英国大人们为孩子阅读习惯头疼

That means making children comfortable around books, with soft-furnished areas in classrooms and personalised guidance so that each child can be directed to the books he or she might enjoy. School librarians, whose ranks are at risk from government funding cuts, should be seen as “book experts”, says Penguin’s Prior. Above all, while successive governments have fretted about test scores, publishers want politicians to recognise the importance of reading for pleasure. If that can be achieved, they argue, imaginative teaching methods will surely spring forth.
这意味着要让孩子们乐意阅读，即把教室布置得温馨得体，并提供个性化帮助，指导每个孩子阅读自己喜欢的书籍。普赖尔说，学校图书馆管理员应该视作“图书专家”，而他们的地位因政府经费削减而岌岌可危。总之，几届政府都在为学生的考试成绩忧心忡忡之际，出版商则希望政客们认识到快乐阅读的重要性。他们振振有词地说，如果这个目标能够实现，那么富有想象力的教学必将源源不断地迸发。

The social context is crucial. A 2011 National Literacy Trust survey of British children found that a third of respondents did not have books of their own. Of these, 19 per cent were below the reading level expected for their age, compared with 7.6 per cent of those who did own books.
社会环境也至关重要。2011年英国国家文教信托(National Literacy Trust)对全国学生的调查研究表明：接受调查者中有三分之一没有个人的图书。其中，19%学生的阅读能力低于其年龄要求的标准，而对拥有个人图书的学生来说，这个比例仅为7.6%。

Inequalities were also picked up in the OECD study. England and Northern Ireland showed “one of the stronger associations between socio­economic background and literacy proficiency” among the countries tested. What’s more, the report concluded, “unlike most other countries, this association is stronger among young people than among the overall adult population”.
经合组织的研究中，还涉及了不平等问题。在接受测试的所有国家中，英国与北爱尔兰呈现了“社会经济背景与读写能力之间存在更紧密的关联度”。而且，该研究报告得出以下结论：“与其它国家不一样的是，这种关联度在英国年轻人中比成年人更为突出。”

Such issues have come to the fore in a parliamentary inquiry into adult literacy now under way. “Whether or not you use the word ‘class’, it is about home environments,” Helen Casey, an adult literacy expert, told MPs at its first session last month. “Kids spend 12 per cent of their time in school; they spend the rest of their time not in school. The culture they grow up in is really important,” said another expert, David Hughes. Yet at least one of the MPs seemed sceptical of that approach, suggesting that amounted to “excuses for the education profession”.
如今英国议会正在调查成年人的读写能力，这些问题已经表露无遗。“不管用不用‘社会阶层’这个词，归根到底就是家庭环境影响。”上个月第一次议会全会时，成人读写能力专家海伦•凯茜(Helen Casey)这样对全体议员说。“孩子们12%的时间呆在学校，其它时间则都在校外，他们成长的文化氛围至关重要。”另一专家大卫•休斯(David Hughes)说。然而，至少有一位议员似乎对这种说法持怀疑态度，暗示此举会导致“为教师找开脱借口”。

That is not the only apparent disconnect between educationalists and politicians. Gove wants children to study more books, and has amended the GCSE syllabus accordingly. His critics worry that will turn children away from reading for pleasure. “Teachers almost don’t have time for children to be relaxed around books,” says Sue Cowley, an educational author. “Reading starts to become something that’s done to be measured, not done out of choice.”
这并非教育家与政客意见唯一明显的南辕北辙之处。教育大臣戈夫希望孩子们读更多书，并为此修改了英国普通中等教育证书(GCSE)考试大纲。批评他的人则担心此举会让孩子离快乐阅读渐行渐远。“教师几乎没有让孩子放松阅读的时间，” 教育作家苏•考利(Sue Cowley)说。“阅读不是因为个人兴趣使然，而是开始成为考量的工具。”

Some also detect an unwelcome snobbishness in Gove’s desire for the books to be harder – he has expressed particular gripes against John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (too short) and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (too easy). “If someone’s reading a football magazine, shouldn’t we just be happy that they’re reading?” says Richard Mollet of the Publishers Association. “If a child is reading and enjoying the immersion, then surely that’s the most important thing.”
从教育大臣戈夫希望增加书籍难度的意图中，有些专家还嗅出了一丝势利意味，这着实让人反感————他曾经大大抱怨斯坦贝克(John Steinbeck)的《人鼠之间》(Of Mice and Men)太过简短以及斯蒂芬妮•梅尔(Stephenie Meyer)的《暮光之城》(Twilight)太过浅显。“如果读的是足球杂志，我们难道不该为此感到高兴吗？”英国出版协会(Publishers Association)执行总裁理查德•摩勒(Richard Mollet)说。“孩子阅读书籍，并且沉醉其中，这才是最最重要的事。”

While that debate rumbles on, a wave of technological change means that children may find it harder to reserve time for reading. Technology has helped people to enjoy books – a backlit e-reader means no more torches under the duvet – but it has helped other media more. Long train journeys once meant hours reading or hours gazing out the window. Now, with an iPad, they can mean computer games and the previous evening’s TV programmes.
尽管上述争论仍没完没了，但新一波科技进步意味着孩子们越来越难预留出阅读时间。科技帮助人类从书籍中获得了快乐————背光式电子阅读器意味着无需再拿着手电趴在被窝中看书——但它也帮助了其它媒介。过去坐火车长时间旅行意味着可以长时间读书或是眺望窗外美景。如今有了iPad，长途旅行意味着玩电脑游戏以及补看前一天晚上的电视节目。

One option for publishers is to follow the music industry, encouraging authors to do even more events and engage more with social media so as to create “touchpoints” with their fans. Another is to adapt the books themselves. Interactive ebooks already offer multiple endings (a digital variation on the theme of “if you choose door A, turn to page 78”), and publishers are investing in apps that seek to lure infrequent readers with video and audio embellishments.
出版商的选择之一就是步音乐产业之后尘，鼓励作家参与更多活动，与社交媒体打更多交道，以便创造粉丝“点击量”；另一种选择则是自己改编图书。交互式电子书籍已经提供多种结局可能（如数字式主题变更：“若选A门，请翻至第78页”），出版商已出资开发了多款应用软件，它们用润色过的视频及音频来努力吸引不太读书的读者。

“There’s very much an experimental attitude at the moment,” says Jake Manion, creative director at animation company Aardman, which worked on HarperCollins’s The Hobbit app. “Smartphones haven’t been around that long and people are still writing the stories in the way they’ve always done.” The biggest change, Manion argues, will come in “five to 10 years”, by which point writers will be “so familiar with the technology that they’ll be creating stories in different ways”.
“目前这完全只是抱着试试看的态度，”杰克•马尼恩(Jake Manion)说，他是动画公司阿德曼(Aardman)创意总监，该公司曾开发了哈珀柯林斯(HarperCollins)出版小说《霍比特人》的应用软件。“智能手机问世的时间还不长，作家如今仍以传统方式创作。”马尼恩说，最大的变化将发生在“5-10年后”，届时作家将“对科技耳熟能详，因此能以不同方式进行创作”。

And then, perhaps, football practice might wait.
也许到那时候，连玩足球或许都得靠边站了。