鄭尉工作室英語啟蒙研究報告①：所謂啟蒙就是用語言和故事滋養(yǎng)心靈

本文首發(fā)于公號：安可媽媽親子閱讀，專注高質量家庭親子英文啟蒙，秉持“父母是孩子最好的英語啟蒙導師”理念，以獨創(chuàng)英語生活情景輸入法，讓寶寶從小自然習得英文

最近看了一本書，英文名叫Thirty Million Words-Building A Child’s Brain,作者是Dana Suskind.作者的主要觀點就是：多和孩子說有質量的話。根據我們工作室1年多的英語啟蒙實踐研究，我摘抄了一些我覺得非常符合我們研究結論的話：

1）The answer to the growing problem of social inequalities in our country is to make use of America’s top two resources: its children and their parents.

我同意。中國和美國一樣。如果要減少社會不平等現(xiàn)象，一定要利用國家的2大資源：父母和孩子。

2）Children who receive cochlear implants and are in homes where the language is rich do well; those who receive cochlear implants but are in homes without adequate language do not do as well. A young child must live in a world rich with words and words and words...This book helps all of us understand the importance of communicating abundantly, pleasantly and responsively with infants and toddlers.

這本書的作者提到，安裝了人工耳蝸的孩子，如果周圍的語言環(huán)境不豐富，還是很難開口說話。所以，作者通過自己的親身實踐并結合他人的研究成果，得出了結論：父母一定要抱著愉悅的心情，用豐富的語言和富有引導性的話語和寶寶說話。這樣能夠刺激寶寶大腦的發(fā)育，實現(xiàn)學術和性格發(fā)展的雙豐收。

3）Children in lower socioeconomic homes heard far less language than their higher socioeconomic counterparts, quantity was not the only difference. Hart and Risley also found significant differences in quality, that is, what types of words were spoken and how they were spoken to a child. Even without science, we know intuitively that saying “shut up” thirty million times is not going to help a child develop into an intelligent, productive stable adult.

在沒看這本書之前，我就反對整天和孩子說一些諸如寶寶你打嗝了，放屁了，把鞋帶系上這種極其沒有營養(yǎng)的英文句子。是的，這些話你真想說，說中文就可以了。作為學習英語的媽媽們，應該和孩子說的，是有質量的語言，就是Hart和Risley提到的，quality。重復一次，媽媽和小孩說的話，不僅要多，還要求有質量，并且講究說話的方式。

4）The less varied the vocabulary, the lower the child’s achievement at age three...Cumulatively，the differences were staggering...In homes where there was quantity of words, there were also other essential factors including greater richness,complexity, and diversity of language.The language those children heard was much more positive and supportive.

我極其贊同：詞匯量越少，孩子在3歲的表現(xiàn)越差。其實不僅僅對于寶寶，通過我10年新東方教學經驗，大孩子也是一樣，詞匯量豐富的學生各方面的表現(xiàn)遠遠強于詞匯量低的學生。所以我不斷強調，我們要關注詞匯多樣性和句子多樣性。這就是作者提到的，richness豐富，complexity復雜和diversity多樣。

5）Just as a baby who is starved of adequate food in the first three years may survive but will never grow to his or her potential height, a baby whose brain is starved of adequate language will survive but will have enormous difficulty learning and will never reach his or her full intellectual capacity.

這段話的意思是，如果孩子在0-3歲食物和營養(yǎng)跟不上，那么會影響以后的身高；寶寶的大腦也一樣，如果缺乏足夠的語言滋養(yǎng)，那么也會影響孩子實現(xiàn)自己的潛力。這段話讓我想到托福聽力的一篇文章，說的是一般來說，小鹿如果在出生的時候缺乏足夠的食物，成年后即便有了充足的食物也改變不了矮瘦的狀態(tài)。

6）Relying almost entirely on already-learned words, but with no observable reference, it takes a higher level of thinking for processing and responding. Not surprisingly, it is felt to have a significant relationship to a child’s brain development.

現(xiàn)在我們的70后80后甚至90后的媽媽，一般都具備基礎的英文能力。所以媽媽們結合市面上的優(yōu)質英文繪本和分級讀物，給孩子教簡單的名詞，動詞，甚至小句子，是沒有太大難度的。但是大多數(shù)的媽媽會面臨一個困境：除了這些，我還能和孩子說點什么？尤其有的媽媽本身就是英語老師，總覺得這樣的英文啟蒙，缺了點什么？

是的，缺的就是更高端的語言。比如，My little treasure, I love you. You are indispensable to me. You are the whole world to me.這些抽象的語言，有的媽媽會擔心，這么說寶寶能聽懂嗎？其實你不用擔心。就像這段英文說的，高級的語言，需要思考的語言，有助于寶寶大腦的開發(fā)。在我剛才提到的這一串句子里，媽媽們都會說I love you，通過媽媽說I love you時的語氣，眼神和動作，寶寶應該能慢慢理解I love you的意思。那么這個時候我們如果把“My little treasure, I love you. You are indispensable to me. You are the whole world to me.”這一長串句子連起來說，寶寶的大腦又會積極處理信息。那么這個過程，就有助于孩子大腦的發(fā)育。

最后我們用迪士尼動畫片玩具小醫(yī)生的編劇Chris Nee的話結尾：Dr. Suskind’s work reveals that the greatest gift we can give our children is free. How empowering to understand that it doesn’t take money to give our children advantages in the world, it takes words. Her research is vital.

新東方鄭尉2015年11月22日