词汇大师-- Helping Students to 'Step Out of Apathy'

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: how an English teacher found an unexpected lesson in the Nazi¹ "Final Solution" -- Hitler's effort to exterminate² the Jewish people during World War Two.
RS: The Holocaust³ was in the news this week when Iran's Foreign Ministry⁴ held a controversial two-day international conference. The gathering⁵ was condemned⁶ by world leaders as an effort to deny the murder of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps. But what does all this have to do with English teaching?
AA: Karen Wink⁷ is a professor at the United States Coast Guard Academy where she teaches required courses in writing and literature to first-year cadets. A few years ago, she took a trip to Europe to study the Holocaust. She wrote about how the journey transformed her life and her teaching in a recent article in English Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of English.

　　KAREN WINK: "I became very interested in going because I had been teaching some Holocaust poetry and I had, prior to that, lived in Washington, D.C., and attended the Holocaust Museum several times. And I was very interested in learning more about the Holocaust and, I thought, what better way than to take a travel-study course for two weeks to Germany and Poland? And the trip had such a profound effect on me, it just seemed a natural that it would affect my teaching. And it did, in ways that I never expected."
RS: "Why don't you talk about some of those ways? How did it change you personally and how did it change your personal teaching style?"
KAREN WINK: "Well, when I was on the trip, it started to affect me because when I visited Sachsenhausen, the camp, as well as Auschwitz, I realized that evil exists. And I felt that Auschwitz was one of the most twisted and haunting places on the face of the earth. And what also struck me is that when I was there, I noticed that it had a militaristic basis. In other words, we visited the barracks, the commandant's house. We also noticed some photographs in which the victims were, in fact, marching. And it reminded me of a military academy, and I remember thinking: this has become real. And I think there's no better way to teach than to bring real experiences into the classroom.
"And I noticed that when I would teach by bringing in photographs of my trip, by bringing in some of the writing I had done in a journal, by talking about the trip, I noticed students were -- had more rapt attention than they normally would. And I started to think: what is it about bringing place and disclosing feelings and being willing to stay in what I call the 'discomfort⁸ realm' that transforms learning?"
AA: "And you entitled your article, 'A Lesson from the Holocaust: From Bystander to Advocate in the Classroom.' What do you mean by that, from bystander to advocate?"
KAREN WINK: "One of the premises⁹ from which I teach is that students should not be 'witnesses' in a class; they should, in fact, be participants. And when I noticed students were not, in fact, participating in my classes before and after the trip -- and I'm talking about my experience here primarily in the first couple of years -- is I thought: wait a minute, what is it something maybe I need to do, to role-model, to disclose, to really become in a way that they, in turn, are willing to go from a bystander to an advocate?"
RS: "And how has that affected¹⁰ the students, and what strategies do you use to engage the students so that they are more, as you say, advocates in the classroom?"
KAREN WINK: "There are several ideas that I have implemented¹¹ and also are still working with. For example, there are stories -- I think to tell students stories from your own life that may involve some transformation¹². For example, my experience in Germany. I think you can also encourage some debate. But let it be in a fair-minded way -- what Parker Palmer, the author of 'The Courage to Teach,' calls 'creative conflict.'
"And sort of plan for those times, too, when you're talking about issues of, say, race or gender¹³ or ethnicity or the role of the military or our place in Iraq, and allow for that. And I think it's also important to share writing -- your writing. I noticed that is really powerful when I would read something that I wrote. First of all, you get their attention more because they also think, 'She writes? I thought she just taught.' And then they listen in. And I think they, in turn, are willing to risk a little more so that transformation can take place -- that is, like a step out of apathy¹⁴."
AA: English Professor Karen Wink is in her eighth year of teaching at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. For more advice about teaching and learning English, go to our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster.
AA: And our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

2 exterminate   

v.扑灭，消灭，根绝

参考例句：

• Some people exterminate garden insects by spraying poison on the plants.有些人在植物上喷撒毒剂以杀死花园内的昆虫。
• Woodpeckers can exterminate insect pests hiding in trees.啄木鸟能消灭躲在树里的害虫。

3 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

7 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

8 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

9 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

12 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

13 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

14 apathy   

n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡

参考例句：

• He was sunk in apathy after his failure.他失败后心恢意冷。
• She heard the story with apathy.她听了这个故事无动于衷。