Reading: An Integral Part of Our Life -- Intervie

Reading: An Integral1 Part of Our Life -- Interview with the President and the Executive Director of IRA

 

Li Feiyan: Could you briefly introduce the IRA to our readers?

 

Mary Ellen Vogt: The International Reading Association (IRA) is a professional organization with about 85,000 members in one hundred countries throughout the world. We have between 300,000 and 400,000 affiliated2 members who are involved at the local, provincial or international level in addition. So it’s a very very large organization.

 

Our goal/ mission is somewhat simple in that what we really want to do is to develop literacy3: reading, writing and speaking skills of children from a very young age, pre-kindergarten, and all the way through adults.

 

Li: By far, do you have any volunteers in China to help people develop their literacy?

 

Allen E. Farstrup: Yes, our members in the Capital Normal University are somewhat volunteers. They are doing this because they know how important this job is. So we depend on people who are professional and who are experienced to give their time and their experience to write for our journal4 and for our books. So, all of our members are volunteers. We have about 120 paid stuff members based mainly in the US, and we also have a small number of regional editing officers in South America. We work on behalf of our volunteers to help their work be more effective.

 

Li: What’s your view on the literacy education situation in China?

 

Mary: Well, we are very impressed with some of the educational materials. Those particular materials for the Chinese high school students are very progressive; they look very similar to those we saw at the other parts of the world. They are based on research in terms of effective learning and effective teaching. We are very excited to see that. We also had the opportunity to meet with one representative from Foreign Language Press. They do a lot of publications in English.

 

Li: Do you have any suggestions on how to develop reading ability, particularly the general reading ability of a nation?

 

Mary: One of the things we most encourage is parents read stories to children. We call it Lap Time in the United States, which means children sitting on the parents’ laps, listening to their parents reading a story or telling a story. Some parents may not be able to read very well for themselves, but they certainly can tell stories about their life, their family, and the history and so forth. Consequently, all of these build a child a sense of story, and help them be able to read the words better once they understand how stories work. So, that’s one of the most important things we say for parents to do, to have reading be an important part of their own family life, and to show their children that they like to read and are interested in what’s happened in the world not only through television, but also through reading.

 

Allen: I think it’s very important not only for parents to read for children, but also for the large community, business leaders, government leaders to set a good example to children by being in classroom, by reading to children, by providing financial support for projects that celebrate the importance of reading.

 

The other suggestion I would make is really a suggestion for school authorities, government authorities as well as for the business community to provide support to the teachers, so that the teachers can continue to learn as they teach. Teachers need to continue their learning as they come into the classroom, so life-long professional development for teachers is extremely important. They need to set a good example by sharing their own interest in reading with their students. We saw some very impressive teacher training materials here in Beijing, and that is extremely valuable.

 

Li: You know, nowadays the internet is flooded with lots of information, some are good while some are really harmful. How to sort out the useful message on the internet?

 

Mary: There is something in the field of reading education called critical education. One of my agent colleagues in Singapore working with the school has been very much involved in this movement. His name is Allen Loock. He and his colleagues, as well as others have been developing an approach to literacy that they call critical literacy. It’s a rather complex theoretical model, but of simplest definition. It’s teaching students how to do exactly what you are talking about, how to be able to evaluate critically the materials they read, to be able to look at materials and tell whether it is aculeate5 or worthwhile or it is a biased6 perception or an objective perspective.

 

Yes, there are so many things on the internet, and some young people tend to believe anything on the internet. Not just internet, but newspaper and magazine too. People should not only learn how to read, but also be able to read analytically7. I don’t mean to be critical in terms of to criticize, but to be analytical in mind, so they can sort through all the sources of information they see, and be able to make sense of them, and almost calculate them in terms of what’s worthwhile and what’s not. It’s a very challenging task to prepare teachers to be able to help students to do this, so it’s a big issue being discussed right now in the literacy field all over the world.

 

Li: As veteran8 experts in the field of reading, what does reading mean to both of you?

 

Mary: To me, it’s pleasure; it is information; it is an escape when I just want to relax and go to some places else. It is an opportunity to visit countries and places where I am not able to visit, because I can read about them. It is through reading that I enjoy so many conversations with my family and friends about what we have read. As I think about becoming older, about people who have lost the ability to read, I am thankful there are such books as tapes. You can read even though you may not be able to see; you can still listen, listen to tapes. I usually have a book on tape in my car that I listen to. Reading is everything to me; I cannot imagine a life in which I couldn’t read.

 

注释：

1. integral [5intigrEl] a. 构成整体所必需的，基本的

2. affiliate [E5filieit] vt. 接纳……为成员（或分支机构），使成为会员

3. literacy [5litErEsi] n. 读写能力，识字，有文化

4. journal [5dV:nEl] n. 杂志，期刊

5. aculeate [E5kju:liEt] a.（语言等）一针见血的，尖锐的

6. biased [5baiEst] a. 偏袒一方的，有偏见的

7. analytically [7AnE5litikEli] ad. 善于分析地

8. veteran [5vetErEn] a. 经验丰富的，老练的

 

 

阅读：我们生活的一部分

——国际阅读协会主席和理事长的访谈

 

编者按：阅读是什么，相信每个人都会有自己的答案。对于在读写领域有着丰富的教研经验的人来说，阅读在他们眼里又是什么呢？前些日子，为了筹备将于今年10月在北京召开的2005年亚太地区国际阅读研讨会，国际阅读协会主席玛丽·艾伦·沃特（Mary Ellen Vogt）和理事长埃伦·法斯特罗普（Allen E. Farstrup）专程来到北京。我们以“阅读”为主题采访了这两位专家。

 

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