VOA慢速英语:How a Small Change in Teaching May Create Better Readers

Teachers and parents usually call attention to the pictures when they read storybooks to preschool children. But a new study suggests that calling attention to the words and letters on the page may lead to better readers.
当老师们与家长们在给学龄前儿童讲故事时，往往会专注于图片。但一项新研究表明，专注于书本上的文字和字母，会让我们成为更好的朗读者。

The two-year study compared children who were read to this way in class with children who were not. Those whose teachers most often discussed the print showed clearly higher skills in reading, spelling and understanding. These results were found one year and even two years later.
这项为期两年的研究，将以这种方式朗读的班级与没有采用该方式的班级儿童进行比较。那些老师更多讨论文字的儿童明显表现出更佳的阅读，拼写，理解能力。该研究结果在一到两年之后被发现。

Shayne Piasta, an assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University, was an author of the study. She says most preschool teachers would find this method manageable and would need only a small change in the way they teach. They already read storybooks in class. The only difference would be increased attention to the printed text.
Shayne Piasta是俄亥俄州立大学教学法方面的一位助理教授。她是该研究的作者之一。她说，大多数幼儿教师会发现这个方法很容易做到，只需在教学方式上做出小小的改动。他们已经在课堂上朗读故事书。唯一的区别就是更加重视文本内容。

Ms. Piasta says if you get children to pay attention to letters and words, it makes sense that they will do better at word recognition and spelling. But she says research suggests that very few parents and teachers do this in a systematic way.
Piasta女士称，如果你让孩子们注意字母和单词，这对于他们在认字和拼写方面做得更好是非常有意义的。但是她说，极少数家长和教师在这方面有一个系统的方式。

The report appears in the journal Child Development.
该报告发表在“儿童发展”杂志上。

More than three hundred children age four and five were observed in classrooms in Ohio and Virginia. The children came from poor families and were below average in their language skills. This put them at risk for reading problems later.
超过300名介于4到5岁间的儿童在俄亥俄州和弗吉尼亚州的教室中接受观察。这些儿童来自贫困家庭，并且他们的语言能力低于平均水平。这会让他们以后存在阅读问题的风险。

For thirty weeks, the children took part in a program called Project STAR, for Sit Together And Read. The project is based at Ohio State. It tests the short-term and long-term results of reading regularly to preschool children in their classrooms.
这些儿童参加了一个被称为Project STAR的项目，坐在一起朗读，为期30周。该项目的总部设在俄亥俄州。该项目测试了学龄前儿童在课堂长的常规阅读的短期与长期结果。

Laura Justice at Ohio State was an investigator for the study. She heads the Preschool Language and Literacy Laboratory. She says one of the areas that interests researchers is known as the "locus of learning."
Laura Justice是该研究在俄亥俄州的一名研究员。她负责由于语言与读写能力实验室。她说，其中一个让研究人员感兴趣的领域是“学习轨迹”。

LAURA JUSTICE: "Where is it that a child learns something? Where is that space? We think we have identified it pretty well in terms of fostering some children’s knowledge about print."
LAURA JUSTICE: "孩子们从哪里获取知识? 就促进孩子们关于文字知识的学习而言，我们已经确认是相当不错的。"

Professor Justice says this knowledge can be gained by having focused discussions when reading a book to a child.
Justice教授称，当给孩子们朗读一本书时，通过有针对性的讨论让孩子们获取知识。
LAURA JUSTICE: "We think we understand how information about print is transmitted from the adult to the child. And we think we have centered on this intervention that really helps adults center in on the things that children need and want to learn."
LAURA JUSTICE: "我们认为，我们了解有关文字信息如何通过成人传导给儿童。 而且我们认为，通过这种干预，帮助成年人能够集中于孩子们所需所想的知识。"

There are different ways that adults can talk to children about print. They can point to a letter and discuss it, and even trace the shape with a finger. They can point out a word: "This is 'dog.'" They can discuss the meaning of the print or how the words tell the story. And they can talk about the organization of the print -- for instance, showing how words are written left to right in English.
关于成人对孩子们讲解文字，有多种不同的方式。他们可以通过指着字母教学，也可以用手指比划。他们可以指着一个单词说：“这是狗”。他们可以讲解文字的意思，或者单词在故事中表达了什么。而且他们也可以讲授文字的组成，例如，英语单词从左到右如何拼写。