词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Imagination in Writing

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 22, 2003

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some views about encouraging creative writers in American schools.

RS: Virginia Monseau [mon-SO] teaches future English teachers. She's a professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio and outgoing editor of English Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of English.

AA: Professor Monseau writes this month about the role of imagination in the curriculum¹. She tells us that, in her opinion, American culture does not place enough value on imagination in children, especially older ones, and she says this is reflected in many classrooms.

MONSEAU: "On the one hand, certainly creativity and imagination would involve inventing stories where you write creatively to invent characters, to invent plot lines and so on. And usually, as far as children and curriculum go, we allow children to do that in the early grades. But, for me, I think there are other ways that we can look at it as well.

"Students don't have to be inventing monsters and flying brooms, a la Harry² Potter, that sort of thing, because a lot of children, I think, are very intimidated³ by that sort of thing and if they're invited to write that way would really be, I think, a little frightened of their ability to do -- whether they could that kind of thing.

"Just encouraging students to see in a work of literature a connection to their lives, for example. Encouraging them to take an unusual perspective on something they read, whether it's a story or a poem or whatever. Those are some of the ways that I define⁴ imaginative⁵ work in the classroom."

RS: "And how, in that classroom, can you make use of students who speak English as a foreign language?"

MONSEAU: "I think, you know, drawing on or allowing students to draw on their experience. We all have experiences that we can draw on, and if we're reading literature, for example, I think literature does help us make sense of our lives, regardless of what culture we are familiar with or we belong to. So I think that even students who don't have English as their first language, in reading a piece of literature, could still discuss it in that way, by connecting it to their own lives."

AA: According to Professor Monseau, one reason imagination isn't encouraged more is the increasing use of standardized⁶ tests to hold teachers and schools accountable for student progress.

MONSEAU: "I think where standardized tests are concerned, yes, it does take away a lot of freedom that teachers might wish they had, because the way the tests are graded is such that structure is really an important element of the scoring process, and I don't know whether you know about the controversial issue of the five-paragraph theme that permeates⁷ ... "

AA: "Please talk about that a little bit."

MONSEAU: "I think many teachers still feel comfortable when they're teaching writing, teaching students to write five-paragraph essays, meaning an introductory paragraph, three points that you make as part of the body of the piece and then a concluding paragraph.

"It's a very canned, cut-and-dried way of approaching writing and in many ways it totally stifles⁸ any divergent thinking, because students immediately think about their three points that they're going to have and what they're going to say about those three particular points. And then in the concluding paragraph they just tell the reader what they already told them in drawing it together.

"If you teach that to the exclusion⁹ of any other way of writing, it can make for some very dry -- and, believe me, I've read so many of those I can tell you -- that they all sound alike and there's really no voice, no writer, no person behind the writing."

RS: "So what you're saying here is that you may start off with this, but expand from there."

MONSEAU: "You do, and I agree that students need to understand that there is a structure to a piece of writing, at least in the beginning, as long as they can move beyond that. I find in teaching college students to write in our freshman¹⁰ composition classes, it is very hard sometimes to break students out of that mold because they've been so used to writing in that way for the last four years as part of their high school work. And when they get to college they have a rude awakening¹¹ many times, because they realize that they are required to think and that the content of their paper should be their thoughts and not what everyone else has said about this particular topic.

"The sad thing is, I think, that students are not taught that there are so many different ways of writing and that it all depends upon your audience and your purpose. That's one of the things that gets back to the imagination aspect of it. You know, it's sort of like, who are you writing to, first of all, and why are you writing this piece. What are you trying to get across, and what is it going to take for you to do that."

AA: Virginia Monseau is a professor of English and secondary education at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, and is herself a former high school English teacher.

RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is [email protected] and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "Imagination"/The Quotations

1 curriculum   

n.课程，（学校等的）全部课程

参考例句：

• Is German on your school's curriculum?你们学校有德语课吗？
• The English curriculum should stress both composition and reading.英语课程对作文和阅读应同样重视。

2 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

3 intimidated   

v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的

参考例句：

• We try to make sure children don't feel intimidated on their first day at school. 我们努力确保孩子们在上学的第一天不胆怯。
• The thief intimidated the boy into not telling the police. 这个贼恫吓那男孩使他不敢向警察报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。

5 imaginative   

adj.富有想象力的，爱想象的

参考例句：

• The imaginative child made up fairy stories.这个想像力丰富的孩子自己编神话故事。
• Scott was an imaginative writer.司格特是位富于想象力的作家。

6 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

7 permeates   

弥漫( permeate的第三人称单数 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透

参考例句：

• Studies show that water vapor quickly permeates plastic packaging material. 研究证明水蒸汽能迅速渗入塑料封装材料。
• Democracy permeates the whole country. 民主主义（的思想）普及全国。

8 stifles   

（使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的第三人称单数 )； 镇压，遏制

参考例句：

• This stifles the development of the financial sector. 这就遏制了金融部门的发展。
• The fruits of such a system are a glittering consumer society which stifles creativity and individuality. 这种制度的结果就是一个压制创造性和个性的闪光的消费者社会。

9 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

10 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

11 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。