雅思閱讀第042套P3-The Significant Role of Mother Tongue in Education
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3below.
The Significant Role of Mother Tongue inEducation
One consequence of populationmobility is an increasing diversity within schools. To illustrate, in the cityof Toronto in Canada, 58% of kindergarten pupils come from homes where Englishis not the usual language of communication. Schools in Europe and North Americahave experienced this diversity for years, and educational policies andpractices vary widely between countries and even within countries. Somepolitical parties and groups search for ways to solve the problem of diversecommunities and their integration in schools and society. However, they see fewpositive consequences for the host society and worry that this diversitythreatens the identity of the host society. Consequently, they promoteunfortunate educational policies that will make the “problem” disappear. Ifstudents retain their culture and language, they are viewed as less capable ofidentifying with the mainstream culture and learning the mainstream language ofthe society.
The challenge for educator andpolicy-makers is to shape the evolution of national identity in such a way thatrights of all citizens (including school children) are respected, and thecultural linguistic, and economic resources of the nation are maximised. Towaste the resources of the nation by discouraging children from developing theirmother tongues is quite simply unintelligent from the point of view of nationalself-interest. A first step in providing an appropriate education forculturally and linguistically diverse children is to examine what the existingresearch says about the role of children’s mother tongues in their educationaldevelopment.
In fact, the research is veryclear. When children continue to develop their abilities in two or morelanguages throughout their primary school, they gain a deeper understanding oflanguage and how to use it effectively. They have more practice in processinglanguage, especially when they develop literacy in both. More than 150 researchstudies conducted during the past 25 years strongly support what Goethe, thefamous eighteenth-century German philosopher, once said: the person who knowsonly one language dose not truly know that language. Research suggests thatbilingual children may also develop more flexibility in their thinking as aresult of processing information through two different languages.
The level of development ofchildren;s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second languagedevelopment. Children who come to school with a solid foundation in theirmother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language. Whenparents and other caregivers (e.g. grandparents) are able to spend time withtheir children and tell stories or discuss issues with them in a way thatdevelops their mother tongue, children come to school well-prepared to learnthe school language and succed educationally. Children’s knowledge and skillstransfer across languages from the mother tongue to the school language.Transfer across languages can be two-way: both languages nurture each otherwhen the educational environment permits children access to both languages.
Some educators and parents aresuspicious of mother tongue-based teaching programs because they worry thatthey take time away from the majority language. For exampie, in a bilingualprogram when 50% of the time is spent teaching through children’s home languageand 50% through the majority language, surely children won’t progress as far inthe latter? One of the most strongly established findings of educationalresearch, however, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promoteliterracy and subject-matter knowledge in a minority language without anynegative effects on children’s development in the majority language. WithinEurope, the Foyer program in Belgium, which develops children’s speaking andliteracy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French),most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education(see Cummins, 2000).
It is easy to understand howthis happens. When children are learning through a minority language, they arelearning concepts and intellectual skills too. Pupils who know how to tell thetime in their mother tongue understand the concept of telling time. In order totell time in the majority language, they do not need to re-learn the concept.Similarly, at more advanced stages, there, is transfer across languages inother skills such as knowing how to distinguish the main idea from thesupporting details of a written passage or story, and distinguishing fact fromopinion. Studies of secondary school pupils are providing interesting findingsin this area, and it would be worth extending this research.
Many people marvel at howquickfy bilingual children seem to “pick up” conversational skills in themajority language at school (although it takes much longer for them to catch upwith native speakers in academic language skills). However, educators are oftenmuch less aware of how quickly children can lose their ability to use theirmother tongue, even in the home context. The extent and rapidity of language losswill vary according to the concentration of families from a particularlinguistic group in the neighborhood. Where the mother tongue is usedextensively in the community, then language loss among young children will beless. However, where language communities are not concentrated in particularneighborhoods, children can lose their ability to communicate in their mothertongue within 2-3 years of starting school. They may retain receptive skills inthe language but they will use the majority language, in speaking with theirpeers and siblings and in responding to their parents. By the time childrenbecome adolescents, the linguistic division between parents and children hasbecome an emotional chasm. Pupils frequently become alienated from the culturesof both home and school with predictable results.
SECTION 3: QUESTIONS 27-40
Questions 27-30
Choose the correctletter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter inboxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27What point did the writer make in thesecond paragraph?
ASome present studies on children’s mothertongues are misleading/
BA culturally rich education programmebenefits some children more than others.
CBilingual children can make a valuablecontribution to the wealth of a country.
DThe law on mother toungue use at shoolshould be strengthened
28Why does the writer refer to somethingthat Goethe said?
Ato lend weight to his argument
Bto contradict some research
Cto introduce a new concept
Dto update current thinking
29The writer believes that when young childrenhave a firm grasp of their mother tongue
Athey can teach older family members whatthey learnt at school
Bthey go on to do much better throughouttheir time at school.
Cthey can read stories about their culturalbackground.
Dthey develop stronger relationships withtheir family than with their peers
30Why are some people suspicious aboutmother tongue-based teaching programmes?
AThey worry that children will be slow tolearn to read in either language.
BThey think that children will confusewords in the two languages.
CThey believe that the programmes will makechildren less interested in their lessons.
DThey fear that the programmes will use upvaluable time in the school day.
Questions 31-35
Complete the summary using thelist of word, A-J, below
Write the correct letter, A-J,in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.
Bilingual Children
It was often recorded thatbilingual children acquire the 31 _____________ to converse inthe majority language remarkable quickly. The fact that the mother tongue candisappear at a similar 32 _____________ isless well understood. This phenomenon depends, to a certain extent, on theproposition of people with the same linguistic background that have settled ina particular 33 _____________ Ifthis is limited, children are likely to lose the active use of their mothertongue. And thus no longer employ it even with 34 _____________, although they maystill understand it. It follows that teenager children in these circumstancesexperience a sense of 35 _____________ inrelation to all aspects of their lives.
A
teachers
B
schools
C
dislocation
D
rate
E
time
F
family
G
communication
H
type
I
ability
J
area
Questions 36-40
Do the following statementsagree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 36-40 onyour answer sheet, write
YES
if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO
if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN
if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
36 _________________ Less thanhalf of the children who attend kindergarten in Toronto have English as theirmother tongue.
37 _________________ Researchproves that learning the host country language at school can have an adverseeffect on a child’s mother tongue.
38 _________________ The Foyerprogram is accepted by the French education system.
39 _________________ Bilingualchildren are taught to tell the time earlier than monolingual children.
40 _________________ Bilingualchildren can apply reading comprehension strategies acquired in one languagewhen reading in the other.
答案
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