閱讀的力量

李明娟

In his article The Comprehension Hypothesis and Second Language Acquisition， Stephen Krashen （University of Southern California） describes two cases of students who completely changed their English because of reading：

斯蒂芬·克拉申（南加州大學(xué)）在文章《理解假設(shè)和第二語言習(xí)得》中描述了兩個(gè)學(xué)生因閱讀而完全改變英語學(xué)習(xí)情況的案例：

The Case of L.

L的案例

This case was described in a paper by J. Segal （written in 1997）， and then by Stephen Krashen. We have shortened and simplified1 the original text.

J·西格爾（1997年撰寫）和斯蒂芬·克拉申后來撰寫的一篇論文中描述了這一案例。我們縮短簡化了原始文本。

L. was a 17 year old student in Israel. She spoke English at home with her parents， who were from South Africa. But she had serious problems in English writing， especially in spelling， vocabulary and writing style. Segal， who was L.s teacher in grade 10， tried to help her in many ways：

L是一名17歲的以色列學(xué)生。她在家里和來自南非的父母說英語。但她在英語寫作方面存在嚴(yán)重問題，尤其是拼寫、詞匯和寫作風(fēng)格。西格爾是L讀10年級(jí)時(shí)候的老師，試過在很多方面幫助她：

“Error correction was a total failure. L. tried correcting her own mistakes， tried process writing， and tried copying words correctly in her notebook. Nothing worked. L.s compositions were poorly written and her vocabulary was small. I gave L. a list of five useful words to spell each week for 6 weeks and tested her between classes. L. did well in the tests in the beginning， but after six weeks she started misspelling the words again.” L.s mother also got her a private teacher， but there was little improvement.

“糾錯(cuò)完全失敗了。L試圖糾正自己的錯(cuò)誤，嘗試過程寫作法，并在她的筆記本中正確地抄寫單詞。沒有任何效果。L的作文寫得不好，詞匯量很小。我每周給L五個(gè)有用的單詞列表來練習(xí)拼寫，堅(jiān)持6周，并在課間測試她。L在一開始的測試中做得很好，但是六個(gè)星期后她又開始拼錯(cuò)這些詞。”L的母親也給她請(qǐng)了一名私人教師，但情況幾乎沒有改善。

Segal also taught L. in grade 11. At the beginning of the year， she had her students write an essay. “When I came to L.s composition I stopped still. I was looking at an almost perfect essay. There were no spelling mistakes. The structure was clear. It was interesting and well-written. Her vocabulary had improved.

西格爾在11年級(jí)還教L。年初，她讓學(xué)生寫了一篇作文?！爱?dāng)我看到L的作文時(shí)，我停下來了。我在看一篇近乎完美的文章，沒有拼寫錯(cuò)誤、結(jié)構(gòu)很清晰、有趣，而且寫得很好。她的詞匯有了進(jìn)步?！?/p>

Segal discovered why L.s English improved so much： She had started reading books in the summer. L. told her， “I never read much before but this summer I went to the library and I started reading and I just couldnt stop.” L.s English in grade 11 was excellent and she kept reading.

西格爾發(fā)現(xiàn)了為什么L的英語進(jìn)步這么大：她從夏天就開始讀書。L告訴她：“我以前從未讀過很多書，但是今年夏天我去了圖書館開始閱讀，而且我無法停止。”L在11年級(jí)的英語學(xué)習(xí)很優(yōu)秀，而且一直堅(jiān)持閱讀。

The Case of Cohen

科恩的案例

This case was first described by Y. Cohen in a paper titled How Reading Got Me into Trouble （1997）.

Y·科恩在一篇題為《讀書如何讓我陷入困境》（1997）的論文中首次描述了這個(gè)案例。

Beginning at age 12， Cohen went to an English-language school in Turkey. During the first two years， there were intensive2 English classes， and after only two months， Cohen started to read in English. “...as many books in English as I could get. I had a large library of English books at home...I became a member of the local British Councils3 library and sometimes bought English books in bookstores...By the first year of middle school I had become an enthusiastic reader of English.”

從12歲開始，科恩去了土耳其的一所英語學(xué)校。在頭兩年有強(qiáng)化英語課程，僅僅兩個(gè)月后，科恩開始用英語閱讀。“……（我會(huì)找）盡可能多的英文書籍。我家里有一個(gè)龐大的英語書籍圖書館……我成了當(dāng)?shù)赜幕瘏f(xié)會(huì)圖書館的會(huì)員，有時(shí)在書店買英文書……到初中一年級(jí)時(shí)，我成了一名熱心的英語讀者。”

Because of her reading， an unpleasant thing happened to her in middle school. “I had a new English teacher who assigned us two compositions for homework. The teacher returned them to me. She was angry and she wanted to know who had helped me to write them. They were my work. I had not even used the dictionary. She would not believe me. She showed me a few underlined4 sentences and some vocabulary and asked me how I knew them—they were more advanced than the level of the class....I felt sad. I could not explain how I knew them. I just did.”

因?yàn)橛⒄Z閱讀，她在中學(xué)時(shí)發(fā)生了一件令人不快的事?！拔矣幸晃恍碌挠⒄Z老師，她給我們布置了兩篇作文作為家庭作業(yè)。老師把我的作文還給了我，她很生氣，想知道是誰幫我寫的。它們是我的作品，我甚至都沒用過字典。她不相信我，讓我看劃線的句子和詞匯，并問我是如何學(xué)會(huì)的——它們超出了課程的水平……我很難過。我無法解釋我是如何學(xué)會(huì)的，我就是會(huì)了?！?/p>

Notes

1. simplify vt. 簡化

2. intensive? adj. 加強(qiáng)的;集中的

3. council n. 委員會(huì);會(huì)議;理事會(huì);地方議會(huì)

4. underlined adj. 下劃線的