Question

Teachers and parents usually call attention to the pictures when they read storybooks to preschool child. But a new study suggests that calling attention to the words and letters on the page may lead to better readers.

The two-year study compared children who were read in this way in class with children who were not. Those whose teachers most often discussed the print showed clearly higher skills in reading, spelling and understanding. These results were found one year and even two years later.

Shayne Piasta, an assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University, was an author of the study. She says most preschool teachers would find this method manageable and would need only a small change in the way they teach. They already read story-books in class. The only difference would be increased attention to the printed text. “If you get children to pay attention to letters and words, it makes sense that they will do better at word recognition and spelling.” But she says research suggests that very few parents and teachers do this in a systematic way.

More than 300 children aged four and five were observed in classrooms. They came from poor families and were below average in their language skills. For thirty weeks, the children took part in a program called Project STAR— Sit Together and Read. The project is based in Ohio State. It tests the short-term and long-term results of reading regularly to preschool children in their classrooms.

There are different ways that adults can talk to children about print. They can point to a letter and discuss it, and even trace the shape with a finger. They can point out a word and discuss the meaning of the print or how the words tell the story. And they can talk about the organization of the print-- for instance, showing how words are written left to right in English.

1.What do we know about the ways preschool children are usually taught?

A. Preference is given to the shape of the letters and the organization of the print.

B. More attention is paid to the picture, with words and letters being ignored.

C. The focus of the teaching is on bringing them up to be good readers.

D. Equal attention is paid to the texts and the pictures.

2.Shayne Piasta suggested that preschool teachers should _______.

A. read storybooks regularly in class.

B. learn to manage their class well

C. often discuss the printed words and letters

D. search for a better method of reading

3.The children who joined in Project STAR were _________.

A. very poor in their reading

B. mostly cleverer than others

C. especially good at language skills

D. worried about reading problems

4.Which of the following is TRUE about the study on language skills of preschool children?

A. Many teachers want to change their way of teaching preschool children.

B. Attention of the pictures has made the children uninterested in reading.

C. Teachers are often prevented from taking different approaches to language teaching.

D. Project STAR aims to research into the results of reading books to preschool children in the classroom.

5.The last paragraph mainly tells us ________.

A. why we should discuss the meaning of the print

B. the shape of the letter is the focus of teaching

C. how we can teach children about print

D. English words are usually written from left to right

Answer 1