1、There are a number of contributing factors as to why many children find it difficult to learn to read English. They are comprehensively covered in the book, Dealing with Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties, written by educational psychologists, Antony Earnshaw and Annabel Seargeant and published
2、 by Pearson Education. The authors, who have spent nearly 20 years investigating reading development as research psychologists, support the view that in general, poor reading skills are the consequence of ineffective and inadequate instructional approaches. What this means is that, in general, child
3、ren fail to learn to read English easily or well because they are not taught properly. 孩子在英语阅读方面有很多困难，而造成这一困难有多方面的原因。教育心理学家安东尼和萨珍娜出版了Dealing with Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties，其中全面分析和解释了造成阅读障碍的原因。作为研究心理学家，他们用 20 年的时间致力于心理学去研究阅读障碍，改善和解决这一困难。研究表明孩子的阅读失败很大程度上因为教学方法的低效率和不充分。即教学方法决定了孩子学习英语阅读的好坏
4、和难易。The research over the past 20 years has provided evidence that there is a clear learning pathway in learning to read and the issue of how to teach reading has been distorted by a lot of teachers who have adopted the erroneous position that any number of ways purporting to teaching reading will w
5、ork or that there is no one right way. This has led to an eclecticism which has resulted in widespread confusion among many children. In her book, Why Our Children Cant Read, Diane McGuiness cites eclecticism in Britain as the main contributor to poor reading skills. The situation has come about bec
6、ause entrenched and experienced teachers, untrained in how to teach reading skills, have adopted the high ground, claiming that their experience alone qualifies them as reading specialists. Unfortunately, for many children this is untrue. Teaching children to read English is a skilled activity and r
7、equires knowledge of the acquisition process. 过去 20 年的研究表明确实存在阅读学习捷径，但如何正确地教会孩子阅读这个问题，但许多教师在这个问题都有误区，有些人为有许多阅读教学的方法有效也有些人认为根本不存在正确的阅读教学方法。这种现象直接引出了一种折衷主义，也很大程度上导致了儿童在学习过程中的困惑。Diane McGuiness 在她的书“为什么我们的孩子不能阅读”中引用了“折衷主义”一词，认为其是造成孩子阅读能力差的原因之一。这种现象的出现归咎于顽固的有经验的老师并未接受过阅读教学的老师，占据优势地位，并声称他们的教学经验让他们有资格成为阅读
8、专家。不幸地是，他们的经验对大多数孩子来讲并不正确。阅读教学是一个不仅需要技巧还需对习得过程有充分的知识基础。Research over the past 20 years has uncovered striking differences between children who learned to read with ease and those who have not. The purpose of experimental research into how children learn to read has in the main been concerned with un
9、covering what a good reader does and contrasting it with what poor readers do. Thus we are able to say with confidence that a person likely to become a good reader possesses phonological sensitivity while a poor reader lacks this awareness. We know this because by measuring the phonological skill di
10、fferences between good and poor readers we have been able to isolate phonological skills as an essential component of learning to read. Phonological sensitivity is the awareness that the spoken sound system of the English language, a language that consists of strings of words being arrayed together
11、in sequence to make meaningful expressions, also includes within that sound system an accessible number of distinguishable sounds that are indivisible. This means that these small sounds cannot be deconstructed further or made any smaller. 这 20 年中的研究显示，那些轻而易举学会阅读的孩子和那些很难学会阅读的孩子有很大的差异。这些研究都是为了找出他们差异的
12、表现和原因。一个人能成为一个好的阅读者应该具有敏感的音韵意识，反之则缺乏音韵意识。我们通过测量读者的语音能力差异,分析阅读障碍的原因。这是学习阅读的一个重要部分。语言是指串在一起的字符排列顺序不同使其表达各种意义，而一个容易辨别声音的音响系统则是不可分割的部分。音韵学的灵敏度是指对语言的声音的一种意识。The word used to identify the construct of an indivisible sound is called a phoneme and in English there are about 44 phonemes or indivisible sounds
13、. For instance the words /man/ and /men/ are distinguished by one sound, the centre vowel difference. By changing the single sound in these words, we change the entire meaning of the words and thus the two phonemes (the two middle sounds in these two words) are identified. The point to make is that
14、children likely to become good readers appreciate the sound variations in spoken English and can with ease extract a beginning sound in a word, a final sound in a word and access the clear sound of the middle sound within a three sound word regardless of the letter used to represent that word in wri
15、ting. 这个最小单位的有独立发音的部分叫做音素，在英语中有 44 个音素。例如：在 man 和 men 这两个词中，有一个发音不同，也就是中间的元音。通过改变一个音节，就改变了单词的全部意思。像这两个音素就是这两个单词的意思的标识。这也就是说一个孩子在成为一个优秀的英语阅读者，他可以识别音的各种变异，例如一个三个音节的单词，他很容易区分第一个音节，最后一个音节和难以区分的中间音节，即便是不知道怎么写这个词，也会容易的区分各个音节。In fact, one of the important conclusions of the research into instructional appr
16、oaches is that as part of the teaching approach, it is necessary to produce phonological awareness before introducing children to the visual aspects of the alphabet. In simple language, sound comes before sight. One of the biggest mistakes made by untrained teachers of reading is to show children th
17、e letters of the alphabet prematurely.事实上，这个教学方法的实验得出的一个重要结论是：在孩子认识这些字母之前培养他们的音韵意识是非常重要的。在简单的语言中，声音意识是在视觉意识之前的。没有经过正规培训的教授阅读的老师有一个非常严重的错误教学方法，那就是过早去给孩子展示单词的字母拼写。When the research established the importance of phonological sensitivity, it was a major breakthrough in developing instructional approache
18、s because it showed that the way forward was not to show children letters and teach them the A-B-C but to make them aware that spoken words in English were amalgams of processed sounds sequenced in a particular order so as to construct a word. Thus a spoken word like /cat/ was composed of three soun
19、ds stuck together. A word like /boat/ is also composed of three sounds. The emphasis and focus is now very much on teaching how words are phonological sequences of processed sound and in teaching the ability to manipulate at the phonological level. 当这种重要的音韵意识在试验中建立起来后，在教学方面的发展是个重大的突破，因为这种新的教学方法并不是去教
20、孩子单纯的字母 A B C，而是去培养他们说英语的这种意识，根据各个字母的发音组成单词，变换各种顺序组成新单词。例如：/cat/是由三个音节粘在一起的发音。/boat/也是由三个音节组成的发音。这种方法的重点在很大程度上是在教如何处理语音序列的声音和在教学操控这种音韵意识的掌握A good instructional approach will make explicit the manner in which sounds combine to create words. It will teach students that accessing the sounds accurately
21、makes pronunciation clearer. As students become aware of how sounds blend together, they realise that whole meaningful words are actually an array of smaller sounds which can be added or subtracted, stretched and blended in the process of word construction. Thus by the time these students move on to
22、 looking at letters, what they are able to demonstrate is that letters, representing sounds, combine as do sounds and are in fact pictures of sound. This is the first essential stage on the way to becoming a good reader of the English language.一个好的教学方法是可以通过对音素的排列顺序和数量来创造新词。这种方法是能让学者清晰的发音。当学生在对这种音韵意识
23、的形成后，他们会意识到每个有意义的单词都是在对音素的添加，叠加，拉升，减少，从而衍生出新词。这时让孩子再去看阅读，他们会反映出每个字母的发音，形成声音的图片。这些是成为一个好的英文阅读者的重要的第一步。However, it is by no means the end of the story. English is a hybrid language and lacks an agreed rule system for its grammatical constructs, its syntactical outlines and most confusing, for the pron
24、unciation of strings of letters or combinations of letters that combine to complete words. Take the letter a. It can represent several different sounds, as in words like cat, gate, was, any, tall, bath and area. Or take the letters ough. It is impossible to know the correct pronunciation of these le
25、tters. In the word cough, the sounds are /k/-/o/-/f/. Now take the word bough. The sounds are now /b/-/ow/ (as in cow). With the same letter sequence in words like though, through and enough, one can see that learning to read in English means knowing how to access the sound array accurately at all t
26、imes. To not be able to do this means having to guess and hoping to get lucky in the attempt.英语是一种混合语言,缺乏一个确切的规则体系,其句法语法的轮廓令大多数人费解,只是一种难懂的发音的字母组合字符串的语言。例如 a，可以有各种发音，如在/cat/ /gate/ /was/ /any/ /tall/ /bath/ /area/的发音都不同。或者我们拿/ough/举例，我们是不能知道这个字的正确发音的，然而在 cough 中，发音为/k/-/o/-/f/.。现在我们以 bough 为例，发音是/b/-
27、/ow/.。类似于相同字母的顺序，如 though,through,enough，可以显而易见到，学习英语阅读是指在任何时候都对各种发音的排列顺序的准确把握。如果做不到这些就意味着只能去猜。Because English is not rule-bound, it cannot be learned by rules. The challenge faced by educators in recent times is how to empower children to accurately access the sound sequence. Once the foundational
28、requirement to accurately manipulate the phonological array has been taught, the next challenge is how to guarantee accurate pronunciation of the sequence. As you saw by the example above, pronouncing the same group of letters is not always straightforward. Many words in English are unpredictable in
29、 regard to pronunciation. There has been a need for some time to create an instructional approach that would remove the confusion and ambiguities that can arise when group of letters combine in unpredictable ways. Children must know whether to say /off/ or /ow/ in a word like /cough/. Additionally m
30、any words in written English contain letters that seemingly make no contribution to the pronunciation of the word. This can lead to confusion in young children. A word like /apple/ could as easily be written /apl/ where the three sounds are all present and eliminating the remaining letters /p/ and /
31、e/. Historical conventions are not easy to override and few have tried or succeeded. Webster managed to eliminate a few anomalies in written English and changed colour to color for instance but what has happened is that in the main, the spelling conventions established by the 17th century have remai
32、ned in place since and have been impervious to change, notwithstanding the differences between written English and written American.因为英语不是规则的捆绑，所以没有办法学习它的规则。在最近几次教育研讨会上，教育工作者面临的挑战是如何让孩子获得这种准确的声音序列。一旦这种音韵意识得到建立后，第二个挑战就是如何准确的排序这些因素。正如你所看到的例子中,相同的一组字母发音并非总是直截了当。许多英语单词中有不是直接的常规发音。所以需要一段时间来创造出一种新的教学方法，在面
33、对这些非常规发音是消除歧义和发音时的慌乱。有的单词的少数字母在整个单词发音中是不发音的。这又导致一些年幼的小孩迷惑了。比如apple,真正的发音只有三个音节/a/ /p/ /l/，所以我们可以去掉一个 p 和 e.但是历史不是那么容易去颠覆的，因为我们一直是这么表达的。例如：我们试图去把 colour 变成 color，但是拼写公约建立 17th 世纪以来,已经没有办法改变，尽管在英语和美语中有一定的差异。I Can Read is an instructional approach that was developed in recognition of the above challeng
34、es. It evolved as a direct response for students to acquire phonological awareness as a pre-requisite before taking on the task of processing sequentially using the alphabet and most significantly it developed an approach that removed the potential for confusion when children have to work out the co
35、rrect pronunciation for letters or groups of letters. It actually is a direct intervention approach that, while it does not tell the student what sounds to combine into words, it does ensure that they are able to access the correct sound every time and since they already have learned in the beginnin
36、g part of the programme how to put sounds together, they are now assured of coming up with an accurate pronunciation. Not only is the student assured of pronouncing the word accurately, his confidence is likely to be enhanced as a result of his own recognition that he is correct (if he already knows
37、 the word). If he doesnt, he is now able to ask his teacher what - (word) means, whereas before he could only point forlornly at the letters challenging him from the page with little or no chance of him being able to even articulate the new word. In its simplest form, it is derived to enable childre
38、n to link the phonological aspects of spoken English with the visual or graphemic aspects of the written language.I CAN READ 就是上述挑战发展来了的一种新的教学方法。它是一种为了培养学生的音韵意识的一种准备方法，它实际上是一种干预手段，不去告诉孩子声音可以组成单词，只是每次都让孩子的发音正确，这就确保了这个计划的第一部分，如何把单个发音放在一起形成新的发音。不单单让他们能掌握这个方法，还要他们在他们认识的单词中完整自信的读出来，如果是不认识的单词，就引导他们去改变已经认识
39、的单词到不认识的单词，去引导他们自己发现和变更组合。总体来说就是让学生运用音韵和拼写来学习语言。Of course I Can Read didnt happen overnight. Antony Earnshaw and Annabel Seargeant were originally working in a reading clinic in Sydney, Australia, and as they were aware of the connections between phonology and later reading skills, they were also aw
40、are of the challenges faced by students on the learning journey. By 1998, a number of programmes were reaching the market with mixed success. Some were so complex as to render them virtually inaccessible. Some depended on children watching up to 30 video based lessons. What was needed was an instruc
41、tional programme that was well structured, easy to teach, and effective as a learning experience. It is acknowledged that a dynamic and charismatic teacher will always make a positive impact on children, when a dull listless teacher will not. But this new reading programme had to be effective regard
42、less of who taught it. I Can Read is effective in that most of the work is done by the learners themselves. It is taught rather mechanistically and is totally outcomes based in its focus of empowering students to accurately access the sound string represented by groups of letters. 当然 I CAN READ 并不是形
43、成于一夜之间。安东尼和萨珍娜最初是在澳大利亚悉尼的一家阅读诊所工作，他们意识到音素学和以后在学习阅读上有很大的关系，以至于影响以后的学习。在 1998 年，他们的一些项目在市场中取得了一定的成果。有的人觉得这些计划太复杂是不能达到的，有的人让孩子看很多的视频去学习，然而我们需要的是一种新的教学方法来培养孩子的阅读。我们知道一个生动和有魅力的老师在教学中会给孩子带来正面的影响，反之。这个计划无论对什么样的学生都会很有效果的。I CAN RAED 系统最主要的成果需要学者自己去完成。Once students have acquired the ability to automatically p
44、rocess sequences of sound using the visual letters of the alphabet, I Can Read shows them how to apply such skills meaningfully. It works through both the short and long vowel arrays, then the diphthongs and accounts for some anomalies associated with confusion in the written language. The outcome a
45、t the end of the programme is that the child not only knows how to put together a group of letters to complete a word, the child also has experienced enough of the unpredictable nature of the language to be able to read words where the sound-to-letter correspondences are not clear. By gaining early
46、success the student has the confidence to advance and gain the knowledge he needs to become an independent reader.一旦学生能把自动形成的音节发音运用到可以结合视觉的字母，I CAN READ 系统会教会学生怎么去运用和赋予这些字母意义。包括长的和短的元音字母的排序，以及一些让人感觉迷惑的复合元音组合。在这个计划的最后是，不仅让学生知道怎么去把音节组合成单词，孩子也有足够的经验在不可预见性的语言能够读出不清楚的单词，以声音到拼读的形式学习。这样也培养孩子在学习中的自信心，让他们能够成
47、为一个独立的阅读者。Since its creation in 1998, I Can Read has evolved into a more mature total literacy approach. At the invitation of the Singapore Ministry of Education, Annabel Seargeant was invited to do a pilot study of the programmes effectiveness in 2000. The small study compared a control group with
48、some children who after only seven weeks improved in their reading skills by between seven months and three years. Ms. Seargeant was permitted by the MOE to offer the programme throughout the Singapore education system. She trained over 200 primary teachers across 30 schools and trained some reading
49、 specialists in the Psychological and Guidance services Branch of the MOE which provides specialist intervention for children with special needs. A company (Total Literacy (Singapore) Pte Ltd) was formed in 2001 and the system became available more readily through special centres as part of a franchise operation. 自从 1998 年 I CAN READ 创造以来，它已经发展为一种更加成熟的全面知识系统教学法。在 2000 年，Seargeant 女士受新加坡教育部邀请，在新加坡做了一个试点研究，选择了两个对照组，在阅读上给孩子中进行为期七周和三年的学习。Seargeant 女士授权新加坡教育部试行 MOE 系统。她在 30 所学校培训了超过 200 名教师，并且培训了一些为孩子提供特殊干预的阅读心理学专家。20
