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Why kids can't read (and what we can do about it), with Kate Crist
2025/3/6
Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
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Kate Crist
Mignon Fogarty: 我对美国成年人识字率低感到震惊，并对如何衡量这一数据以及它对个人和社会的影响提出疑问。
Kate Crist: 美国成年人识字率低是一个令人震惊的事实，这会对个人生活和社会发展产生巨大影响。识字率的衡量标准是国际成人能力评估项目 (PIAAC)，该项目显示约20%的美国成年人识字水平在三年级及以下，这会限制他们的就业、参与社会活动和获取信息的能力。大约一半的美国人识字水平在六年级及以下，这阻碍了他们追求高等教育和职业发展。低识字率是许多人无法获得高等教育和职业发展机会的主要障碍，例如无法通过军事入学考试。
许多阅读障碍是可以解决的，关键在于提供合适的干预和支持。我分享了一些帮助学生克服阅读障碍的故事，以及如何激励青少年克服阅读困难。文本转语音技术可以帮助阅读障碍者获取信息，但不能完全解决阅读问题，学生仍然需要独立阅读能力。过度依赖文本转语音技术可能会阻碍学生独立阅读能力的培养。
美国学生的阅读能力长期低迷，这与学校的阅读教学方法存在问题有关。美国学校的阅读教学方法存在问题，教师们只是按照既定的错误方法进行教学。对儿童阅读学习方式的理解在过去几十年里有了显著提高，但美国学校的阅读教学方法仍然与当前的认知科学研究成果脱节。美国学校的阅读教学方法在“整体语言法”和“语音法”之间摇摆不定，而“语音法”才是更有效的教学方法。
阅读理解能力包括语言理解和词汇识别两个方面。阅读是一项需要专门教授的技能，不像口语那样自然习得。理想的阅读教学方法应该同时兼顾解码技能和语言理解能力的培养，但实际情况并非如此。美国学校的阅读教学中，解码技能和知识积累的系统性训练不足。
家长应该关注孩子在一年级结束时的阅读能力，因为这与高中毕业率密切相关。如果孩子在一二年级结束时阅读能力仍然存在问题，家长应该寻求帮助。阅读能力的差距会随着时间的推移而扩大，形成马太效应。家长应该主动与学校沟通，了解学校的阅读教学方法，并寻求帮助。家长应该积极主动地寻求帮助，利用各种资源帮助孩子提高阅读能力。如果经济条件允许，家长应该为孩子聘请阅读家教。家长应该向其他家长寻求帮助和建议，共同解决孩子的阅读问题。家长应该让孩子明白阅读障碍不是他们的错，并给予他们支持和鼓励。家长应该积极参与学校的阅读教学，并向学校提出改进建议。学校和学区应该将提高学生的阅读能力作为首要目标。
针对成年人，也有一些专门的阅读学习资源。针对成年人的可解码文本，主题更贴近成年人的生活，能够帮助他们提高阅读能力。成年人也可以通过成人识字中心获得帮助。个人可以通过志愿者活动帮助他人提高阅读能力，例如在图书馆或学校担任阅读辅导员。
Kate Crist: 美国成年人识字率低是一个令人震惊的事实，这会对个人生活和社会发展产生巨大影响。识字率的衡量标准是国际成人能力评估项目 (PIAAC)，该项目显示约20%的美国成年人识字水平在三年级及以下，这会限制他们的就业、参与社会活动和获取信息的能力。大约一半的美国人识字水平在六年级及以下，这阻碍了他们追求高等教育和职业发展。低识字率是许多人无法获得高等教育和职业发展机会的主要障碍，例如无法通过军事入学考试。
许多阅读障碍是可以解决的，关键在于提供合适的干预和支持。我分享了一些帮助学生克服阅读障碍的故事，以及如何激励青少年克服阅读困难。文本转语音技术可以帮助阅读障碍者获取信息，但不能完全解决阅读问题，学生仍然需要独立阅读能力。过度依赖文本转语音技术可能会阻碍学生独立阅读能力的培养。
美国学生的阅读能力长期低迷，这与学校的阅读教学方法存在问题有关。美国学校的阅读教学方法存在问题，教师们只是按照既定的错误方法进行教学。对儿童阅读学习方式的理解在过去几十年里有了显著提高，但美国学校的阅读教学方法仍然与当前的认知科学研究成果脱节。美国学校的阅读教学方法在“整体语言法”和“语音法”之间摇摆不定，而“语音法”才是更有效的教学方法。
阅读理解能力包括语言理解和词汇识别两个方面。阅读是一项需要专门教授的技能，不像口语那样自然习得。理想的阅读教学方法应该同时兼顾解码技能和语言理解能力的培养，但实际情况并非如此。美国学校的阅读教学中，解码技能和知识积累的系统性训练不足。
家长应该关注孩子在一年级结束时的阅读能力，因为这与高中毕业率密切相关。如果孩子在一二年级结束时阅读能力仍然存在问题，家长应该寻求帮助。阅读能力的差距会随着时间的推移而扩大，形成马太效应。家长应该主动与学校沟通，了解学校的阅读教学方法，并寻求帮助。家长应该积极主动地寻求帮助，利用各种资源帮助孩子提高阅读能力。如果经济条件允许，家长应该为孩子聘请阅读家教。家长应该向其他家长寻求帮助和建议，共同解决孩子的阅读问题。家长应该让孩子明白阅读障碍不是他们的错，并给予他们支持和鼓励。家长应该积极参与学校的阅读教学，并向学校提出改进建议。学校和学区应该将提高学生的阅读能力作为首要目标。
针对成年人，也有一些专门的阅读学习资源。针对成年人的可解码文本，主题更贴近成年人的生活，能够帮助他们提高阅读能力。成年人也可以通过成人识字中心获得帮助。个人可以通过志愿者活动帮助他人提高阅读能力，例如在图书馆或学校担任阅读辅导员。
supporting_evidences
Kate Crist: 'The one of the most commonly used ones is called the PIAC. We love our acronyms and education is the program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. And that's where that 20 percent, 21 percent literacy rate comes from. That 20 percent are people who read it about a third grade level or below.'
Kate Crist: 'And so that means, yeah, so that means like job applications, voter registration guides, medical information packets, all of that's pretty inaccessible. Reading to your children, often inaccessible.'
Kate Crist: 'And so those also have pretty big impacts. Conversational English, when we sort of on this podcast today, when we talk, when we talk to our friends and colleagues, that's at about a fifth grade level in terms of the complexity, the syntax, the grammar, the vocabulary that we use. Print news media is at about middle school. So anywhere sixth, seventh and eighth grade. And then all of the things that we want to be able to do to be like empowered, in charge of our lives. So joining the military or going to a trade school or a two-year community college or a four-year university, all of that is high school and above.'
Kate Crist: 'So he was perfectly smart. He could do all the work of a doctor. He just couldn't get through the text independently because he was severely dyslexic. And so that's and that's a solvable problem.'
Kate Crist: 'And so the idea that they could do better, right? and that they had been denied the opportunity was sort of infuriating, but also, you know, deeply motivating.'
Kate Crist: 'Yeah, it's incredibly powerful. I think the challenge that story, that woman, Alicia Ortiz, right? So the challenge for folks who can't get through text independently is Again, it's not because they're dumb, right? And they can have great listening comprehension and they can understand and have these amazing complex thoughts. So the speech, the text-to-speech technology gives them access to text when they themselves can't do it independently. It doesn't wholesale solve the reading problem.'
Kate Crist: 'The rates have been largely flat over 30 plus years. And that has largely to do with the failure of American schools to provide good reading instruction to students.'
Kate Crist: 'But if you don't know better, you can't do better. And so there is a big sort of problem in teacher prep and instructional materials that are because those materials aren't aligned to what we know is good instruction.'
Kate Crist: 'About 20 years ago, there was a big, huge, unresolved disagreement in the American education landscape about about whether or not we should teach sort of this whole language approach, so looking at words as wholes and memorizing patterns, or if we should sort of teach through a phonics approach. And it turns out we should be teaching through a phonics approach and not through a whole language approach, but that idea around whole language has really taken root and stuck.'
Kate Crist: 'So we know that reading. Reading comprehension is really two big buckets of things. This is a very simplistic view, right? But it's two buckets of things. It's what we call language comprehension and word recognition. So what are the words say and what are the words mean?'
Kate Crist: 'Reading itself is a contrived process. So you and I learn to speak. Everyone learns to speak naturally. If we're exposed to enough people talking as babies, we learn how to speak. Learning to read is not like that. I can listen to Mozart or Beethoven all day long. I can watch a concert pianist. It's not going to teach me how to play the piano that way. And so similarly, reading has to be directly taught.'
Kate Crist: 'It should be happening every day, 20 to 45 minutes a day, and it's not. And then the knowledge building is also not happening systematically in classrooms. So rather than learning about Mars rovers, kids are learning about themes like being thoughtful or being in a community or having courage.'
Kate Crist: 'If at the end of first grade, you have concerns about your child's reading, you're correct. And there's a correlation we know between success, like reading at grade level at the end of grade one, at the end of first grade correlates really directly to finishing high school.'
Kate Crist: 'So we see this Matthew effect where those who've mastered the code, they're good to go. They get more and more and more. And those who didn't, get, you know, over time, get less and less and less because they just, they can't pick up a book, right? That's how we get this 20% and 50% of adults. It's because they didn't get instruction that met the need.'
Kate Crist: 'Superintendents should have in their contract growth for literacy rates. It should be a non-negotiable. We shouldn't have people running our school districts who don't have a laser focus on stuff that matters most, like learning to read.'
Kate Crist: 'There are decodables made for adults, and those are really helpful. There's a, and we can do some show notes linking, I'm sure here, but CityShares makes some pretty cool stuff. There are, most of them are, there's another, there's one I'll have to, we'll look it up and put it in the notes. There's a woman who's made a series of things just for adults. that are, so the topics are relevant, right? So we're not talking about like the fat cat with the jam and the ham, right? Like we want to have compelling stories. And most adults don't need that really, really basic sort of consonant, vowel, consonant. What they need is they have some amount of the code and they just need a little bit of help to crack the rest of it and to accelerate that sort of independent reading.'
Kate Crist: 'So your libraries, again, like librarians are the saviors of the literacy world, right? So often a good place to start is your local library, right? So you can go down and say like, hey, I really want to help Like I understand that kids in our school community or adults in our community have low rates of literacy and I want to be involved. And librarians know all the stuff that's happening and can sort of plug you in and hook you in. You could also ask your local school, like, can I come and help with reading instruction?'
Deep Dive
The episode starts by discussing the alarming statistic that 21% of US adults struggle with basic literacy. It explores how literacy is measured and the significant impact low literacy rates have on individuals' ability to access essential resources and opportunities, including employment, education, and civic participation.
- 21% of US adults read at a third-grade level or below
- Half of Americans read at or below a sixth-grade level
- Low literacy rates create barriers to entry for various opportunities, such as military enlistment and higher education
Shownotes Transcript