<ul>
<li>The ancient art of reading out aloud has many benefits like better recall, a better understanding of complex content, and even strengthening of emotional bonds.</li>
<li>In most of our literary history, reading something meant reading it aloud by default, so that one can also listen to what is being read. </li>
<li>Silent reading, or reading just in our heads is now the norm, and we keep bottling the words in our heads quietly.</li>
</ul>

Silent Reading Vs Reading It Aloud

<ul>
<li>The Production Effect: Researchers have found that people remember words and texts better if those are read out aloud, as compared to silent reading.</li>
<li>The Generation Effect: Words said aloud while giving a response to a question stand out, and are distinctive.</li>
<li>The Enactment Effect: Spoken words also let us visualize, imagine and even enact certain words, strongly associating them with our memory.</li>
</ul>

The Many Effects Of Reading Out Aloud

Reading aloud is great for elderly people and can delay the onset of dementia and also make certain memory problems detectable at an early stage.

Pausing Memory Decline By Reading Aloud

Many of us read aloud more often than we realize. Some automatic reading aloud happens when we have to understand complex legal and academic text, or follow instructions from a manual.
Reading out brings joy, comfort and a sense of belonging among our loved ones, strengthening the emotional bonding.

Humans Read Aloud Naturally

Even just silently mouthing the words makes them more memorable, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-012-0210-8" dir="ltr">though to a lesser extent</a>. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28033738/" dir="ltr">Researchers at Ariel University in Israel</a> discovered that the memory-enhancing effect also works if the readers have speech difficulties, and cannot fully articulate the words they read aloud.<BLOCKQUOTE><h2>Reading aloud can also make certain memory problems more obvious, and could be helpful in detecting such issues early on</h2></BLOCKQUOTE>MacLeod says one reason why people remember the spoken words is that “they stand out, they’re distinctive, because they were done aloud, and this gives you an additional basis for memory”.We are generally better at recalling distinct, unusual events, and also, events that require active involvement. For instance, generating a word in response to a question makes it more memorable, a phenomenon known as the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3556209/" dir="ltr">generation effect</a>. Similarly, if someone prompts you with the clue “a tiny infant, sleeps in a cradle, begins with b”, and you answer baby, you’re going to remember it better than if you simply read it, MacLeod says.Another way of making words stick is to enact them, for instance by bouncing a ball (or imagining bouncing a ball) while saying “bounce a ball”. This is called the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03202759" dir="ltr">enactment effect</a>. Both of these effects are closely related to the production effect: they allow our memory to associate the word with a distinct event, and thereby make it easier to retrieve later.The production effect is strongest if we read aloud ourselves. But listening to someone else read can benefit memory in other ways. In a study led by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5642403/" dir="ltr">researchers at the University of Perugia in Italy</a>, students read extracts from novels to a group of elderly people with dementia over a total of 60 sessions. The listeners performed better in memory tests after the sessions than before, possibly because the stories made them draw on their own memories and imagination, and helped them sort past experiences into sequences. “It seems that actively listening to a story leads to more intense and deeper information processing,” the researchers concluded.&nbsp;<picture><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p08rsjqy.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p08rsjqy.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p08rsjqy.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p08rsjqy.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsjqy.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsjqy.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p08rsjqy.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p08rsjqy.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><img title="Many religious texts and prayers are recited out loud as a way of underlining their importance (Credit: Alamy)" src="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsjqy.jpg" alt="Many religious texts and prayers are recited out loud as a way of underlining their importance (Credit: Alamy)" width="687" height="386"></picture>Many religious texts and prayers are recited out loud as a way of underlining their importance (Credit: Alamy)Reading aloud can also make certain memory problems more obvious, and could be helpful in detecting such issues early on. In one study, people with early <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32584071/" dir="ltr">Alzheimer’s disease</a> were found to be more likely than others to make certain errors when reading aloud.There is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-012-0249-6" dir="ltr">some evidence</a> that many of us are intuitively aware of the benefits of reading aloud, and use the technique more than we might realise.Sam Duncan, an adult literacy researcher at University College London, conducted a two-year <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/research/projects/reading-aloud-britain-today" dir="ltr">study of more than 500 people all over Britain</a> during 2017-2019 to find out if, when and how they read aloud. Often, her participants would start out by saying they didn’t read aloud – but then realised that actually, they did.“Adult reading aloud is widespread,” she says. “It’s not something we only do with children, or something that only happened in the past.”Some said they read out funny emails or messages to entertain others. Others read aloud prayers and blessings for spiritual reasons. Writers and translators read drafts to themselves to hear the rhythm and flow. People also read aloud to make sense of recipes, contracts and densely written texts.“Some find it helps them unpack complicated, difficult texts, whether it’s legal, academic, or Ikea-style instructions,” Duncan says. “Maybe it’s about slowing down, saying it and hearing it.”<BLOCKQUOTE><h2>If reading aloud delivers such benefits, why did humans ever switch to silent reading?</h2></BLOCKQUOTE>For many respondents, reading aloud brought joy, comfort and a sense of belonging. Some read to friends who were sick or dying, as “a way of escaping together somewhere”, Duncan says. One woman recalled her mother reading poems to her, and talking to her, in Welsh. After her mother died, the woman began reading Welsh poetry aloud to recreate those shared moments. A Tamil speaker living in London said he read Christian texts in Tamil to his wife. On Shetland, a poet read aloud poetry in the local dialect to herself and others.“There were participants who talked about how when someone is reading aloud to you, you feel a bit like you’re given a gift of their time, of their attention, of their voice,” Duncan recalls. “We see this in the reading to children, that sense of closeness and bonding, but I don’t think we talk about it as much with adults.”If reading aloud delivers such benefits, why did humans ever switch to silent reading? One clue may lie in those clay tablets from the ancient Near East, written by professional scribes in a script called cuneiform.<picture><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p08rsl3h.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:1200px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p08rsl3h.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p08rsl3h.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:880px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1280x720/p08rsl3h.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsl3h.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:576px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsl3h.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p08rsl3h.webp" type="image/webp"><source media="(min-width:224px)" srcset="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p08rsl3h.jpg" type="image/jpeg"><img title="Many of us read aloud far more often in our daily lives than we perhaps realise (Credit: Alamy)" src="https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/976x549/p08rsl3h.jpg" alt="Many of us read aloud far more often in our daily lives than we perhaps realise (Credit: Alamy)" width="687" height="386"></picture>Many of us read aloud far more often in our daily lives than we perhaps realise (Credit: Alamy)Over time, the scribes developed an ever faster and more efficient way of writing this script. Such fast scribbling has a crucial advantage, according to Karenleigh&nbsp;Overmann, a cognitive archaeologist at the University of Bergen, Norway who studies how <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/beyond-writing-the-development-of-literacy-in-the-ancient-near-east/5897ECAEB0B2623B0EF510B316873AB5" dir="ltr">writing affected human brains and behaviour</a> in the past. “It keeps up with the speed of thought much better,” she says.Reading aloud, on the other hand, is relatively slow due to the extra step of producing a sound.“The ability to read silently, while confined to highly proficient scribes, would have had distinct advantages, especially, speed,” says Overmann. “Reading aloud is a behaviour that would slow down your ability to read quickly.”<BLOCKQUOTE><h2>Perhaps the ancient scribes, just like us today, enjoyed having two reading modes at their disposal</h2></BLOCKQUOTE>In his book on ancient literacy, Reading and Writing in Babylon, the French assyriologist Dominique Charpin quotes a letter by a scribe called Hulalum that hints at silent reading in a hurry. Apparently, Hulalum switched between “seeing” (ie, silent reading) and “saying/listening” (loud reading), depending on the situation. In his letter, he writes that he cracked open a clay envelope – Mesopotamian tablets came encased inside a thin casing of clay to prevent prying eyes from reading them – thinking it contained a tablet for the king.“I saw that it was written to [someone else] and therefore did not have the king listen to it,” writes Hulalum.Perhaps the ancient scribes, just like us today, enjoyed having two reading modes at their disposal: one fast, convenient, silent and personal; the other slower, noisier, and at times more memorable.In a time when our interactions with others and the barrage of information we take in are all too transient, perhaps it is worth making a bit more time for reading out loud. Perhaps you even gave it a try with this article, and enjoyed hearing it in your own voice?--Join one million Future fans by liking us on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCFuture/" dir="ltr">Facebook</a>, or follow us on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/BBC_Future" dir="ltr">Twitter</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bbcfuture_official/" dir="ltr">Instagram</a>.If you liked this story,&nbsp;<a href="http://pages.emails.bbc.com/subscribe/?ocid=fut.bbc.email.we.email-signup" dir="ltr">sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter</a>, called “The Essential List”. A handpicked selection of stories from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/" dir="ltr">BBC Future</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/" dir="ltr">Culture</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/" dir="ltr">Worklife</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/" dir="ltr">Travel</a>, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Most adults retreat into a personal, quiet world inside their heads when they are reading, but we may be missing out on some vital benefits when we do this.

Problem Solving

Even just silently mouthing the words makes them more memorable, <a dir="ltr" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-012-0210-8">though to a lesser extent </a>. <a dir="ltr" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28033738/">Researchers at Ariel University in Israel </a>discovered that the memory-enhancing effect also works if the readers have speech difficulties, and cannot fully articulate the words they read aloud.

Reading aloud can also make certain memory problems more obvious, and could be helpful in detecting such issues early on

MacLeod says one reason why people remember the spoken words is that “they stand out, they’re distinctive, because they were done aloud, and this gives you an additional basis for memory”.

We are generally better at recalling distinct, unusual events, and also, events that require active involvement. For instance, generating a word in response to a question makes it more memorable, a phenomenon known as the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3556209/">generation effect </a>. Similarly, if someone prompts you with the clue “a tiny infant, sleeps in a cradle, begins with b”, and you answer baby, you’re going to remember it better than if you simply read it, MacLeod says.

Another way of making words stick is to enact them, for instance by bouncing a ball (or imagining bouncing a ball) while saying “bounce a ball”. This is called the <a dir="ltr" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03202759">enactment effect </a>. Both of these effects are closely related to the production effect: they allow our memory to associate the word with a distinct event, and thereby make it easier to retrieve later.

The production effect is strongest if we read aloud ourselves. But listening to someone else read can benefit memory in other ways. In a study led by <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5642403/">researchers at the University of Perugia in Italy </a>, students read extracts from novels to a group of elderly people with dementia over a total of 60 sessions. The listeners performed better in memory tests after the sessions than before, possibly because the stories made them draw on their own memories and imagination, and helped them sort past experiences into sequences. “It seems that actively listening to a story leads to more intense and deeper information processing,” the researchers concluded.

Many religious texts and prayers are recited out loud as a way of underlining their importance (Credit: Alamy)

Reading aloud can also make certain memory problems more obvious, and could be helpful in detecting such issues early on. In one study, people with early <a dir="ltr" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32584071/">Alzheimer’s disease </a>were found to be more likely than others to make certain errors when reading aloud.

There is <a dir="ltr" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-012-0249-6">some evidence </a>that many of us are intuitively aware of the benefits of reading aloud, and use the technique more than we might realise.

Sam Duncan, an adult literacy researcher at University College London, conducted a two-year <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/research/projects/reading-aloud-britain-today">study of more than 500 people all over Britain </a>during 2017-2019 to find out if, when and how they read aloud. Often, her participants would start out by saying they didn’t read aloud – but then realised that actually, they did.

“Adult reading aloud is widespread,” she says. “It’s not something we only do with children, or something that only happened in the past.”

Some said they read out funny emails or messages to entertain others. Others read aloud prayers and blessings for spiritual reasons. Writers and translators read drafts to themselves to hear the rhythm and flow. People also read aloud to make sense of recipes, contracts and densely written texts.

“Some find it helps them unpack complicated, difficult texts, whether it’s legal, academic, or Ikea-style instructions,” Duncan says. “Maybe it’s about slowing down, saying it and hearing it.”

If reading aloud delivers such benefits, why did humans ever switch to silent reading?

For many respondents, reading aloud brought joy, comfort and a sense of belonging. Some read to friends who were sick or dying, as “a way of escaping together somewhere”, Duncan says. One woman recalled her mother reading poems to her, and talking to her, in Welsh. After her mother died, the woman began reading Welsh poetry aloud to recreate those shared moments. A Tamil speaker living in London said he read Christian texts in Tamil to his wife. On Shetland, a poet read aloud poetry in the local dialect to herself and others.

“There were participants who talked about how when someone is reading aloud to you, you feel a bit like you’re given a gift of their time, of their attention, of their voice,” Duncan recalls. “We see this in the reading to children, that sense of closeness and bonding, but I don’t think we talk about it as much with adults.”

If reading aloud delivers such benefits, why did humans ever switch to silent reading? One clue may lie in those clay tablets from the ancient Near East, written by professional scribes in a script called cuneiform.

Many of us read aloud far more often in our daily lives than we perhaps realise (Credit: Alamy)

Over time, the scribes developed an ever faster and more efficient way of writing this script. Such fast scribbling has a crucial advantage, according to Karenleigh Overmann, a cognitive archaeologist at the University of Bergen, Norway who studies how <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/beyond-writing-the-development-of-literacy-in-the-ancient-near-east/5897ECAEB0B2623B0EF510B316873AB5">writing affected human brains and behaviour </a>in the past. “It keeps up with the speed of thought much better,” she says.

Reading aloud, on the other hand, is relatively slow due to the extra step of producing a sound.

“The ability to read silently, while confined to highly proficient scribes, would have had distinct advantages, especially, speed,” says Overmann. “Reading aloud is a behaviour that would slow down your ability to read quickly.”

Perhaps the ancient scribes, just like us today, enjoyed having two reading modes at their disposal

In his book on ancient literacy, Reading and Writing in Babylon, the French assyriologist Dominique Charpin quotes a letter by a scribe called Hulalum that hints at silent reading in a hurry. Apparently, Hulalum switched between “seeing” (ie, silent reading) and “saying/listening” (loud reading), depending on the situation. In his letter, he writes that he cracked open a clay envelope– Mesopotamian tablets came encased inside a thin casing of clay to prevent prying eyes from reading them – thinking it contained a tablet for the king.

“I saw that it was written to [someone else] and therefore did not have the king listen to it,” writes Hulalum.

Perhaps the ancient scribes, just like us today, enjoyed having two reading modes at their disposal: one fast, convenient, silent and personal; the other slower, noisier, and at times more memorable.

In a time when our interactions with others and the barrage of information we take in are all too transient, perhaps it is worth making a bit more time for reading out loud. Perhaps you even gave it a try with this article, and enjoyed hearing it in your own voice?

Join one million Future fans by liking us on  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCFuture/">Facebook </a>, or follow us on  <a dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/BBC_Future">Twitter </a> or  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.instagram.com/bbcfuture_official/">Instagram </a>.

If you liked this story,  <a dir="ltr" href="http://pages.emails.bbc.com/subscribe/?ocid=fut.bbc.email.we.email-signup">sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter </a>, called “The Essential List”. A handpicked selection of stories from  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.bbc.com/future/">BBC Future </a>,  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/">Culture </a>,  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/">Worklife </a>, and  <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/">Travel </a>, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Why you should read this out loud

Silent Reading Vs Reading It Aloud

The Many Effects Of Reading Out Aloud

Pausing Memory Decline By Reading Aloud

Humans Read Aloud Naturally

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

How to Remember What You Read

How to Remember What You Read

How to Read Like a Writer

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Why you should read this out loud

Silent Reading Vs Reading It Aloud

The Many Effects Of Reading Out Aloud

Pausing Memory Decline By Reading Aloud

Humans Read Aloud Naturally

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

How to Remember What You Read

How to Remember What You Read

How to Read Like a Writer

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career