英語閱讀怎麼提高？

最新 04-29

4月20日晚上，美之橋學堂做了一場英語閱讀的雙語分享會，邀請了美國名校哥大畢業的 April 來暢聊閱讀的重要性以及良好的閱讀方式，這邊，我們將分享會的主要內容做了記錄，和沒有時間到場的學生和家長做分享~

分享會嘉賓簡介

Xu:More and more Chinese parents are sending their kids to American middle and high schools. There is appreantly a huge demand for American-style education. Could youbriefly introduceAmerican education systemwith a focus on how (your) schools train students』reading and writing skills? 美國的學校是怎麼教閱讀和寫作的？

April:Definitely. Whether it is public school or private, there is a huge educational focus onreading and writingto developcritical thinking skills. Usually inelementary school, there is a focus onsystematically developingreading skills. Most writing will bebook reportsthat require students tosummarizethe book』s plot theninclude some personal thoughts.

After elementary school, inmiddle and highs chool, students will continue to use books and novels as the basis for theirstudy of the humanities, but the topics and writing assignmentsbecome more complex.

For instance: Middle school students begin to readeasierAmerican classics likeCatcher in the Ryeor short stories that havechallenging themes. Startwritingshorteranalytical pieceson thecharacter, moreabstract ideaslikemetaphors, symbolism. (Catcher inthe Rye. Assignment will be about how does the main character』s view onsomething change over time).

High school students readthe most challengingAmerican classics. Often those texts arefundamentally theoreticalin nature. For example I tookpostmodern textsand learned aboutpostmodern literary theoryin senior year of high school.

【小結】美國的小學到中學再到高中會非常系統的去鍛煉孩子的閱讀寫作的能力，一步步來訓練孩子批判性思維，文本的思想會慢慢變得抽象。

小學階段，孩子更多的是學會總結+自己的感想；初中的時候，閱讀的話題和內容都會變得更加的複雜，會開始看美國的經典小說，如《麥田的守望者》，相對應的寫作分析和批判性也會越來越大，寫作作業可能會讓你去分析小說的人物、隱喻、象徵主義等等；高中的時候，學生會看很有挑戰性的美國經典作品，主題往往也是非常理論化的，比如說我高中的時候就選擇了後現代主義文學。

Xu:What is the idea behind such education philosophy? Why do schoolsfocus so much on reading and writing? 為什麼會是這樣的教學理念？

April:Through a systematic development of reading and writing skills, the educational system is meant tostrengthen primarily critical thinking skillsover time. Although from elementary to high school, the fundamental task is reading a book,then writing about it, the assignments get increasingly challenging over time. These assignmentsget more analyticalover time, developing students abilities tothink of a creative thesisgiven a source material.

This kind of educationprepares students well for college, where they will need toconduct independent researchordeep analysisof texts. Whereas in early middle and high schoole ducation, the skillset is to develop the ability to conduct critical analysis, in college, this is an expected requirement so that students can work with information to conduct research.

【小結】這種體系的一個顯著的特徵是學生讀完文本之後，會去基於文本來進行寫作，而且寫作的要求會隨著年級的增長，分析強度會變得越來越高，學生需要能寫出非常有創意的文本解讀，並能夠從文章中找到證據去支持觀點（Close Reading & Evidence-based Writing），這樣的訓練很好的為學生進入大學的研究做好充分準備。

Xu:Ahuge differenceI noticed between traditional English textbooks in China and those in the US is the extent of emphasis onliterature. According to the CCSS (美國英語教學大綱), textbooks for 4th graders consists of50% literary textsand 50% information texts; while for 8th graders, the two numbers are45%and 55%. For 12th graders, literary texts still make up30%of the reading material.Why is reading literature so important?美國學校用的教材和中國的一些流行的國外原版教材很大的一個區別就是，美國的教材非常注重文學文本閱讀，美國英語教學大綱裡面明確規定，4年級的學生讀物裡面要有50%的文學，8年級要有45%，到12年級，要有30%的文學讀物，你覺得，為什麼要學文學？

April:Literatureis thefundamental jumping off pointfor thecritical thinkingskills, because literature tends to behighly complex,multi-perspectival. Students must learnhow to make sense of informationthat can be highly abstract, and often have little coherent meaning upon first glance.Deep thinkingabout how to organize one』s thoughts about a highly complex text teaches students how to make sense of information that may not be so simple upon first glance.

【小結】文學是鍛煉批判性思考能力非常好的工具，文學文本內容複雜，主題和角度多樣，學生在學會處理抽象信息的同時，也會學會了多角度的深度思考。

Xu:Do you have any tips regardingwhat and howstudents should read? 學生應該如何去鍛煉閱讀能力呢？

April:While I advocatereading everythingandanythingwhen students are young, so they can develop a love for reading,the 「right」 texts guided by an experience teacherscan challenge studentsfor the better. It helps them tograsp complex ideas, andsee macro-themesand perhaps most importantlyteaches students what good writing is. In high school, students will often begin toread and respondto analytical pieces. These pieces will teach students how to respond analytically to other people』sarguments, but also these well-written pieces teach studentshow to craftgood pieces of writing.

【小結】我是非常提倡孩子去廣泛閱讀來培養閱讀興趣，在選擇文本的時候，要有老師引導著讀，因為老師能夠挑戰學生自己讀不出來的東西，而且老師能夠幫助學生掌握複雜的思想主題。老師還能告訴學生什麼是好的文章。高中階段，學生會讀很多的分析類文章，老師會教學生如何去批判回應別人的觀點，並寫出質量上乘的議論文。

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