Subvocal speech, reading rate, and comprehension

The relationship of subvocal speech and reading rate to comprehension of 25 children, ranging from 8 to 15 years of age, was investigated by means of electromyographic (EMG) recordings taken while the subjects silently read two meaningful passages. The first was orthographically regular, and the second was composed of approximately sixty percent homophones, Labial muscle action recordings, latencies, and comprehension measures were obtained. Variables derived from these measures were used to predict reading age. Profiles derived from the EMGs provided information about how each reader processed the information from the reading passages. The empirical results of the study provide strong support for the valuable role of subvocal speech in the extraction of information and the importance of readers demonstrating the ability to use flexibility of the reading process when reading for meaning.