某児童教育機関の英語読解問題例を見て驚いた事があります。
早く「こなす」事を目的としているような方針なのでしょうか
全く「読解」とは無関係にしか思えず、さらに、答えが
そのまま載っている単純な問題ばかりだったからでございます。
手前の次男10歳は、英国郊外の某公立小学校のYear6
（日本の小6ですが、年齢的には小5）なんですが
先日、下の様な「読解」問題が宿題で出されておりました。
一応、「語学ブログ(笑)」的にも
興味深い内容だと思いますので、全文、掲載いたします。
（ちなみに、問題のほうは、先生の手書きでございました。）
英語なんぞ読みたくねぇ、と、おっしゃる方は、
どうか、☆☆☆以降まで、とばしてくださいまし。
＝＝＝＝＝＝
（以下、次男の宿題）
Read this extract from 'The Machine Gunners' by Robert Westall.
＝＝＝
↓
Chas dawdled along to th hawthorn hedge.
There were only two gaps in it, hidden by dead-nettles.
Chas walked past the first, and suddenly wriggled through the second.
Once through, he ran back silently to the first.
He peered through it; a pair of large black boots was just vanishing through the second.
Chas scrambled back into the road, and streaked off the way he had come.
By the time the copper found the second hole, he'd be a mile away.
Chas tried him on the glass-topped wall; but the copper was
equally good at walls.
So Chass gave him the waterpipe that spanned the Red Burn.
The Red Burn was only a foot deep, but of a peculiar ( and staining ) red mud.
And the water-pipe was stickily tarred and only six inches wide.
Chas always ran over it ( you kept your balance if you ran fast enough )
but coppers always lost their nerve, and tried sitting astride.
Joy of joys, they often got stuck in the middle.
But this copper crossed the pipe on his feet.
'Must be Scotland Yard' muttered Chas, getting flustered.
They would be expecting him at the Fortress; he was already an hour late.
'Right, I'll give him the Mud Flats, then.'
Chas had kept the mud[flats in reserve until now; they were a vast swamp
by the river below the town, covered at this season with dead reeds
four feet high, and crossed by black oozing streams that sported the
unhealthy rainbows of oil-patches.
What paths there were crossed the streams by sodden rotten planks.
They were oly used by anglers and small boys, and you had to know
them well, for they were the terror of all local mothers; children had
drowned there in the past.
The Flats were only two hundred yards from the Nichol house.
I'll be drinking my tea in ten minutes, thought Chas.
He ran across the first bridge, ducked and sped sharp left.
Crouching low, he changed direction six more times and then
crouched on a dry patch under the skeleton of a wrecked fishing-boat.
He then realized uneasily that he'd put himself in a cul-de-sac.
There was no way out from the wrecked boat except the way he'd come.
Still, he must have lost the policeman pretty thoroughly by this time.
He started to giggle, and then stifled it.
Footsteps were squelching towards him, searching carefully.
In another second they'd be on him.
Was it a policeman at all?
＝＝＝
↑
Answer the following questions in your Reading Record.
Remember that the number of points for each question
should give you an idea of the detail required in your answer.
1) In the first sentence what does the word 'dawdled' suggest
about the way Chas was walking. (1)
2)What does the word 'streaked' suggest about the way Chas moved? (2)
3)Why does the author say that Chas said "good morning"
with great innocence to a friend of his mother's? (2)
4)Why does Chas mutter: "Must be Scotland Yard"? (2)
5)Why had Chas kept the mud-flats in reserve? (1)
6)Why did Chas feel uneasy when he realised that
he had run into a cul-de-sac? (1)
7) Why did Chas stifle his laugh?(1)
8)What does it mean when Chas is described as being 'flustered'?
Why didi he feel like this? (2)
9)Why did Chas start to wonder whether the person chasing him
was actually a policeman? (2)
10)Why is the fishing boat described as a 'skeleton'? (1)
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
☆☆☆☆☆
上に挙げた某教育機関の「プリント」には
「著名な文学作品」の一節が使われておりましたが
文学作品の一節にしても、説明文の一節にしても
会話文の一節にしても
答えが素早く自動的に見つかるような問題を
いくら解いても、どんなに数をこなしても
「読解力」「考える力」「鑑賞する力」
さらに「模倣から始め、創造に至る力」等を
鍛える事にはならないと手前は考えます。
プリントを数多くこなす・こなせる形式は
深い思考力を要求しない「単純作業」の繰り返し
に、基いているのではないでしょうか？
もちろん繰り返しによって完成度を高めるという
「練習」も、「修行」も「鍛錬」も
非常に重要なのですが
「読解力」は、単純作業の繰り返しによって
身につけるものではないはずでございます。
漢字や計算問題などをプリントで磨くのは
適宜な方法だとは思いますが
「適材適所」ってぇ言葉がありますように
「語学」特に「読解」を
同じような「単純作業」形式で「学ぶ」のは
無理な話じゃぁございませんかね？
語学にしたって、プリントを何枚も「こなす」よりも
その学習言語は、ひとまずおいて
最も能力の高い第一言語/母国語で、
一册でも多くの文学作品を読んだほうが
よっぽど、ためになると存じます。
母国語が貧しければ、どんな語学も、ものになりません。
語学に不可欠なのは、まず、
豊穣な母国語能力でございます。
↑どうか一押しっ！↑
スマートフォン・英国プリペイド携帯情報は
新ブログ
「スマフォ5台の主婦@英国」
http://13ten.wordpress.com/
を、是非どうぞ！！！
早く「こなす」事を目的としているような方針なのでしょうか
全く「読解」とは無関係にしか思えず、さらに、答えが
そのまま載っている単純な問題ばかりだったからでございます。
手前の次男10歳は、英国郊外の某公立小学校のYear6
（日本の小6ですが、年齢的には小5）なんですが
先日、下の様な「読解」問題が宿題で出されておりました。
一応、「語学ブログ(笑)」的にも
興味深い内容だと思いますので、全文、掲載いたします。
（ちなみに、問題のほうは、先生の手書きでございました。）
英語なんぞ読みたくねぇ、と、おっしゃる方は、
どうか、☆☆☆以降まで、とばしてくださいまし。
＝＝＝＝＝＝
（以下、次男の宿題）
Read this extract from 'The Machine Gunners' by Robert Westall.
＝＝＝
↓
Chas dawdled along to th hawthorn hedge.
There were only two gaps in it, hidden by dead-nettles.
Chas walked past the first, and suddenly wriggled through the second.
Once through, he ran back silently to the first.
He peered through it; a pair of large black boots was just vanishing through the second.
Chas scrambled back into the road, and streaked off the way he had come.
By the time the copper found the second hole, he'd be a mile away.
Chas tried him on the glass-topped wall; but the copper was
equally good at walls.
So Chass gave him the waterpipe that spanned the Red Burn.
The Red Burn was only a foot deep, but of a peculiar ( and staining ) red mud.
And the water-pipe was stickily tarred and only six inches wide.
Chas always ran over it ( you kept your balance if you ran fast enough )
but coppers always lost their nerve, and tried sitting astride.
Joy of joys, they often got stuck in the middle.
But this copper crossed the pipe on his feet.
'Must be Scotland Yard' muttered Chas, getting flustered.
They would be expecting him at the Fortress; he was already an hour late.
'Right, I'll give him the Mud Flats, then.'
Chas had kept the mud[flats in reserve until now; they were a vast swamp
by the river below the town, covered at this season with dead reeds
four feet high, and crossed by black oozing streams that sported the
unhealthy rainbows of oil-patches.
What paths there were crossed the streams by sodden rotten planks.
They were oly used by anglers and small boys, and you had to know
them well, for they were the terror of all local mothers; children had
drowned there in the past.
The Flats were only two hundred yards from the Nichol house.
I'll be drinking my tea in ten minutes, thought Chas.
He ran across the first bridge, ducked and sped sharp left.
Crouching low, he changed direction six more times and then
crouched on a dry patch under the skeleton of a wrecked fishing-boat.
He then realized uneasily that he'd put himself in a cul-de-sac.
There was no way out from the wrecked boat except the way he'd come.
Still, he must have lost the policeman pretty thoroughly by this time.
He started to giggle, and then stifled it.
Footsteps were squelching towards him, searching carefully.
In another second they'd be on him.
Was it a policeman at all?
＝＝＝
↑
Answer the following questions in your Reading Record.
Remember that the number of points for each question
should give you an idea of the detail required in your answer.
1) In the first sentence what does the word 'dawdled' suggest
about the way Chas was walking. (1)
2)What does the word 'streaked' suggest about the way Chas moved? (2)
3)Why does the author say that Chas said "good morning"
with great innocence to a friend of his mother's? (2)
4)Why does Chas mutter: "Must be Scotland Yard"? (2)
5)Why had Chas kept the mud-flats in reserve? (1)
6)Why did Chas feel uneasy when he realised that
he had run into a cul-de-sac? (1)
7) Why did Chas stifle his laugh?(1)
8)What does it mean when Chas is described as being 'flustered'?
Why didi he feel like this? (2)
9)Why did Chas start to wonder whether the person chasing him
was actually a policeman? (2)
10)Why is the fishing boat described as a 'skeleton'? (1)
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
☆☆☆☆☆
上に挙げた某教育機関の「プリント」には
「著名な文学作品」の一節が使われておりましたが
文学作品の一節にしても、説明文の一節にしても
会話文の一節にしても
答えが素早く自動的に見つかるような問題を
いくら解いても、どんなに数をこなしても
「読解力」「考える力」「鑑賞する力」
さらに「模倣から始め、創造に至る力」等を
鍛える事にはならないと手前は考えます。
プリントを数多くこなす・こなせる形式は
深い思考力を要求しない「単純作業」の繰り返し
に、基いているのではないでしょうか？
もちろん繰り返しによって完成度を高めるという
「練習」も、「修行」も「鍛錬」も
非常に重要なのですが
「読解力」は、単純作業の繰り返しによって
身につけるものではないはずでございます。
漢字や計算問題などをプリントで磨くのは
適宜な方法だとは思いますが
「適材適所」ってぇ言葉がありますように
「語学」特に「読解」を
同じような「単純作業」形式で「学ぶ」のは
無理な話じゃぁございませんかね？
語学にしたって、プリントを何枚も「こなす」よりも
その学習言語は、ひとまずおいて
最も能力の高い第一言語/母国語で、
一册でも多くの文学作品を読んだほうが
よっぽど、ためになると存じます。
母国語が貧しければ、どんな語学も、ものになりません。
語学に不可欠なのは、まず、
豊穣な母国語能力でございます。
↑どうか一押しっ！↑
スマートフォン・英国プリペイド携帯情報は
新ブログ
「スマフォ5台の主婦@英国」
http://13ten.wordpress.com/
を、是非どうぞ！！！