时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2009年(十)月


英语课

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.


Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In this age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out.


We asked a literacy 1 professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Steve Graham says he has been hearing about the death of handwriting for the past fifteen years. So is it still being taught?


STEVE GRAHAM: "If the results of a survey we had published this year are accurate, it is being taught by about ninety percent of teachers in grades one to three."


Ninety percent of teachers also say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. Professor Graham says one study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting.


STEVE GRAHAM: "And then when you look at how it's taught, you have some teachers who are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for ten, fifteen minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for sixty to seventy minutes a day -- which really for handwriting is pretty much death."


Many adults remember learning that way -- by copying letters over and over again. Today's thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.


Professor Graham says handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency 2 -- writing without having to think about it. The professor says fluency continues to develop up until high school.


But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one-fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important anymore because of computers and voice recognition 3 programs.


But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years.


STEVE GRAHAM: "Even with high school teachers, we find that less than fifty percent of assignments are done via word processing or with word processing. And, in fact, if we added in taking notes and doing tests in class, most of the writing done in school is done by hand."


American children traditionally first learn to print, then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers 4 the SAT college admission test. More than seventy-five percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.


And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about handwriting research, and to share comments, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.



1 literacy
n.识字,有文化,读写能力
  • I can't believe that he failed the literacy test.我无法相信他识字测试不及格。
  • The literacy rate there is the highest in Central America.那里的识字率居中美洲之首。
2 fluency
n.流畅,雄辩,善辩
  • More practice will make you speak with greater fluency.多练习就可以使你的口语更流利。
  • Some young children achieve great fluency in their reading.一些孩子小小年纪阅读已经非常流畅。
3 recognition
n.承认,认可,认出,认识
  • The place has changed beyond recognition.这地方变得认不出来了。
  • A sudden smile of recognition flashed across his face.他脸上掠过一丝笑意,表示认识对方。
4 administers
管理( administer的第三人称单数 ); 治理(国家); 给予; 执行
  • Physical exercise administers to the circulation of the blood. 体育锻炼有助于血液循环。
  • Health administers to peace of mind. 健康有助于身心的安宁。
学英语单词
accelerator system
acute corrosive esophagitis
alloskin
ammonium phosphotungstate
archhydra
armed forces history
aulacaspis actinidiae
authorized surveyor
Barsukovskaya
bloodguiltiness
boot compartment
boratrane
bowl metall
brisk commerce
building-materials
cabin passenger's ticket
cavolina gibbosa
chain floor trolley
common ram
comptes
conditional instability rate
corporate policy
dennebol
dermosol
dial into
dialefes
Directory System Agent
dispense notes
edge ahead
elapsed time value
enclosed lamp sign
explosive-ordnance disposal
family Phaethontidae
feed on animal's blood
fire size class map
fornix conjunctivae superior
freshlings
gilhool
graphical solution
hunt-and-peck
ill-defined
inactive front
infect tube
instrument line break accident
internal reference electrode
Ismotic
isolating cock
logic behaviour
LPG platforming
manabozho
maritime trade
masnulonucleus
membrane compressor
membron
midget socket
mini-dvd
Mogenson screen
momentum screw
monilated
musths
no reporting knowing crimes
non-performings
Open Source Initiative
out of the dark
own court
PEC (printed electronic circuit)
perlita
permanent base
pin rib
pinnatin
polysemant
postcard paper
programming language research
promontoires
public discussion format
quartz spectral photometer
quick disconnection
rice leaf roller
rocard
Rostrospirifer
self-taughts
seminarize
sex-chromatin body
sexually mature
sfw
souray
Spergularia rubra
steel-tape sheath
sublayering
suction hose
tail production
take a wife
tax on price of land
tractus corticobulbaris
trailing spark plug
uninformedness
unit element of ring
vertical digester
vertical edge l head half round scraper
Wampumpeag
warm nersery paper
woolsorter's pneumonia