English Articles Silent Reading
Reading to oneself, without producing any sound or moving the tongue or lips. A relatively new technique of reading, in historic terms, silent reading contrasts with and has different purposes from oral reading, which is concerned with pronunciation, enunciation, voice control and communication. Until the early 20th century, students universally learned to read orally, because reading was the core of family recreation in the home before radio and television. As a result of eye-movement research just before World War I, silent reading was found to increase reading rates, reading comprehension and the ability to infer word meanings from their context. For several decades thereafter, silent reading replaced oral reading as the sole goal of reading instruction. More recently, however, most schools have taught both oral and silent reading, each of which provides students with different sets of essential skills.