Hi am Peter. In this episode I want to introduce you how americans learn to read, I will compared with the way I , as a China student, learned english to make my point clear. Note, I am by no means a expert on this topic, so don’t expect exact details, but I believe the main idea here is very inspiring.
你好，我是 Peter 。这集咱们聊一下美国的小孩子在学校是如何学英语的。会对比一下我自己学英语的惨痛过程，以便看出中美英语教学的巨大差异。我显然不是个英语教学专家，所以下面所说的很多内容细节上可能并不准确，或者以偏概全，但是总体要传递的几个点我觉得还是非常有启发性的。
I’ve found the way they use is called Phonics. They don’t use IPA like we do in China.
最明显的一个区别可能就是就是老美自己是不学音标的，他们都是用自然拼读法。
So what is Phonics? Phonics is a method of learning how to read. Phonics works by breaking each word up into it’s individual sounds before blending those sounds back together to make the word. Children learn to ‘decode’ words by breaking it down into sounds rather than having to memorise 1,000’s of words individually. Research has shown that phonics, when taught correctly, can be the most effective way of teaching children to learn to read.
首先了解一下。自然拼读法是一种让孩子从不认字变成认字从而开始阅读的一套方法。具体做法就是把一个单词拆成一个一个的发音，然后把一个一个的单独的音再去拼成一个整单词。举个例子，到了三岁开始学习阅读了，美国小孩肯定都会说 bus 和 cat 这些常见单词。美国老师会先教会孩子认识相关的这些常见字母，对，他们不会一下子教26个字母的。然后教会这些字母的发音，比如 A 要发成 /a/ 。然后就可以拆单词了，比如 cat 拆成三个音 /c/ /a/ /t/ ，注意这三个音就是用对应的字母表示，因为根本也没学音标。如法炮制，再拆 bus ，得到 /b/ /u/ /s/ 三个音。这样，就可以用这些音去拼单词了，显然能拼出不少单词来，例如 at bat cut sat 等等。自然拼读最关键的一步，就是让孩子能清晰的分辨出英文的44个发音。注意，这个能力即使是母语的人也是要经过专门训练才能做到的。老师会带孩子反复拆，反复拼。那练会了干嘛呢？答案就是用来读那些以前根本不认识的单词，例如 bat 。这个单词孩子会说，但是不认识拼写，但是这时候，因为有拆单词和拼单词的本事，孩子直接就可以读出这个单词了，bat 。这就是自然拼读的第一个效果，叫做见词能读。相伴的第二个效果就是听音能写，一个单词，只要知道读音，就可以拼写出来。
So how it works? First thing kids need to learn is letters. The 26 English letters each has its own name and sound. For example, The name of letter A is A, however the sound of it is /a/ . Since American kids already know how to pronounce a lot of words, so it is not that hard to learn the letter sound, just tell them /a/ as you say in the word Apple or Alligator. There are 44 sounds with Enlgish totally. Can you use some letter or letter combinaton to resemble all of them? The answer is of course. Even though some letters has more than one sound, some different letters or letter combinations share same sound. It’s not a perfect system, like IPA, when you invent the notes to give a 1-to-1 map to each sound.
But hey, the Phonics way brings a lot of benifits. Both IPA and Phonics are like PinYin in Chinese. If you are learning Chinese, even you know the sound of a charater and the pinyin to make the sound, you still need to know how to write the charater on its own, that is to draw the litter picture. But things get simpler here in English, as long as you know how a word sounds, with Phonics rules, you can write down the real word. This simple truth making learning IPA kind of lame IMO, you needed to learn a bunch of lab invented things, and because you don’t use that often, you tend to forget them, and even you learn them and you can speak the words, still you can not spell them, meaning more effort to remember the spelling.
所以说这个好处就太大的。不管国际音标还是自然拼读，大致作用都跟咱们自己的汉语拼音差不多。但是咱们学习汉语的时候，即使知道了一个字的读音，也不能直接用拼音直接拼出这个字来。还是得一笔一划的学这个字怎么写。但是英语就太方便了，本身就是字母文字。只要按照发音规则拼出来了，拼出来的结果就是单词他老人家本尊了。但是，用国际音标呢？那就跟汉语拼音一样了，拼出来的音标跟单词本身八竿子打不着。这里我插一句，到我录制的这个时间点，我用自然拼读三个月了，有个明显的提升，如果我在手机上看到一个单词，想要凭记忆敲到电脑上，根本不需要专门去记各个字母，而是只要把这个单词努力读准即可。
There are some words does not follow the Phonics rule. These tricky words are called Sight Words. School needs kids to remeber them seperately. Luckily the number of them is limited.
不过话说回来，并不是所有的单词都符合自然拼读的规则的，官方的说法是80%的单词是符合自然拼读规则的。那不符合的这部分单词会要求学生单独去记，统称为 Sight Words ，意思是要求一看到就应该会的单词。
But the real power of Phonics shows when kids pick up a book.
自然拼读的威力主要还是体现在孩子翻开书的那一刻。
The story could go like this. Now a kid speaks 1000 words, knows Phonics, and has learned 300 or 500 words learning Phonics. Then He picks up a book, when enountering a word they don’t know how to read, he uses Phonics to pronounce it, and realize it is already in his oral vocabulary, so the reading continues. Otherwise, they still don’t really need a dictionary, you may guess the meaning of it and continue. Later you use this word in your conversation, maybe your parents will correct you if you use the word in a wrong way. BTW. If you find it hard to guess the meaning of a word, that means you’ve chosen the book of wrong level for you. Phonics never works will leveled books, but that is a big topic and I may do another video to share what is matters to read leveled books.
此刻的故事是这样的。小孩口语词汇大概有一千了，也学了自然拼读，过程中认识了三五百个相关单词的拼写，Sight Words 也认识了一部分。OK ，这时小孩翻开书，读到一个生词，他就会用自然拼读规则把他读出来。那么很可能这个词就是他的口语词汇，所以就可以往下接着读了。美国学校都是分级阅读，图书都是分级筛选过的，学生肯定不会觉得太难，同时学校里要求，只要学生能理解70%的内容就行。这个跟咱们小学语文动不动要求全文背诵是完全不同的学习思路。这里要强调一句了，自然拼读和海量阅读是一体两面，离开海量阅读分级读物，自然拼读就没有了灵魂。
A word about grammers. Simple answers is they don’t really learn grammer. In early school years, they don’t even have text books. time I spent to remeber these hard rules by rote, they use to read a lot of books. In China, it seems as long as we know a lot of words, and a lot of grammer rules, we can just translate Chinese into English, this is tragically wrong. American kids also pick up rules along the way, but practicing is at the core, not the rules.
下一个问题，那他们学语法吗？简单来说就是不系统学。据我观察，他们教育的特点就是强调反复练习，反对死记硬背。小学低年级根本没有正式的课本，课后作业就是泛读。我自己的经历不能以偏概全，但是大致上我觉得咱们国内教学就是大量背单词，然后记牢语法。似乎只要语法够好，词汇量够大，说出来的英语就是完美的。先不说，死记硬背根本记不住，就是记住了，说出来的英语也基本上是中国人能听懂，老外却不明白的。非要说美国课堂上一点语法也不讲，也不符合实际情况，但是人家都是随用随讲。咱们是系统的讲，然后系统的忘。
And there is no denying that Reading is not just about language itself, if kids don’t have logics or math knowledge, their reading ablility is limited. In real world, Phonics rules are not tought all at onces, they are spread around from pre-K to 2nd grade in Khan Kids, a App that built by Americans. The App provide you with leveled content to learn math and logic. In my own case, my kid Elon can not join a Phonics class, the App provides the interactions that helps kids to learn Phonics, logics and math quickly. This is not sth video tutorials can offer.
同时，一个人的阅读能力很多时候取决于语言之外的东西，也就是知识面，例如数学和逻辑的知识。我观察美国的课程。不单是语法，就是自然拼读这样的我们认为必须先让学生学会然后再去读书的知识，其实也是分散到各年级慢慢讲的。例如从 Khan Kids 这个 App 中可以看到，Phonics 知识，从两岁一直到小学二年级的课程里面都有。Khan Kids 也就是可汗学院幼儿版，是美国人开发的一款教育软件，我儿子 Elon 就是一直按照这里面的课程设置来学习的。那这前后五六年的整个过程中，分级阅读是关键，可以看到这个 App 中有很多有声书。同时也设置了数学和逻辑课程。跑题一句，学习过程光看视频教程是不够的，互动很关键，可汗儿童版中就有很多互动环节，非常推荐。
We can see Phonics is a bridge between oral and written English. It is a powerful tool to learn how to read.
总之，自然拼读法是孩子从口语跨越到书面语的一座桥梁，是美国人自己用的拼音或者说音标的替代品。
With Reading done, now it is natural to move on to writing. Writing is too big a topic, here I mainly focus on how americans remember word spelling, which is also very different from what I did.
阅读说完，应该是要聊写作了。不过写作是个大话题了，所以咱们这里只聊老美如何背单词这个问题。这跟咱们也是非常不一样。
First of all, if American kids know how a word sounds, they can spell it. The result may not be accurate, but certainly knowing Phonics meaning you know how to generally spell most of the words already. For example, if you don’t don’t how to spell the word friend, you may write it as ‘frend’, it is correct, no, but it certainly helps. The idea here is that kids learn from sound to spelling, it’s OK you don’t understand the meaning at the beginning. On the other hand, in China, remebering words are mostly about connecting meaning and spelling, think when we pick up vocabulary book.
首先，美国小孩是知道大量单词的发音的。有了自然拼读法，只要知道发音，就能拼出单词来。虽然因为大概有百分之二十的单词是前面提过的 Sight Words ，所以孩子拼出来的东西可能是错的。但是很多老师会允许孩子拼错，自然拼读的技巧没掌握好，老师会纠正，单词拼错了，可以暂时包容。啥意思？就是学校下定了决心让大家把自然拼读内化成心法。举个例子，每个小孩都会说 friend 这个单词，按照发音，拼出来就是 frend ，是错的。单词学成这样，写作的时候肯定是不过关的，但是知道大概得拼写，阅读的时候是能保证认识的，所以说他们的教学是以泛读为核心，让学生最大化的对探索知识感兴趣，而不是只关注语言本身。咱们的教学体系中，似乎一个单词只要学了，就要会拼写。这个显然是不符合认知规律的，能认识大概，能读，这个已经可以作为一个阶段性的胜利了。后面读的多了，很多重点词非常反复出现，非常熟悉了，记住拼写也就容易多了。所以说，新单词不 要求直接记住拼写，这个是中美记单词方法的第一个大差别。第二个差别也特别明显，老美记单词是发音和词义直接关联，拼写是二等公民。咱们记单词直接背词汇书，拼写和词义相关联。不是说拼写跟词义直接关联不好，很多老外专家甚至认为，这样阅读速度可以更快，因为不用在心里默念，这个问题我们不讨论。但是不可否认背单词书，很容易造成发音成了二等公民，反正我自己背单词的时候，很多拼写记住了，但是发音有很多都是错的。以上两个点是我自己总结的，不知道准确不准确，但是我觉得很值得深思。
Based on Phonics, the way American remember spelling is very easy. catigrize words into different groups by pronoucation. Try to remebering a group together make it really easy to remeber the spelling. Go on to the Khan Kids App, open the libiary and Reading section. you can find a lof ways to group words.
有了自然拼读，美国学生记单词比咱们要高效的多。他们不会像咱们拿起词汇书，从 A 打头背到 Z 打头，而是采用分组的方法继续记忆，而且主要的分组依据就是把共享部分发音的单词分成一组。打开可汗学院儿童版，可以看到很多跟记单词相关的视频，每个视频基本都是一种分组方式。
The first way is Phonics. For exmple, when you learn the letter A, you are told the pronoucation is A, then it is good time to learn Apple and Alligator together. there are aslo cases when different letter or letter combination has same pronouncation, e.g ir, ur and er all have the same sound, so native kids learn the words like stir, shirt, singer together.
第一种方式，就是按照自然拼读的教学过程进行分组。比如，学习 A 这个字母的时候，老师会讲它的发音是 /a/ ，但是这个发音不会用国际音标去学，而是用已经熟悉的单词去学。老师会说，/a/ 这个音就是 Apple 和 Alligator 中 /a/ 。显然，这里侧重的是记住 /a/ 这个发音，但是相同发音的单词放在一起记，明显也算是一种记住单词的分组方式。
Rhyming words is the second way to group words. Rhyming words are words that have the same ending sounds. For example, the words ‘cat’, ‘hat’, and ‘rat’ all rhyme because they end with the same sound (-at). Rhyming words are often used in poetry and songwriting to create a musical or rhythmic effect. Thus they are also common learning materials for kids.
第二种分组方式就是通过押韵。比如，把 cat hat rat 放在一起，编成儿歌去记。
The other groups are like compund words, words with same suffix, and sight words. You can find dedicated courses to learn them all.
其他的各种分组方法在可汗学院的课程中也有体现，例如，相同后缀的词分一组。Sight Words 的词也都把发音类似的放在一起记。比如，find, kind, mind.
Going back to How I remeber spelling, I want to stress a bit on the harm caused by learning by vocabulary books. I picked up a vocabulary book, rember the spelling like Phone numbers. in alpbet order. there are 3 main problems for this: NO.1 you don’t learn the words in the context of reading, so even you know the meaning, you don’t really know how to use it. on the other side, Phonics way don’t really encouge you trying to remember the spelling of the word you don’t use a lot, as long as you can mostly read it, you are good to go. NO.2, pronoucation was ignored sometimes, while on the opposite, in the Phonics way, pronoucation is the first class citizen, every new spelling you learn, it helps you remember the sound better.
回来对比一下我自己当年怎么记单词的呢？这里我想再强调一下按照单词书背单词的坏处。我当时就找一本比如四级词汇，然后每个单词就像背电话号码那样，t o m o r r o w 一个字母一个字母的死记。这么做有两个主要的问题。第一，单词不是在实际的情景下学到的，所以即使粗略的知道汉语意思，其实也不会用。第二，脱离实际，学的多用到少忘得快。有一次听一个老外老师说，单词不是背会的，是学会的。
I’ve talked to one of my Aeriican friends, and he said he never had a vocabulary book, or even a dictionary. New words are learned by leveled reading. I am convinced, vocabulary books are designed for exams, while you are forced to learn words that far from your current level, that will wreck your English learning.
另外，我也跟一位美国朋友请教过，他说他根本就没用过词汇书。新单词都是从阅读中去学的，遇到生词主要靠猜。所以，我说说个人看法，词汇书就是给考试准备的。试卷上的阅读题都是比我自己实际水平高很多的，明知道死记硬背那些单词都是回头就忘，那也得背。但是，真想把英语学好的人，生词应该是从大量阅读中去学，发音绑定词义，情景烘托词义，这个更符合人的自然认知规律。
To conculude myself. We can clear see the American way is very different from our way. Do not stress too early on spelling, use phonics to transfter from oral to reading ability, learning by using by tons of leveled books. OK, all for now.
最后总结几句。从上面的这些对比，可以看出，咱们跟老美学英语的方法是非常不同的。他们的方法大致总结成这么几点：第一，不要过早记拼写。第二，用自然拼读把口语词汇转化成书面词汇。第三，学习的主体不是学，而是用，具体来说就是分级阅读。好，这一集就是这些内容。下个视频中详细聊聊分级阅读。