海外文化:在美國如何教移民的孩子們學英語

【英文原文】

摘要：美國對小學一年級到12年級的孩子實行強制性義務教育，孩子們必須在學校裏讀完12年，或者至少要到16歲。公立學校的的確確是免費的：不收書本費，不收音樂課費用，不收體育課費用。

In the US we have free compulsory public education for all children from grade 1 to grade 12. Children must stay in school through grade 12, or at least until they are 16. Public schooling is truly free: no book fees, no music fees, no athletic fees. Books are handed out at the beginning of the school year and must be returned at the end. Most schools supply paper, pencils, erasers, calculators, computers, art supplies and musical instruments.

I have been a primary-school teacher for over 30 years. I teach English in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pupils who are members of racial minorities. Currently I work with Haitian immigrant children who do not speak English when they enter school. Their families come from a country where violence is all too common. Haitian schools are often closed; indeed, in the past ten years, there has not been a single complete school year. Grinding poverty results in a very low level of literacy. Parents seldom have funds for books, paper or pencils. When the children of such families arrive in the US, they are woefully unprepared to compete with their middle-class agemates.

How should we teachers help them to learn, especially to learn English?

We surround the child with spoken English, encouraging them to use any words they pick up and ignoring all mistakes. We read books aloud, ask questions and constantly encourage responses. A child may start with one word, for examplewater, but by day 3 he can say, "Me water," and by day 5, "I want water." Language grows from small beginnings as the teacher constantly prods the child to use single words and to make longer utterances as he learns. When the child is using English, we do not correct errors in pronunciation. We see such mistakes as the act of practicing a new skill. By trying out his new English skills, the pupil will improve on his own. If he is corrected each time, he will become reluctant to keep trying.

We do not teach English by having the students memorize words. Instead we start by teaching phonics, which is the study of the sounds that letters make. Phonics provides children with a code: pupils learn individual letter sounds and then learn how letters work in groups. As students progress in phonics, they can read new words on their own because they know how individual letters probably sound.

English-speaking students are also taught phonics, but phonics is particularly important for second-language learners. We start teaching the sounds of the alphabet to pupils unable to speak English from the very first day they set foot in the classroom, no matter how few English words they know.

I was amazed to find that primary-school teachers in China do not use phonics in teaching children how to read. It seems a gargantuan task to teach a pupil to memorize every word he needs to know, much as if the child were being asked to shovel a huge pile of sand, with the shovel shut away. Phonics is a code that unlocks word construction. It empowers the child to learn by putting small pieces together.

Right now I am learning Chinese and am happy to discover that the vocabulary is not too difficult. Having learned dong, nan, xi and men, suddenly I can build six or seven words: dongmen, ximen, nanmen, xinanmen. Phonic knowledge operates quite similarly. Suppose I teach a child an, ran, man, can. I then can teach and,stand, land, band. Give the child her, der-, -ing and un- and he can build or recognize under, then understand, and finally understanding. Phonics teaches word families such as cat, bat, fat, flat. Later on we might build catty, batting, fatter, flatten. These words do not need to be memorized because they are built up from small phonic units that children can use in many different combinations. This is a constructionist approach to learning: the children are given the phonic tools to construct and sound out new words by themselves.

Test results show that my students make from one to three years' progress within one school year. Our immigrant children, members of racial minorities, are beginning to close the enormous gap in achievement between minority and majority students.

【中文譯文】

美國對小學一年級到12年級的孩子實行強制性義務教育，孩子們必須在學校裏讀完12年，或者至少要到16歲。公立學校的的確確是免費的：不收書本費，不收音樂課費用，不收體育課費用。每一學年開始時書會發到孩子手裏，期末則必須交回去。大多數學校還提供紙張、鉛筆、橡皮、計算器、計算機、美術課用具和樂器。

我在小學工作了30多年，在馬薩諸塞州劍橋市教小學生英文，這些學生屬於美國的少數民族。目前，我正在教從海地移民過來的孩子，他們在踏進校門時一句英語都不會說。他們的家庭來自一個到處都是暴力的國家，學校常常是關閉着的，說實在的，在過去10年中，海地連一個完整的學年都沒有過。貧窮的煎熬使得海地國民中的識字水平極低，父母難得有錢爲孩子們買書、紙張和鉛筆。當這樣家庭的孩子到了美國後，要想與來自中產階級的同齡人競爭，其基礎極爲薄弱。

那麼，我們這些當老師的該如何幫他們學習，特別是學好英語呢？

我們用口語“包圍”他們，鼓勵他們說出哪怕是隻言片語，並且不去理會他們出的錯。我們大聲朗讀課本，提出問題，不斷鼓勵他們回答。一個孩子一開始可能只會說一個詞，比如“水”，第三天可能就會說“我，水”，第5天就會說“我要水”。當教師不斷督促孩子使用單個詞彙，並學着說出長一點兒的句子時，語言能力就從這點點滴滴之處得到了發展。當孩子們說英語時，我們不去糾正他們發音上的錯誤，我們認爲這種錯誤是在實踐一種新技能時不可避免的。當孩子們嘗試着自己新學的英語技能時，自己就會更正。如果你每次都糾正他，他就不願意再說了。

我們教英語時，並不讓學生死背單詞，反之，我們是從教語音入手，也就是教字母的發音規律。基礎語音爲孩子們提供了一把鑰匙：他們學習單個字母的發音，然後學習這些字母組合在一起時如何發音。當學生們在基礎語音方面有了進步，自己就可以讀出新的單詞，因爲他們已經知道每個字母可能該怎麼讀了。

我們教母語是英語的學生學英語也是從語音開始的，但是對於英語是第二語言的學生學習語音就尤爲重要。對於那些不會說英語的學生，從他們進教室的第一天起我們就教他們字母的發音，不管他們知道的單詞有多麼少。

當我發現中國的小學老師教孩子讀英文單詞不使用基礎語音教學法時真是感到驚愕。教一個小學生去死揹他們需要掌握的每一個單詞，看來真是一項浩繁的任務，可更像要一個孩子剷掉一大堆沙子，卻不給他鏟子。語音是解開單詞結構的鑰匙，它賦予孩子們通過把字母組合在一起學新單詞的能力。

現在我正在學習中文，我很高興地發現漢語詞彙並不太難，學會了東、南、西和門，一下子我就能組合六七個詞了，東門，西門，南門，西南門。語音知識的功能相當類似。如果我教孩子an，ran,man,can,之後就可以教and,stand,land,band。教給孩子her,der- , -ing和un-，他就會合成或認識under,接下來是understand,最後是understanding。語音法教單詞的“家族”如cat,bat,fat,flat，之後我們就可以組合成catty,batting，fatter,flatten。這些詞並不需要死記硬背，因爲它們是由很小的語音單元組合成的，而這些小語音單元是孩子們在很多種不同的組合中都會用的。這是學習語言的一種結構型方式：給孩子們一種能夠自己組合新詞、念出新詞的語音工具。

考試結果表明，我的學生在一個學年內就可以取得通常需要1—3年的成果。我們的移民孩子，少數民族的成員，正在縮短着少數民族學生與其他學生之間在學習上的巨大差距。