recording audiobooks of a couple of 900-page textbooks I lost my enthusiasm. It would be great if there was a community of people doing this, and we could share the burden. I can't imagine it hurting the publisher's bottom-line, as the audio of a textbook is pretty useless without the diagrams and tables and such, so you need the book anyway. If textbooks came with decent audio editions, outline notes, and Anki decks linked to page numbers it would be awesome. I could see it coming from a publisher like NoStarch, but Elsevier, no way that's happening. It would be a good deal for the publishers too, since students don't seem to really buy/read the books anymore as they've ballooned up to hundreds of dollars and thousands of pages of crap to slog through. I'd love to see a textbook that's actually designed for the 21st century in some way other than adding a DRM-wrapped digital edition with a couple extra videos and figures!
powersnail 6y ago
Do modern UK pupil not read aloud? The tone of the article seems to suggest that reading aloud was somehow a uniquely prevalent act in pre-modern education. It didn't specifically mention whether it is still used in modern education. But surely --- hopefully --- people still read aloud all the time? At least in Chinese education, students of all ages are expected to read aloud, in both the course of literature and the course of foreign languages.
- gxqoz 6y ago
  In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited. Certainly it's not common to have a class on rhetoric. One of my hobbies is quizbowl, a type of trivia competition. Quizbowl questions need to be read aloud with speed and clarity. At higher levels they will have a lot of unfamiliar words. A typical college freshman usually isn't very good at this (I certainly wasn't). After practice they often improve, but some people (including myself) never get great at it--and some never even to an acceptable level.
  - Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
    > In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited It's been 20 years, but I remember just going "Ugh" at how slow some of my classmates would read when reading out loud. Many of them would read slower than half the speed that they would normally talk. I read much faster than I can talk, and when reading something to someone, I often find myself paraphrasing things on the fly. I don't say the words on the page, but a reinterpretation to something shorter.
    - jeffrallen 6y ago
      I do the voices. And also dynamically reduce vocabulary level, or add in exclamations or slang expressions. Reading is fun when you've got an appreciative audience!
- cameronh90 6y ago
  We most certainly did when I was in school 15 years ago. It was even parodied in media, such as the "Mr Cleaves" sketch in Little Britain.
hpoe 6y ago
So found out an interesting fact the other day. I was reading the book Moonwalking with Einstein and when reviewing ancient memory practices I found out something that I was never told before. It turns out that the idea of separating words didn't appear until about the 9th century in Europe, which mean you had to read out loud in order to understand what text was saying. In fact for a long time being able to read silently was considered an almost magical ability. I find it fascinating how many things we just take for granted that really are big breakthroughs.
- me_me_me 6y ago
  And here we are, hearing about people who can read without saying what they are reading in their minds! I tied few times to develop this ability and failed each time. Apparently without this inner narrator voice you can consume books much faster.

19 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

If only reading aloud to others couldn't be construed as a breach of modern copyright clauses. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means ... without the prior written permission of the publisher

phobosanomaly 6y ago
It's unfortunate. I benefit greatly from having audio playing along while I read complex nonfiction. The only way I know of to get audio recordings of a textbook (other than brain-melting text-to-speech) is to....record it yourself. Unfortunately, after recording audiobooks of a couple of 900-page textbooks I lost my enthusiasm. It would be great if there was a community of people doing this, and we could share the burden. I can't imagine it hurting the publisher's bottom-line, as the audio of a textbook is pretty useless without the diagrams and tables and such, so you need the book anyway. If textbooks came with decent audio editions, outline notes, and Anki decks linked to page numbers it would be awesome. I could see it coming from a publisher like NoStarch, but Elsevier, no way that's happening. It would be a good deal for the publishers too, since students don't seem to really buy/read the books anymore as they've ballooned up to hundreds of dollars and thousands of pages of crap to slog through. I'd love to see a textbook that's actually designed for the 21st century in some way other than adding a DRM-wrapped digital edition with a couple extra videos and figures!

powersnail 6y ago

Do modern UK pupil not read aloud? The tone of the article seems to suggest that reading aloud was somehow a uniquely prevalent act in pre-modern education. It didn't specifically mention whether it is still used in modern education. But surely --- hopefully --- people still read aloud all the time? At least in Chinese education, students of all ages are expected to read aloud, in both the course of literature and the course of foreign languages.

gxqoz 6y ago
In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited. Certainly it's not common to have a class on rhetoric. One of my hobbies is quizbowl, a type of trivia competition. Quizbowl questions need to be read aloud with speed and clarity. At higher levels they will have a lot of unfamiliar words. A typical college freshman usually isn't very good at this (I certainly wasn't). After practice they often improve, but some people (including myself) never get great at it--and some never even to an acceptable level.
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  > In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited It's been 20 years, but I remember just going "Ugh" at how slow some of my classmates would read when reading out loud. Many of them would read slower than half the speed that they would normally talk. I read much faster than I can talk, and when reading something to someone, I often find myself paraphrasing things on the fly. I don't say the words on the page, but a reinterpretation to something shorter.
  - jeffrallen 6y ago
    I do the voices. And also dynamically reduce vocabulary level, or add in exclamations or slang expressions. Reading is fun when you've got an appreciative audience!
cameronh90 6y ago
We most certainly did when I was in school 15 years ago. It was even parodied in media, such as the "Mr Cleaves" sketch in Little Britain.

hpoe 6y ago

So found out an interesting fact the other day. I was reading the book Moonwalking with Einstein and when reviewing ancient memory practices I found out something that I was never told before. It turns out that the idea of separating words didn't appear until about the 9th century in Europe, which mean you had to read out loud in order to understand what text was saying. In fact for a long time being able to read silently was considered an almost magical ability. I find it fascinating how many things we just take for granted that really are big breakthroughs.

me_me_me 6y ago
And here we are, hearing about people who can read without saying what they are reading in their minds! I tied few times to develop this ability and failed each time. Apparently without this inner narrator voice you can consume books much faster.