
How to Read Aloud - tintinnabula
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n17/irina-dumitrescu/how-to-read-aloud
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falcolas
If only reading aloud to others couldn't be construed as a breach of modern
copyright clauses.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means ... without the prior
written permission of the publisher

~~~
phobosanomaly
It's unfortunate. I benefit greatly from having audio playing along while I
read complex nonfiction.

The only way I know of to get audio recordings of a textbook (other than
brain-melting text-to-speech) is to....record it yourself.

Unfortunately, after recording audiobooks of a couple of 900-page textbooks I
lost my enthusiasm.

It would be great if there was a community of people doing this, and we could
share the burden.

I can't imagine it hurting the publisher's bottom-line, as the audio of a
textbook is pretty useless without the diagrams and tables and such, so you
need the book anyway.

If textbooks came with decent audio editions, outline notes, and Anki decks
linked to page numbers it would be awesome.

I could see it coming from a publisher like NoStarch, but Elsevier, no way
that's happening.

It would be a good deal for the publishers too, since students don't seem to
really buy/read the books anymore as they've ballooned up to hundreds of
dollars and thousands of pages of crap to slog through. I'd love to see a
textbook that's actually designed for the 21st century in some way other than
adding a DRM-wrapped digital edition with a couple extra videos and figures!

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hpoe
So found out an interesting fact the other day. I was reading the book
Moonwalking with Einstein and when reviewing ancient memory practices I found
out something that I was never told before.

It turns out that the idea of separating words didn't appear until about the
9th century in Europe, which mean you had to read out loud in order to
understand what text was saying. In fact for a long time being able to read
silently was considered an almost magical ability. I find it fascinating how
many things we just take for granted that really are big breakthroughs.

~~~
me_me_me
And here we are, hearing about people who can read without saying what they
are reading in their minds!

I tied few times to develop this ability and failed each time.

Apparently without this inner narrator voice you can consume books much
faster.

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powersnail
Do modern UK pupil not read aloud?

The tone of the article seems to suggest that reading aloud was somehow a
uniquely prevalent act in pre-modern education. It didn't specifically mention
whether it is still used in modern education.

But surely --- hopefully --- people still read aloud all the time? At least in
Chinese education, students of all ages are expected to read aloud, in both
the course of literature and the course of foreign languages.

~~~
gxqoz
In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited. Certainly
it's not common to have a class on rhetoric.

One of my hobbies is quizbowl, a type of trivia competition. Quizbowl
questions need to be read aloud with speed and clarity. At higher levels they
will have a lot of unfamiliar words. A typical college freshman usually isn't
very good at this (I certainly wasn't). After practice they often improve, but
some people (including myself) never get great at it--and some never even to
an acceptable level.

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
> In the US you still do some reading aloud but it's very limited

It's been 20 years, but I remember just going "Ugh" at how slow some of my
classmates would read when reading out loud. Many of them would read slower
than half the speed that they would normally talk.

I read much faster than I can talk, and when reading something to someone, I
often find myself paraphrasing things on the fly. I don't say the words on the
page, but a reinterpretation to something shorter.

~~~
jeffrallen
I do the voices. And also dynamically reduce vocabulary level, or add in
exclamations or slang expressions. Reading is fun when you've got an
appreciative audience!

