2023年06月六级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

Phonics, which involves sounding out words syllable (音节) by syllable, is the best way to teach children to read. But in many classrooms, this can be a dirty word. So much so that some teachers have had to sneak phonics teaching materials into the classroom. Most American children are taught to read in a way that study after study has found to be wrong.

自然拼读法，即逐音节地拼读单词，是教授儿童阅读的最佳方式。但在许多课堂上，这可能成为一个禁忌词。以至于一些教师不得不偷偷将自然拼读教学材料带入课堂。大多数美国儿童所接受的阅读教学方式，被一项又一项研究发现是错误的。

The consequences of this are striking. Less than half of all American adults were proficient readers in 2017. American fourth graders rank 15th on the Progress in International Literacy Study, an international exam.

其后果令人震惊。2017年，不到一半的美国成年人是熟练的阅读者。美国四年级学生在国际阅读素养进展研究（一项国际考试）中排名第15位。

America is stuck in a debate about teaching children to read that has been going on for decades. Some advocate teaching symbol-sound relationships (the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck, or ch), known as phonics. Others support an immersive approach (using pictures of a cat to learn the word cat), known as "whole language". Most teachers today, almost three out of four according to a survey by the Ed Week Research Centre in 2019, use a mix called "balanced literacy". This combination of methods is ineffective. "You can't sprinkle in a little phonics," says Tenette Smith, executive director of elementary education and reading at Mississippi's education department. "It has to be systematic and explicitly taught."

美国陷入了一场关于儿童阅读教学的争论，这场争论已经持续了数十年。一些人主张教授符号-声音关系（例如，音素k可以拼写为c、k、ck或ch），即自然拼读法。另一些人支持沉浸式方法（例如，用猫的图片学习单词cat），称为“整体语言法”。如今，根据教育周刊研究中心2019年的一项调查，近四分之三的教师使用一种称为“平衡读写法”的混合方法。这种组合方法是无效的。“你不能只撒一点自然拼读法，”密西西比州教育部基础教育与阅读执行主任特内特·史密斯说。“它必须系统性地、明确地教授。”

Mississippi, often behind in social policy, has set an example here. In a state once notorious for its low reading scores, the Mississippi state legislature passed new literacy standards in 2013. Since then Mississippi has seen remarkable gains. Its fourth graders have moved from 49th (out of 50 states) to 29th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide exam. In 2019 it was the only state to improve its scores. For the first time since measurement began, Mississippi's pupils are now average readers, a remarkable achievement in such a poor state.

密西西比州在社会政策上常常落后，但在这方面树立了榜样。在这个曾经因低阅读分数而臭名昭著的州，密西西比州议会在2013年通过了新的读写标准。自那时起，密西西比州取得了显著进步。其四年级学生在一项全国性考试——国家教育进展评估中的排名从第49位（全50个州）上升到第29位。2019年，它是唯一一个分数提高的州。自测量开始以来，密西西比州的学生现在成为平均水平的阅读者，这在如此贫困的州是一个显著的成就。

Mississippi's success is attributed to implementing reading methods supported by a body of research known as the science of reading. In 1997 Congress requested the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Department of Education to convene a National Reading Panel to end the "reading wars" and synthesize the evidence. The panel found that phonics, along with explicit instruction in phonemic (音位的) awareness, fluency and comprehension, worked best.

密西西比州的成功归功于实施了由一系列研究支持的阅读方法，这些研究被称为阅读科学。1997年，国会要求国家儿童健康与人类发展研究所和教育部召集一个国家阅读小组，以结束“阅读战争”并综合证据。该小组发现，自然拼读法，连同音位意识、流利度和理解力的明确教学，效果最佳。

Yet over two decades on, "balanced literacy" is still being taught in classrooms. But advances in statistics and brain imaging have disproved the whole-language method. To the teacher who is a proficient reader, literacy seems like a natural process that requires educated guessing, rather than the deliberate process emphasized by phonics. Teachers can imagine that they learned to read through osmosis (潜移默化) when they were children. Without proper training, they bring this to classrooms.

然而，二十多年过去了，“平衡读写法”仍在课堂上教授。但统计学和脑成像的进步已经驳斥了整体语言法。对于熟练阅读的教师来说，读写能力似乎是一个需要有根据猜测的自然过程，而不是自然拼读法所强调的刻意过程。教师们可能想象自己小时候通过潜移默化学会了阅读。没有适当的培训，他们将这种观念带入课堂。