英国大人们为孩子阅读习惯头疼

Pavan’s favourite activity is playing football outdoors. His second favourite is playing football indoors, and in third place is practising football skills against the sofa. Reading – the pursuit that Francis Bacon claimed “maketh a full man” – comes further down the eight-year-old’s list, behind school, going to discos, buying stuff, chatting to people, watching TV and playing on his Xbox games console.

8岁小男孩潘万(Pavan)最喜欢的活动是在户外踢足球，其次是在屋里踢足球，位居第三的，是在沙发上操练球技。培根(Francis Bacon)所谓“读书使人充实”的阅读，在潘万的活动计划名单中非常靠后，远在上学、跳迪斯科、购物、聊天、看电视以及玩Xbox游戏机之后。

Would he ever pick up a book for pleasure? “No,” Pavan shoots back jovially. “If I’m bored, I will ask my mum if I can play on her phone.” By this point, I am relieved that Michael Gove is not part of our conversation at a homework club in Harlesden Library, north London.

他会出于喜欢而读书吗？“不会，”潘万兴奋地摇摇头说。“自己若是心烦了，就会纠缠妈妈玩她的手机。”说到这里，我感觉如释重负，因为英国教育大臣迈克尔•戈夫(Michael Gove)不会成为我们在伦敦北部哈里斯登图书馆(Harlesden Library)举办的家庭作业俱乐部的谈话内容了。

The UK education secretary has long feared that British children are “just not reading enough”. The same concern has been raised by publishers and literacy charities, which worry that new distractions – computer games, online videos, social networking – are pushing books off the shelf. More than 60 per cent of 18-to-30-year-olds now prefer watching television or DVDs to reading, according to a survey for the charity Booktrust. A similar proportion of young people think the internet and computers will replace books in the next 20 years.

英国教育大臣一直担心本国孩子“阅读不足”。出版商以及扫盲慈善机构同样也有此隐忧，它们担心电脑游戏、网络视频以及网络社交等新的干扰物正一步步“鸠占鹊巢”。据慈善团体Booktrus调查研究，如今超过60%的18-30岁年轻人把看电视及DVD置于阅读之前。类似比例的年轻人认为因特网与电脑会在20年后取代纸质书籍。

The literacy debate received fresh impetus last October when a study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development suggested that vast numbers of young people were leaving school without the ability to read well. Of the 24 industrialised countries covered by the research, England was the only one that went backwards, with literacy and numeracy skills lower among the young – those aged 16 to 24 – than the old. (The results were little better in Northern Ireland; Scotland and Wales were not included in the study.)

去年10月，经合组织(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)发布的研究报告表明大量年轻人毕业后的阅读能力差强人意，读写能力的争论获得了强有力的新依据。该研究报告涵盖了24个工业化国家，其中英国是唯一排名下滑的国家，其16-24岁年轻人的读写与计算能力逊于成年人。（北爱尔兰的研究结果也大同小异，研究报告并未涉及苏格兰与威尔士两个地区）。

The OECD’s hard-nosed economic concern with skills leads logically to reading for pleasure, which is closely associated with educational success. An analysis of the 1970 British cohort, tracking about 6,000 young people born in April of that year, found children’s test scores correlated more with how often they read than with how educated their parents were. “Being able to read a book mechanically is vital, but reading for pleasure shouldn’t be optional,” says Joanna Prior, managing director of Penguin UK. “The benefits will be reaped throughout a child’s life.”

经合组织务实地从经济角度考量技能问题，必然得出快乐阅读重要性的结论，而快乐阅读又与教育成功与否紧密关联。对英国1970年4月出生的6000人群体进行追踪分析，发现孩子们的考试成绩与其说和他们父亲的受教育程度相关，倒不如说与他们的阅读能力紧密关联。“能够按部就班的阅读至关重要，但快乐阅读也不是可有可无，”英国企鹅出版集团(Penguin UK)发言人乔安娜•普赖尔(Joanna Prior)说。“阅读将让孩子受益终生。”

For publishers, the commercial implications of a decline in literacy are obvious. In some ways the threat to the UK’s £3bn book market is more fundamental than that faced by the record industry: even when people stopped paying for music, they never stopped listening to it.

对于出版社来说，读写能力下降对自身商业利益的影响显而易见。在某些方面，它对英国年营业额30亿英镑的图书市场的威胁要大大高于对唱片业的影响：消费者即便不再花钱购买音乐产品，但他们仍一如既往地在欣赏音乐。

Literacy charities have tried various tricks to promote reading – including the Six Book Challenge, to get less confident readers in the habit; Quick Reads, which distributes short, easy texts for adults; and Premier League Reading Stars, which enlists top footballers to spend time with struggling schoolchildren. In areas such as Harlesden, such initiatives have drawn countless children and adults closer to books. But they are fragmented.

扫盲慈善团体想方设法提高国民的阅读能力————包括推出让自信心不足的学生养成阅读习惯的“Six Book Challenge”计划，给成年人分发短小易懂的阅读材料的Quick Reads计划、以及让英超明星陪伴学习有困难学生的Premier League Reading Stars计划。在哈里斯登等地区，这些计划成功地让无数学生及成年人亲近书籍，但星星之火，难成燎原之势。

So literacy charities have come together under a single “Reading for Pleasure” campaign in the hope of having greater impact, particularly in lobbying government. “We need to slightly toughen up the message,” says Prior. “There’s a literacy crisis in the country. There shouldn’t be anybody who doesn’t read properly when they leave school.”

所以扫盲慈善机构精诚团结，大张其鼓掀起目标单一的“快乐阅读”运动，以期拥有更大影响力，尤其是游说政府采取行动。“我们必须稍稍强化这一信息，”普赖尔说。“英国面临读写能力危机，每个学生毕业后，都应该有正常的阅读能力。”

Views differ on the most effective interventions. Some focus on the period in which books enter a child’s life; some on the ages of 10 and 11, when other hobbies often take over; and others see the emotionally formative teenage years as the most important. But the wider point is clear: “If you’re going to engage a reader for life, you need to engage them before they become an adult,” says Louisa Livingston, head of consumer insight at Hachette UK.

就采取何种最有效的干预手段，可谓众说纷纭。有些专家专注于书籍走入孩子生活的那个阶段；有些专注于其它兴趣爱好开始后来居上的10-11岁那个阶段；有些则认为情感成型的青少年时期最为关键。但专家的普遍共识是：“若要养成终生阅读习惯，就得在成人之前养成，”阿歇特集团(Hachette)负责消费者洞察能力的主管路易莎•利文斯顿(Louisa Livingston)说。

That means making children comfortable around books, with soft-furnished areas in classrooms and personalised guidance so that each child can be directed to the books he or she might enjoy. School librarians, whose ranks are at risk from government funding cuts, should be seen as “book experts”, says Penguin’s Prior. Above all, while successive governments have fretted about test scores, publishers want politicians to recognise the importance of reading for pleasure. If that can be achieved, they argue, imaginative teaching methods will surely spring forth.

这意味着要让孩子们乐意阅读，即把教室布置得温馨得体，并提供个性化帮助，指导每个孩子阅读自己喜欢的书籍。普赖尔说，学校图书馆管理员应该视作“图书专家”，而他们的地位因政府经费削减而岌岌可危。总之，几届政府都在为学生的考试成绩忧心忡忡之际，出版商则希望政客们认识到快乐阅读的重要性。他们振振有词地说，如果这个目标能够实现，那么富有想象力的教学必将源源不断地迸发。

The social context is crucial. A 2011 National Literacy Trust survey of British children found that a third of respondents did not have books of their own. Of these, 19 per cent were below the reading level expected for their age, compared with 7.6 per cent of those who did own books.

社会环境也至关重要。2011年英国国家文教信托(National Literacy Trust)对全国学生的调查研究表明：接受调查者中有三分之一没有个人的图书。其中，19%学生的阅读能力低于其年龄要求的标准，而对拥有个人图书的学生来说，这个比例仅为7.6%。

Inequalities were also picked up in the OECD study. England and Northern Ireland showed “one of the stronger associations between socio­economic background and literacy proficiency” among the countries tested. What’s more, the report concluded, “unlike most other countries, this association is stronger among young people than among the overall adult population”.

经合组织的研究中，还涉及了不平等问题。在接受测试的所有国家中，英国与北爱尔兰呈现了“社会经济背景与读写能力之间存在更紧密的关联度”。而且，该研究报告得出以下结论：“与其它国家不一样的是，这种关联度在英国年轻人中比成年人更为突出。”

Such issues have come to the fore in a parliamentary inquiry into adult literacy now under way. “Whether or not you use the word ‘class’, it is about home environments,” Helen Casey, an adult literacy expert, told MPs at its first session last month. “Kids spend 12 per cent of their time in school; they spend the rest of their time not in school. The culture they grow up in is really important,” said another expert, David Hughes. Yet at least one of the MPs seemed sceptical of that approach, suggesting that amounted to “excuses for the education profession”.

如今英国议会正在调查成年人的读写能力，这些问题已经表露无遗。“不管用不用‘社会阶层’这个词，归根到底就是家庭环境影响。”上个月第一次议会全会时，成人读写能力专家海伦•凯茜(Helen Casey)这样对全体议员说。“孩子们12%的时间呆在学校，其它时间则都在校外，他们成长的文化氛围至关重要。”另一专家大卫•休斯(David Hughes)说。然而，至少有一位议员似乎对这种说法持怀疑态度，暗示此举会导致“为教师找开脱借口”。

That is not the only apparent disconnect between educationalists and politicians. Gove wants children to study more books, and has amended the GCSE syllabus accordingly. His critics worry that will turn children away from reading for pleasure. “Teachers almost don’t have time for children to be relaxed around books,” says Sue Cowley, an educational author. “Reading starts to become something that’s done to be measured, not done out of choice.”

这并非教育家与政客意见唯一明显的南辕北辙之处。教育大臣戈夫希望孩子们读更多书，并为此修改了英国普通中等教育证书(GCSE)考试大纲。批评他的人则担心此举会让孩子离快乐阅读渐行渐远。“教师几乎没有让孩子放松阅读的时间，” 教育作家苏•考利(Sue Cowley)说。“阅读不是因为个人兴趣使然，而是开始成为考量的工具。”

Some also detect an unwelcome snobbishness in Gove’s desire for the books to be harder – he has expressed particular gripes against John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (too short) and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (too easy). “If someone’s reading a football magazine, shouldn’t we just be happy that they’re reading?” says Richard Mollet of the Publishers Association. “If a child is reading and enjoying the immersion, then surely that’s the most important thing.”

从教育大臣戈夫希望增加书籍难度的意图中，有些专家还嗅出了一丝势利意味，这着实让人反感————他曾经大大抱怨斯坦贝克(John Steinbeck)的《人鼠之间》(Of Mice and Men)太过简短以及斯蒂芬妮•梅尔(Stephenie Meyer)的《暮光之城》(Twilight)太过浅显。“如果读的是足球杂志，我们难道不该为此感到高兴吗？”英国出版协会(Publishers Association)执行总裁理查德•摩勒(Richard Mollet)说。“孩子阅读书籍，并且沉醉其中，这才是最最重要的事。”

While that debate rumbles on, a wave of technological change means that children may find it harder to reserve time for reading. Technology has helped people to enjoy books – a backlit e-reader means no more torches under the duvet – but it has helped other media more. Long train journeys once meant hours reading or hours gazing out the window. Now, with an iPad, they can mean computer games and the previous evening’s TV programmes.

尽管上述争论仍没完没了，但新一波科技进步意味着孩子们越来越难预留出阅读时间。科技帮助人类从书籍中获得了快乐————背光式电子阅读器意味着无需再拿着手电趴在被窝中看书——但它也帮助了其它媒介。过去坐火车长时间旅行意味着可以长时间读书或是眺望窗外美景。如今有了iPad，长途旅行意味着玩电脑游戏以及补看前一天晚上的电视节目。

One option for publishers is to follow the music industry, encouraging authors to do even more events and engage more with social media so as to create “touchpoints” with their fans. Another is to adapt the books themselves. Interactive ebooks already offer multiple endings (a digital variation on the theme of “if you choose door A, turn to page 78”), and publishers are investing in apps that seek to lure infrequent readers with video and audio embellishments.

出版商的选择之一就是步音乐产业之后尘，鼓励作家参与更多活动，与社交媒体打更多交道，以便创造粉丝“点击量”；另一种选择则是自己改编图书。交互式电子书籍已经提供多种结局可能（如数字式主题变更：“若选A门，请翻至第78页”），出版商已出资开发了多款应用软件，它们用润色过的视频及音频来努力吸引不太读书的读者。

“There’s very much an experimental attitude at the moment,” says Jake Manion, creative director at animation company Aardman, which worked on HarperCollins’s The Hobbit app. “Smartphones haven’t been around that long and people are still writing the stories in the way they’ve always done.” The biggest change, Manion argues, will come in “five to 10 years”, by which point writers will be “so familiar with the technology that they’ll be creating stories in different ways”.

“目前这完全只是抱着试试看的态度，”杰克•马尼恩(Jake Manion)说，他是动画公司阿德曼(Aardman)创意总监，该公司曾开发了哈珀柯林斯(HarperCollins)出版小说《霍比特人》的应用软件。“智能手机问世的时间还不长，作家如今仍以传统方式创作。”马尼恩说，最大的变化将发生在“5-10年后”，届时作家将“对科技耳熟能详，因此能以不同方式进行创作”。

And then, perhaps, football practice might wait.

也许到那时候，连玩足球或许都得靠边站了。