1. To make you read faster
Reading out loud slows down
your reading speed. If you usually read out loud you will start reading out the
words in your head even when you are reading silently and so reduce your
reading speed all the time to the speed when you are reading out loud.
2. To improve understanding
Because half of your brain is
concentrating on pronunciation when you read out loud, you comprehension is
much less than when you are reading silently.The same is true when listening to
other people reading out loud.
3. To really concentrate on pronunciation
In the same way as point 2
above, if half your brain is thinking about the meaning of a text then you
won't be able to put your full effort into your pronunciation. Also, it is
impossible to concentrate fully for the length of an entire text, so it is much
better to concentrate on one or two sentences and practice them over and over
in different ways.
4. To help you ignore words you don't need
When you are reading out loud
you have to think about and pronounce every word in the text, but there are
many words you don't need to be able to pronounce and/ or understand, such as
people's names and place names. When you are reading silently, you can just
skip past anything that you think is too difficult or not important, and then
go back to it later if you need to.
5. To allow you to reread
If you are reading out loud,
once you have read a word or sentence with the right pronunciation it is normal
to move onto the next part. If it was an important and difficult to understand
part, though, it can be worthwhile to read it once or twice more. This is much
easier and quicker when you are reading silently.
6. To help you read whole words at once
When you are reading out loud
it is normal to read each word from the first letter to the last in the way it
is pronounced, but it is possible to read faster by looking at a whole word or
even groups of words at the same time and then moving onto the next section.
7. To move quickly to the information you need
In the same way as point 6
above, reading out loud means reading each sentence in order. With most
comprehension questions in exams and textbooks, it is much quicker and easier
to read the question and then quickly skim and scan until you reach the part of
the text where that information is. You can then read that part slowly and
carefully, and as many times as you like.
8. To involve all the students
It is very difficult to
concentrate when another person is reading out loud, and even if you are
listening carefully it is not good listening comprehension practice as, unlike
real life, you have the text in front of you to read too.
9. To give a good model
Other students are not usually
a good model of pronunciation and speaking at natural speed, so listening to
them read out loud is not likely to improve your pronunciation and listening
skills.
10. To help with exam practice
You cannot read out loud in an
English language exam like FCE or TOEFL, so you should stop all reading out
loud if you want to take one of these exams.
11. To stop you moving your lips
Some people who have done most
of their reading out loud move their lips as if they are speaking even when
reading silently. This slows down your reading speed and can be embarrassing if
people see you!
12. To allow choral drilling
It is impossible for a whole
class to read a long text out together, so if the teacher wants the whole class
to loudly practice their pronunciation it will have to be with something shorter
such as a dialogue.
13. To help your confidence
Reading out loud well is a
very difficult task that even some native speakers can not do in a way that
people would want to listen to. Reading silently and doing pronunciation with
shorter passages makes both skills easier and more enjoyable.
14. To help your listening comprehension
Texts and people you will need
to listen to will be much faster than you reading a text out loud, so reading
silently and quickly is actually better practice for real life listening comprehension
than reading out loud is.
15. To give realistic pronunciation practice
Written language and spoken
language are very different, so a sentence from a magazine is not good practise
for the linking, weak forms etc that are found in natural speech.
16. To give effective pronunciation practice
Many students who can
pronounce well when reading out loud find that their pronunciation is much
worse when speaking freely, which suggests that reading out loud is not a good
way of improving pronunciation. Activities like minimal pairs, shadow reading
etc are much quicker ways of improving your pronunciation during normal
communication.
17. To concentrate pronunciation on one thing at a time
A reading passage might have
examples of every single sound in English and every example of how sounds
change in fast speech. It is obviously not possible to learn all these in one
lesson, so for pronunciation practice it is much better to use carefully
selected words and sentences with lots of examples of the pronunciation point you
are practicing that day.
18. To give a variety of reading tasks
Many fun and useful reading
tasks like jigsaw readings (when different people read different texts and then
compare their answers) and reading races are not possible if people read out
loud.
19. To give a variety of pronunciation tasks
With the time your teacher
saves by not using reading out loud, it is possible to do lots of fun and useful
pronunciation tasks such as phonemic symbols, crosswords and identifying
sentences when they are hummed without words.
