数字时代对拼写的影响

山东 李全忠

一项在线调查发现，67%的澳大利亚人认为：社交媒体和短信影响了孩子的拼写能力。而Buckingham博士却认为，父母的担忧不应该被忽视，但没有直接证据佐证。而有很多证据表明，人们从手写向打字和发短信的转变正在影响拼写能力，因为手写有助于孩子们学习字母，也有助于他们拼写。

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A survey shows more than two-thirds of adults are worried about the spelling abilities of children, saying standards have eroded as technology has taken hold.

The online poll by personal finance app Humaniti found that while 97 percent rated spelling as important, 67 percent were very or somewhat concerned about how well children can spell. And it's not just kids they were worried about, with 66 percent saying spelling standards had slipped in Australian society overall.

They pointed the finger at technology, with social media and text messaging seen as the main cause. This was closely followed by a reliance on smartphones and voice-controlled technology like Siri. These were considered the main reasons for spelling decline by 67 percent of respondents.

When asked for other reasons, a decrease in reading books was blamed by 42 percent, while laziness was blamed by 26 percent and education blamed by 20 percent.

Literacy expert Dr Jennifer Buckingham said NAPLAN results showed incomplete progress on spelling since national testing was introduced in schools in 2008. And she said parents' concerns should not be dismissed. “I think parents are pretty good bellwethers (领头羊) with this sort of thing,”Dr Buckingham said. “If parents are worried about this, then I think it's something schools should be looking at.”

But Dr Buckingham said the way technology was taking a toll on spelling was different to what people might think.

Dr Buckingham said there was little research at the moment to show a link between social media use and worsening spelling, but there was evidence that the shift away from handwriting in favour of typing and texting was hurting spelling ability.

“The thing that's most likely to impact on it is the crowding out of handwriting,” Dr Buckingham said. “There is a lot of evidence that handwriting is very important for learning spelling because that fine motor process of forming the letters in handwriting helps children to learn the letter and also to learn the letter patterns that contribute to their spelling.”

Reading Check

1. What does the underlined word “eroded” in paragraph 1 mean?

A. Changed.B. Dedicated.C. Weakened.D. Strengthened.

2. What do adults see as the main reason for declining spelling ability?

A. Their ignorance.B. A decrease in reading books.

C. Relying much on smartphones.D. Social media and text messaging.

3.What's Dr Buckingham's attitude to parents' role in dealing with the spelling abilities?

A. Neutral.B. Critical.C. Supportive.D. Indifferent.

4. What does Dr Buckingham believe is important for learning spelling?

A. Writing by hand.B. No social media use.

C. Improving spelling skills.D. Learning the letter properly.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

A survey shows more than two-thirds of adults are worried about the spelling abilities of children,saying standards have eroded as technology has taken hold. 一项调查显示，超过三分之二的成年人担心孩子们的拼写能力，称随着技术的普及，拼写标准已经降低。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句，句中more than two-thirds of adults are worried about the spelling abilities of children是宾语从句，作show的宾语，saying...是现在分词作伴随状语，as引导时间状语从句。

Ⅱ. Theme-centered chunks

be concerned about 担心

look at 思考；考虑

at the moment 目前

in favour of 为获得（更好或更需要的事物）

contribute to 有助于；促成；捐献；投稿