Reading speed in Chinese

[Olle Linge]

Ever since I took my first advanced Chinese proficiency test (TOP, the standard test in Taiwan) back in 2009, I've known that reading speed is the biggest hurdle to overcome if I want to achieve any decent test score, simply because at that time, I failed the listening part partly because I couldn't read the questions quickly enough and the reading part entirely because I read too slowly. This isn't true for everybody, but I think it's quite common.

Last week, I did a mock test (also TOP advanced) to see how well I performed, and, to my surprise and delight, I got almost every question right in the reading section and was able to finish it on time. Now, I don't think this is because my ability to understand this kind of Chinese texts is significantly better than last time I took a real test. Instead, I attribute the difference to an increased reading speed.

I have a few questions for both native and non-native speakers:

• How quickly do you read? I know this is impossible to measure in any accurate way, but take a normal novel (not something horrendously difficult, just a normal novel) and see how far you get in ten minutes or so. I found that my current reading speed is around 150 characters/minute. That's when I re-read parts I don't understand the first time.
  
• What methods have you employed to learn to read more quickly? The most obvious way is of course to just read more and that's mostly what I've done. When I took the test I mentioned in the first paragraph, I hadn't read a single full-length novel for adults in Chinese, now I've read ten or so. Focusing on speed when reading is another obvious tip. Do you have any other suggestions that are specific to reading Chinese?
  
• For second language learners, what are your experiences related to proficiency tests and reading speed? Have you also found that reading speed influences almost all parts of the exam (listening, for instance)? Do you feel that reading speed is a much more important factor than actual ability to decipher written Chinese?
  

[imron]

You might find this thread (and the threads it links to) useful.

In my own informal research, native speakers range from 300-700 characters per minute (cpm), compared to many learners who languish slightly above or slightly below 100 cpm.

See my suggestions for improving reading speed here.

[rezaf]

This text has 470 characters and I read it in 157 seconds which means that I can read 179 characters per minute, curious to know how fast others can read it.

新华网北京9月30日电 记者30日从中国航天员中心获悉，天宫一号的环境控制和生命保障系统已经启动，转入自主运行状态，航天员进入“天宫”前将建立载人环境。目前，天宫一号暂不需建立适合航天员工作和生活的环境，因此，维持氧气、温湿度、二氧化碳、压力等指标的系统正在以无人方式运行。

我国载人航天工程环控生保系统专家李英斌在接受新华社记者采访时说，人在太空生存，必须要依靠航天器提供适宜的氧气、湿度、温度和压力等条件。尽管历次神舟任务已在这方面积累了成熟经验，但天宫一号任务仍然提出了巨大挑战，特别是很多产品要长期耐受温湿度、振动冲击、真空低压、失重等多种特殊环境考验。

李英斌说，这次任务提出了严苛的舱内微生物指标和可吸入颗粒物指标要求，为此，他们专门研制了微量有害气体净化装置，采取综合手段对舱内气体高效净化。此外，还首次带入了微生物净化装置，为航天员打造高度洁净的环境。

设备研制专家余青霓说：“舱内不是绝对无菌的，微生物遇到合适环境就会生长，人体代谢也是微生物产生的来源。它们不仅有害健康，时间长了还会腐蚀设备。”

据余青霓介绍，天宫一号还有专门的储箱回收人体呼吸、排汗等代谢产生的水汽。水汽会引起电器设备受潮短路，人在潮湿的环境中也不舒服。

[Olle Linge]

You might find this thread (and the threads it links to) useful.

In my own informal research, native speakers range from 300-700 characters per minute (cpm), compared to many learners who languish slightly above or slightly below 100 cpm.

See my suggestions for improving reading speed here.

Thanks, Imron, those threads contained quite a lot of information and useful tips. Rather than reviving old threads, here are some things I thought about when reading.

First, there is a big difference between reading to understand everything and reading to answer a specific question. You mentioned that one needs around 200-300 cpm to read everything on the HSK advanced level, but when I've taken any Chinese test, it's not about reading everything and even though I obviously don't read that quickly, I'm still able to finish the questions on time. How did you estimate the time needed to read the questions?

Second: I think character and word recognition is one of the most important factors. If I have to stop and look closely at a word in order to understand what it means, speed has already dropped by several magnitudes. This goes for characters and words alike. The same is true for traditional, simplified (see my answer to rezaf below).

Third: What do people think about reading the same text more than once? This idea honestly hadn't occurred to me before. Is it helpful to acquire reading speed? What's the rationale and/or research supporting this argument? Spontaneously, I would argue that it's more useful to read many different texts on the same level than it is reading the same text many times. I realise that it's useful to stop and focus on difficult passages, but that's not really the same thing as timing oneself reading an entire article a second time.

This text has 470 characters and I read it in 157 seconds which means that I can read 179 characters per minute, curious to know how fast others can read it.

187 seconds, but it has to be taken into account that I almost never read simplified characters and that I virtually had to stop several second before figuring out which some of the characters were. It's not that I don't know them, it's just that I've never read anything longer than a few pages in simplified Chinese and has achieved no fluency in reading them.

[Glenn]

I feel like there's some usefulness in reading the same text a few times to practice reading speed, but probably past a certain point it's not so helpful anymore and may even start to be a hinderance. I'm thinking that by getting used to it you get used to the patterns in it that will come up in other places and get used to reading them quickly, then when you see them other places you will read them just as quickly. But if it's to the point where you have it memorized, you'll probably want to read whatever else you're reading that may have a similar sentence beginning and read it as what you've memorized. I guess a lot of this depends on how long the text is. Are we talking novels? A few paragraphs? A short story?

Disclaimer: I don't have much evidence for this; it's just how I feel it would work.

[imron]

235 cpm on first pass, with stumbling blocks caused by initial unknown context and the occasional new/unfamiliar word.

My statistic for the HSK was based on a figure provided in an HSK textbook. I no longer have the exact reference, but this was for the old HSK, so now it might be different. I'm guessing they just calculated it based on the number of characters in the test and the time given for each section (note it was a figure just for reading everything, not necessarily answering questions).

Agree with your second point completely. This is why I recommend people choose content they completely understand when trying to improve reading speed.

As for reading the same text more than once, I have no empirical evidence or research, just my own observations based on my learning experience, but I do think this is useful. The rationale behind it is that you are already familiar with the text and can therefore concentrate completely on improving your speed without needing to think so much about the content. Often your brain just needs to get used to reading at a faster speed and this is a useful technique for allowing you to kick things up a notch. Once your brain is comfortable at higher speeds, this will then carry over into other reading, where it will start at the higher speed straight away. You'll note however that I also agree on the importance of reading many different texts and one of the key points in my other post was:

*Keep using new material - this shows that your actual reading speed is improving, rather than you just being familiar with the same passage of text.

I believe both play an important role in improving reading speed.

[heifeng]

The first time through I clocked in at just under 2 minutes reading a bit faster than a leisurely pace but not a scanning pace, for about 250 cpm. For a sanity check I went back and read it aloud the second time which was a bit slower and clocked in at 2:27. However, this news and subject is familiar to me so I can read and anticipate a bit in this text...plus it (like much Chinese news) is somewhat repetitive (also I encounter the English equivalents in my work quite a bit and in a wonderful document known as the DO-160 and that may have helped a bit). Give me some less familiar subjects where I second guess myself more and I'll be slower due to re-reads.

As for your questions

For increasing speed, I just read a little bit of any and everything to increase exposure to new vocab and subject matter, particularly news since the articles are short and varied. For example, as much as I am not a fan of 世界日报.. I actually scan through the headlines daily and read several articles everyday to see what random news there is and get exposure to Chinese vocab for news occurring locally in the US. If I want more 'Mainland' Chinese news though I'll read through 新京报 so I keep up to date with events and vocab over there. Also, I usually do daily 朗读 which is mainly for pronunciation practice, but after doing so many one can slowly predict how something is going to be written ~and~ I find it's a bit less passive since sometimes with reading you (read =me) can convince yourself you know something, but when you read it aloud sometimes it makes you think a bit more about the content--where to put the pauses, what should be stressed for emphasis...it's a good test for if you really know what the article is really trying to get across. PLUS, because I usually practice each 朗读 5-10 times, there is an opportunity to increase the speed each time....plus scanning ahead while reading is also useful.

For second language learners, what are your experiences related to proficiency tests and reading speed? Have you also found that reading speed influences almost all parts of the exam (listening, for instance)? Do you feel that reading speed is a much more important factor than actual ability to decipher written Chinese?

For the old advance HSK, the reading section was definitely the hardest section in my opinion b/c a lack of speed and time management in that section would absolutely cripple you. For the listening section scanning skills were also important to look at the answer choices and being able to select the correct one without frittering away your time. I can recall finishing the third section, the 综合 section, with way too much time to spare because I was in high gear from the previous two sections, but in that section the actual comprehension was more important.

Lastly, I've taken some other Chinese exams that weren't designed as 2nd language proficiency exams. In these exams both reading comprehension and scanning ability were important, but pure speed wasn't as critical since ample time was provided...however the ability to be able to read quickly enough and have a large enough vocab to actually comprehend the subject matter (at a moderately difficult level) was important.

[jkhsu]

Just had my native speaker friend try out rezaf's reading test. She clocked in at 900 cpm. As for me, I can't read it comfortably without a dictionary. So I'm at 0 cpm for news type readings for now.

[littleP]

This text has 470 characters and I read it in 157 seconds which means that I can read 179 characters per minute, curious to know how fast others can read it.

I finished reading it in 14 seconds so it's approximately 2000/min for me. I'm native speaker, BTW.

[heifeng]

Holy crap ...did she actually read it or scan through it. I don't even think I read English that fast hahahah. [unless I'm "reading" emails of course...paragraph I: blah blah blah blah...blah...paragraph II: blah and blah...yeah ok whatever sucka. over. delete ]

So in a highly unscientific comparison I have forcibly grabbed the first native speaker I could find (contender 乙) to read this and he clocked in at 282 cpm and his evaluation was" 这个一点都不好玩儿，都不熟悉“

So, let's assume there is plenty of room for variation within this 'native speaker' reading speed range

[anonymoose]

I find that my reading speed can vary greatly depending on my frame of mind. Sometimes I find that I am able to read quickly and smoothly, and at other times stumble over almost every character. I'm not really sure what the decisive factor in my reading speed is, but I think being relaxed is fairly important. Unfortunately, that means it is easy to sieze up in exams.

I think my speaking also suffers from a similar effect. On some days I feed that I can communicate very fluently and smoothly, and on other days, find it difficult even getting a complete sentence out.

And by the way, the phenomenon I'm talking about here is more than just the subject matter being considered. Obviously unfamiliar subject matter will be more difficult, but I'm talking about something beyond simply subject matter.

[jkhsu]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised myself. She said that she reads blocks of text at a time but that she comprehends it the same. She also said that she reads faster than her friends and reads a lot of books, often finishing a book a night. So I guess I'll take her word for it.

Also, I think (just guessing here) that one can probably read more Chinese characters / minute than English words. Physically, English words are just longer and you'd have to move your eyes more than reading Chinese characters.

[rezaf]

My Chinese friend read it at 340 cpm and I asked her to read it character by character. I think if we don't mention that they won't take it seriously and will just scan through it.

[jkhsu]

Was reading character by character part of the requirement? I was thinking this was more of a "speed" reading type of test. I mean even for English text, there are people who can read really fast and comprehend the same. I think the only way to do a scientific type of test is to have comprehension questions. I could care less how someone reads it as long as they comprehend the same. Don't you agree?

[lansu]

This thread reminds me of Woody Allen's famous line about speed-reading War and Peace ... "It's about Russia" ...

[jkhsu]

Alright, I decided to try out the same non-scientific test for English. In the spoiler tag is a typical New York Times article. I only took the first page which is 710 words. It's a science / health related article that is pretty easy to read. If I try to speed through it, I can do it in 450 wpm but if I try to read every word carefully (at a fast pace), I end up at 333 wpm. I'm not much of a reader and rarely read books unless it's for class. Anyone else want to give it a try?

BOSTON — As surgeons here sliced through tissue surrounding a failed artificial hip in a 53-year-old man, they discovered what looked like a biological dead zone. There were matted strands of tissue stained gray and black; a large strip of muscle near the hip no longer contracted.

Dr. Young-Min Kwon, the lead orthopedic surgeon on the operation, said the damage was more extensive than tests had indicated and might be permanent. “The prognosis is guarded,” Dr. Kwon said.

Similar scenes are playing out at hospitals nationwide as a growing number of patients seek to have faulty metal-on-metal artificial hips removed and replaced. More than a decade ago, some researchers had warned that the hips shed tiny pieces of metallic debris that posed potential health threats to patients. But those warnings were not heeded, and now doctors and patients face a growing public health problem as one of the country’s biggest medical device failures unfolds.

Some patients with all-metal hips — ones in which the cup and ball of a joint is made of metal — said they had been bounced from doctor to doctor who did not have the knowledge or the tools to properly diagnose the problem. And by the time they reach specialists like Dr. Kwon at Massachusetts General Hospital, potentially lasting damage may have already taken place.

Dr. Kwon’s recent patient, Robert Cartier, said he saw seven doctors over the course of a year who told him not to worry or who gave him shots for his pain. Diagnostic tests also did not point to a problem. Only recently have researchers determined that such scans need to be run in a specific way to detect the extent of metal-related damage.

“It really didn’t get picked up early. I picked it up,” Mr. Cartier said, adding that he learned of Dr. Kwon while researching metal hip problems on the Internet. “It is like buyer-beware kind of stuff, you are trusting the doctors.”

All orthopedic implants, regardless of their composition, shed debris as they wear. But researchers say they believe that the particles released by some all-metal hips pose a special threat because scavenger cells dispatched by the body to neutralize the debris convert it into biologically active metallic ions. In some patients, a chain reaction begins that can destroy tissue and muscle.

For researchers like Dr. Kwon, the challenge is to identify both those patients most at risk and the best ways to monitor them.

So far, only a small fraction of the estimated 500,000 people in this country who received an all-metal hip over the last decade have suffered injuries. But studies suggest that those numbers will grow and that tissue destruction is occurring silently in some patients who have no obvious symptoms like pain.

“What we are seeing is a complex phenomenon,” Dr. Kwon said.

A recent study in England found that all-metal hips were failing early at three times the rate of hips made from metal-and-plastic components, which can last 15 years or more. Most people recover well from a device replacement procedure, but specialists like Dr. Kwon are also seeing growing numbers of patients with complications.

Over the last year, his caseload has tripled and other specialized hospitals like Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have also seen cases. In the first six months of this year, the Food and Drug Administration received more than 5,000 reports about problems with the all-metal hips, according to a recent analysis by The New York Times.

In May 2010, Mr. Cartier, an electrical contractor who lives in Manchester, N.H., got an all-metal hip on his right side when he underwent a procedure known as “resurfacing,” an alternative to traditional hip replacement intended to provide more mobility. A similar procedure performed in 2009 on his left hip appeared to have gone well, but the more recent operation left him in pain.

Frustrated with advice from doctors, he took the trip to Boston to see Dr. Kwon. In 2007, the surgeon had arrived as a fellow at Oxford University in England just as problems with all-metal hips were emerging in England and Australia, two countries where the implants were used earlier than the United States. Since then, he has become a co-author of several studies linking metallic debris and aberrant tissue growth.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/health/01hip.html?ref=science

[renshanrenhai]

This text has 470 characters and I read it in 157 seconds which means that I can read 179 characters per minute, curious to know how fast others can read it.

新华网北京9月30日电 记者30日从中国航天员中心获悉，天宫一号的环境控制和生命保障系统已经启动，转入自主运行状态，航天员进入“天宫”前将建立载人环境。目前，天宫一号暂不需建立适合航天员工作和生活的环境，因此，维持氧气、温湿度、二氧化碳、压力等指标的系统正在以无人方式运行。

我国载人航天工程环控生保系统专家李英斌在接受新华社记者采访时说，人在太空生存，必须要依靠航天器提供适宜的氧气、湿度、温度和压力等条件。尽管历次神舟任务已在这方面积累了成熟经验，但天宫一号任务仍然提出了巨大挑战，特别是很多产品要长期耐受温湿度、振动冲击、真空低压、失重等多种特殊环境考验。

李英斌说，这次任务提出了严苛的舱内微生物指标和可吸入颗粒物指标要求，为此，他们专门研制了微量有害气体净化装置，采取综合手段对舱内气体高效净化。此外，还首次带入了微生物净化装置，为航天员打造高度洁净的环境。

设备研制专家余青霓说：“舱内不是绝对无菌的，微生物遇到合适环境就会生长，人体代谢也是微生物产生的来源。它们不仅有害健康，时间长了还会腐蚀设备。”

据余青霓介绍，天宫一号还有专门的储箱回收人体呼吸、排汗等代谢产生的水汽。水汽会引起电器设备受潮短路，人在潮湿的环境中也不舒服。

I finish this passage within one minute, but to be frank, i don't see this is a good material for reading and if the efficiency of one's reading is judged by this kind of reading materials, i have to say i am not a good reader. Almost no details left in my mind after i went through this piece of news, though i am a native speaker... This material proves if one is not familiar with the topic of a passage especially one around professional background information, even a native speak could hardly be an efficient reader.

[heifeng]

Sure! I read this English article somewhat carefully and with some (maybe too much?) interest so I could potentially provide a summary and also came in at just over 300 wpm. (It actually brought up some flashbacks of one of my biomaterials classes back in my school days...)

But thanks, now feel like I'm a slow reader in both languages heheheh. Never really thought so before. j/k

[jkhsu]

But thanks, now feel like I'm a slow reader in both language heheheh.

You probably retained more than me. I was still speeding through it both times. The 300 wpm range is about right if one is to read every word and not miss anything. One thing I noticed is that the second time when I went slow, I did pick up a few more things but they weren't that significant, just more technical details.

Anyways, the point of this was to see how English wpm compares to Chinese cpm. If we take imron's findings of Chinese cpm from 300 to 700, perhaps, english wpm is still a bit lower? I don't know, we'd still need more data from people.

[rezaf]

@sally one of the reasons that I chose this one is that it's not an easy topic for most people because I didn't want people to scan through it but probably I should have chosen something even more difficult or boring.

@jkhsu the only way we can make it more scientific is to choose something that most people are not familiar with, then we can ask people some comprehension questions and then only accept the results of the people who give the correct answers.