Read Up - Speed Up, from Sky Software, has been developed to improve learner reading speeds and text-chunking skills and to counter sub-vocalisation. The student chooses from a bank of 60 texts which are labelled according to category: "business related", "science and technology", "general interest" and so on. The texts are well-chosen and interesting. (Do you know why having low cholesterol leaves you more prone to being murdered? Read the text on cholesterol to find out!)

Students choose the number of lines they want displayed at a time and the number of seconds they have to read them and the program runs through the text. At the end there is a short test on the content. The program is authorable, so you can add texts specifically relevant to your students. Simple and very effective!

Read Up - Speed Up provides useful preparation for IELTS and academic reading at the higher levels, and a valuable focus on reading skills at lower levels.