Do you understand better when you read silently or loudly?

I haven't read anything aloud since I was very young - unless I'm reading something to someone else that it.

I tend to be like a robot when I read out loud. I don't really pay attention to the story since I get more worried about pronunciation errors and stammering. So I prefer to read silently.

actually if i read it loud i repeat it in hundred times, before i will understand what im reading for:) much better to keep silent reading so you will understand in properly & still recorded in your mind. that is the reason why i read so silent just my eyes & mind will have contact each other he he he he

I think that for me I understand better when reading silently but it's not such a big difference. I suppose that the sound of the voice when reading aloud might distract me :) Or it's just an habit and I got used to it. No, really I think when we're reading silently we tend to go back and forth as we read if there is something that doesn't make sense or we can't comprehend and when we're reading aloud we tend to just go on reading. HOwever everyone is different. My daughter usually needs to read some passages aloud to make sense of them.

I've heard about and experienced both of these situations. When you're a kid in elementary school, all of the kids are required to read out loud for perfectly normal reasons. Growing up, kids usually get accustomed to reading to their parents, siblings, teachers, and whoever else would listen. I've heard that reading out loud to oneself is less productive and makes things hard to comprehend because that person is bascially spending more time paying attention to reading correctly than what is actually being read. (Maybe it's the part of us not being able to multitask by reading to ourselves and listening to ourselves read at the same time.) When people read to me, I listen pretty well because I'm not the one having to concentrate to read it. When I read to myself (no sound at all, just in my head), I comprehend and pay attention the best. Part of this is because (so I've heard) a person can read faster silently and pay better attention to the words on the page. I think that's probably because there are less actions involved. Just think about it... You can sit and stare at a page letting your mind do all the work... Or you can sit, stare at a page, read the words on the page out loud to yourself, concentrate on how your pronouncing the words, listen to the words your saying, and attempting to comprehend the words coming out of your mouth. The other factor in this is the imagination. If someone is reading out loud to you, you can let your mind wander because they're doing all the work. If you're also reading to yourself, your mind will read the words automatically while your thoughts and imaginations fill your mind and make the book come alive. I love reading! (LOL)

Well, it all depends on whether you are reading a book written in your mother tongue or in a foreign language. I think both ways are equally effective when reading a book written in my mother tongue, while I can only understand the passage written in English by reading silently. I think if I read aloud when reading something written in English, my attention will be shifted into indentified the words rather than think about what I have read.

I understand better when I read silently, infact so silently that i don even move my lips, actually I read with my head. hen I move my lips, it is only a matter of some emphasis, but i would never read aloud and understand!

Just like you I think that I actually take in what I am reading much better if I read silently than if I read it aloud. When reading out loud I think I am more focused on saying it correctly and making it sound good than I am comprehending. I generally have to read it silently first... weird how that works...

im like that, I find that i dont understand things when i read them out loud. Well for a few years now i have been teaching and have to read a text, put it in to my own words and then teach it blessed be

I always read books silently, it is already my style. I won't say it out as it may bother others.

Hi mermaid911, I understand things only if I read loudly. In fact I like reading lodly. Even when I talk I talk loudly.When I watch TV,When I listen songs in my music system and when I watch films through DVD I will put big sound.People in my house scold me Why I talk so loudly and why I put so much sound. I do not know.May be every thing comes out of habit. Good Luck.

Hi,there! Well,I think I understand things better when I read silently.It's my habit to read things silently not only because it's faster but also because I could think better when I read.I also tried to read things loudly before,but I found that I would pay much attention to reading but not the things I read.So I prefer to read things silently.If I wanna let others know about the news or the things,then I'll read loudly:) Thanks for the discussion and Merry Christmas! Have fun in this holiday season^_^

Alot of the time I understand things better when I read silently, but if I find a part that makes no scence then i read it out load slowly and allot of the time that helps me. But everyone is different.

i like to read silently

Now that I think about it, sometimes when I'm reading allowed I am concentrating more on a word for word basis than overall. When I read silently, I do think I understand the overall paragraph better. I think this is because usually I read outloud to memorize something so I am not focused on the content as much as I am focused on how to say it or how I want it to sound. Then again, if it's a story problem, I like to read outloud! I guess just when it comes to books I would never want to read outloud.