While speed reading may not always be a main emphasis within the curriculum of international private schools, many schools share the common understanding of cultivating skills that are inclusive to improving reading speed and comprehension skills, especially in foreign languages.
How International Private Schools Promote Speed Reading Abilities in a Foreign Language:
Integrating into the Curriculum:
A few international schools may offer speed reading as a course, specifically a speed reading training course, which especially includes speed reading in a foreign language. Speed reading courses allow students to read quickly relative to understanding of text and gains in fluency with the new language. In speed reading, students engage in reading foreign text in a variety of formats, improving the skill of quickly understanding and retaining information in the new foreign language.
Developing Critical Thinking and Text Analysis and Comprehension in a Foreign Language:
In international schools, students are often provided with the opportunity to engage in courses in critical thinking and language analysis. Students are often exposed to many texts, therefore engaging with many different syntax rules, vocabulary structures, and grammatical structures. This exposure and ability to analyze text faster contribute to faster comprehension of reading in a foreign language. Moreover, students become more adept at reading faster and distinguishing the edges of language interpretation.
Use of Modern Technology:
International schools use digital tools, and apps specifically designed to aid students in speeding up their speed reading in a foreign language, which consist of interactive exercises and reading material written in the target language, accelerate their speed and accuracy in reading, by introducing more vocabulary and concepts.
Extra-Curricular Activities Courses:
Private schools may offer as an extra curricular activity or elective speed reading in the foreign language, narrowing the focus of speed reading practice to the foreign language, and also providing further training to help students process foreign text more quickly.
How This Ties into Motivation and Learning Abroad
Learning a foreign language abroad provides students with a valuable opportunity to be immersed in a foreign language, culture, and way of being. Living and studying in another Country enables students to fully engage with their foreign language of study not only in the classroom but also through the students’ daily existence. Language can only be improved through close engagement with language in many contexts, and students immersed in another culture will be highly motivated to become fluent, therefore improving their language level, including their level of speed reading.
The need to succeed at the academic level while living in a foreign language is a motivating factor for adopting constructive learning strategies like developing their speed reading ability. Developing speed reading ability is an important strategy that allows students to have a better function when dealing with more extensive material, which can be especially important in a multicultural context where pace is crucial to their academic experience (social situations included).
Ultimately, by combining critical thinking with cognitive language learning and speed reading for academic growth, students are able to engage deeply and academically with their work. The fact that students are able to experience different cultures and educational systems serves to facilitate a range of learning habits that allows a more rapid approach to reading in the language that the student is trying to master.
Why This is Important for Students
Greater Academic Success in another Language: If students are quickly reading, comprehending, and producing foreign language texts, it creates a positive momentum towards success on tests, assignments, assessments and projects.
Development of Lifelong Independent Learning: Speed reading in a foreign language is also a self-regulating agency for students, helping students engage and process new information quickly and sufficiently in their studies.
Based on this premise, although speed reading is not always a priority, many International schools, encourage speed reading in their programs for when they teach a language. If a learner-centered program promotes engaged, motivated, and independent cultural learning, speed reading in a foreign language is an important step toward academic success and fluency.