It won't surpriseanyone that bright children tend to read for pleasure more than their lessskilled peers. But does reading for pleasure increase the rate of children'slearning? This is the question Matt Brown and I set out to answer using theBritish Cohort Study, which follows the lives of more than 17,000 people bornin a single week in 1970 in England, Scotland and Wales.
Every few years weinterview the study participants to track different aspects of their lives,from education and employment to physical and mental health – an approach thatlets us look at what influences an individual's development over a long periodof time.
Of the 17,000members, 6,000 took a range of cognitive tests at age 16. We compared childrenfrom the same social backgrounds who achieved similar tested abilities at ages5 and 10, and discovered that those who frequently read books at age 10 andmore than once a week when they were 16 had higher test results than those whoread less. In other words, reading for pleasure was linked to greaterintellectual progress, both in vocabulary, spelling and mathematics. In fact,the impact was around four times greater than that of having a parent with apost-secondary degree.
Reading clearlyintroduces young people to new words, so the link between reading for pleasureand vocabulary development is expected. But the link between reading for funand progress in math may be more surprising. I would suggest that reading alsointroduces young people to new ideas. Along with teaching them new vocabulary,it helps them understand and absorb new information and concepts at school.Independent reading may also promote a more self-sufficient approach tolearning in general.
Some people areconcerned that young people today read less in their spare time than previousgenerations. This is particularly worrying because our research suggests thatit is likely to negatively affect their intellectual development. We also knowthat reading for pleasure tends to decline in secondary school. Our findingsemphasize how important it is for schools and libraries to provide access to awide range of books and help young people discover authors they will enjoy.
Another questionwe asked was whether the effects of reading for pleasure continue into adultlife. We will soon be able to find out, thanks to the 1970 cohort members whowere interviewed again in 2012, at the age of 42. We asked them once more abouttheir reading habits, and about many other aspects of their lives.
The study willcontinue to follow them as they age, when we will be able to examine whetherreading protects them against cognitive decline. Without the extraordinarygenerosity of these people, who by happenstance find themselves in our study,we couldn't research these and other vital questions.
与学习不太好的同龄人相比，聪明的孩子往往更喜欢阅读，对此我一点也不惊奇。但是喜欢阅读能提升孩子学习名次吗？我和马特打算用英国队列研究来回答这一问题，这一研究对1970年一周内在英格兰、苏格兰和威尔士出生的17,000人进行的跟踪调查。
每隔几年我们就会拜访受试者以追踪调查他们生活的不同方面（从教育状况、就业状况到身体和心理健康状况），这种方法让我们可以看到阅读在很长一段时间对个人发展的影响。
在17,000名受试者中，有6000名受试者在16岁时参加了一系列的认知考试。我们对来自相同社会背景且5岁和10岁时能力测试成绩不差上下的孩子进行了比较，比较结果显示和不经常阅读的孩子相比，10岁时经常阅读、16岁时阅读一周超过一次的孩子测试成绩更高。换言之，喜欢阅读与智力发展（包括单词、拼读和数学）联系更为紧密。事实上，阅读的影响力是父母具有高中学历的影响力的四倍。
很明显，阅读可以让孩子认识新单词，因此喜欢阅读和词汇量增多的联系是预料之中的。但喜欢阅读和数学水平的提高之间的联系或许让人很惊讶。我认为阅读也能让孩子想出新点子。阅读除了能教会孩子新词汇，还助于孩子理解并吸收在学校学到的新信息和新概念。总的来说，独立阅读可能也促进更为独立自主的学习。
有些人担心现在的年轻人空闲时间读的书不及以前的人读的多。这是一个令人特别担心的问题，因为我们的研究表明阅读的少有可能对智力发展有负面影响。我们也知道阅读兴趣在初中往往会有所减少。我们的发现强调了学校和图书馆为年轻人提供广泛图书、帮助他们发现喜欢的作者是多么的重要。
我们要问的另外一个问题是喜欢阅读的效应能否持续到成年时期。我们将能很快就会找到答案，这得益于1970列队研究的受试者，我们在2012年，对这些42岁的受试者再次进行了访问。我们再一次询问了他们的阅读习惯，以及生活的其他方面。随着他们的年岁增长，我们的研究将会继续对他们进行追踪调查，直到我们能测试出阅读是否能防止认知能力下降。他们偶然成为了研究的受试者，没有他们的积极配合，我们就无法研究这些和其他重要的问题。
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发表于 2015-1-21 11:11
