An experiment was conducted with twenty native French speakers using a set of four reading passages, each followed by five multiple choice comprehension questions. Each subject was tested twice when reading aloud and twice when reading silently. Other test materials included a pre-test designed to check whether certain lexical items from the reading passages were unknown to the subjects and a cloze test to provide an independent measure of the subject's English proficiency. Results confirm that: (1) silent reading is more rapid than reading aloud; (2) silent reading is a more efficient means to comprehension; and (3) divided attention, due to the added task of articulation, causes reading aloud to be less efficient. There are important differences between reading aloud and silent reading in regard to how much meaning each yields. Within each mode there are variations governed by the reader's purpose. Reading pedagogy in schools typically ignores silent reading skills such as scanning, search reading, skimming, receptive reading, and responsive reading. The awareness of the differences noted would do much to improve the effectiveness of reading instruction. Appendices include test materials, correct answers, item analyses, an example of test procedure, and notes on statistical techniques used. (JK)