寄生草莓的英文俱樂部

原文出處：http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/extensive-reading-why-it-good-our-students%E2%80%A6-us

P.S. 在本篇中，如果我加入很多我個人的廢話，請讀者忍耐，或自行跳過，我不會發現的。

So why don’t teachers use ER more often? 為什麼老師不更常使用泛讀呢？

A good question. When I conducted an inquiry among teachers worldwide, the answers came down to these:

好問題好問題。在我對世界各地的老師們做這方面的調查的時候，他們的回答大概如下：

a) Insufficient time. 時間不夠 ( O.S. 在課堂上讀完七冊哈利波特？？？！！！)

b) Too costly. 太奢侈了！！！

c) Reading materials not available. 沒有可供閱讀的材料

d) ER not linked to the syllabus and the examination. 泛讀跟教學大綱和考試無關 

e) Lack of understanding of ER and its benefits. 不了解泛讀以及它的好處

f) Downward pressure on teachers to conform to syllabi and textbooks. 老師承受的完成課綱和課本的壓力

g) Resistance from teachers, who find it impossible to stop teaching and to allow learning to take place.

 老師們的抵抗

( 以下的文字是對於老師自己要進行泛讀的建議，因為跟讀者本身較無關係，我就不翻譯了。

有興趣請自行閱讀)

Extensive Reading for Teachers 給老師們的泛讀建議

My contention is that reading extensively, promiscuously and associatively is good for teacher, and for personal development. ‘The idea of the teacher having to be someone who is constantly developing and growing as a whole human being as a prerequisite for being able to truly help his or her pupils to be able to do the same, is such a core truth of teaching, yet it is typically ignored in FLT. (Peter Lutzker)

ER helps teachers to be better informed, both about their profession and about the world. This makes them more interesting to be around – and students generally like their teachers to be interesting people. For our own sanity we need to read outside the language teaching ghetto. For the sake of our students too.

It also helps teachers to keep their own use of English fresh. As we saw, the research on language learner reading shows how extensive reading feeds into improvements in all areas of language competence. (Krashen 2004) If this is true for learners, how much more true for teachers, who risk infection by exposure to so much restricted and error - laden English or who only read professional literature? Regular wide reading can add zest and pleasure to our own use of the language.

Teachers who show that they read widely are models for their students. We often tell students to ‘read more’ but why should they read if we do not? Teachers who are readers are more likely to have students who read too.

Furthermore, the books we read outside our narrow professional field can have an unpredictable effect on our practice within it.  So much of what we learn is learned sub-consciously. Its effects spread more by infection than by direct injection. And it is highly individual.  Individuals form associative networks among the books they read. This results in a kind of personal intertextuality, where the patterns form and re-form as we read more different books. This gives us a rich mental yeast which we can use to interact with others, while still retaining our individual take on the texts and the world.

So Extensive Reading has a lot to offer - both for our students and ourselves Read on!.