पढ़ना to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds,while during the fifteenth century the term 'reading' undoubtedly meant पढ़ना aloud.Only during the nineteenth century did silent पढ़ना become commonplace.

One should be wary,however,of assuming that silent पढ़ना came about simply because पढ़ना aloud was a distraction to others.Examinations of factors related to the historical development of silent पढ़ना have revealed that it became the usual mode of पढ़ना for most adults mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.

The last cnetury saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers.As the number of readers increased,the number of potential listeners declined and thus there was some reducion in the need to read aloud.As पढ़ना for the benefit of listeners grew less common,so came the flourishing of पढ़ना as a private activity in such public places as libraries,railway carriages and offices,where पढ़ना aloud would cause distraction to other readers.

Towards the end of the century,there was still considerable argument over whether पुस्तकें should be used for information या treated respectfully and over whether the पढ़ना of materials such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening.Indeed,this argument remains with us still in education.However,whatever its virtues,the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced द्वारा the printed mass media on the one hand and द्वारा पुस्तकें and periodicals for a specialised readership on the other.

द्वारा the end of the twentieth century,students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to पुस्तकें and to use पढ़ना skills which were inappropriate,if not impossible,for the oral reader.The social,cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term 'reading' implied.