리딩 전문가과정 수업에 도움이 될만한 자료를 찾아다니던 중에 발견한 내용입니다. 먼저 아래 주소를 클릭해서 동영상을 봐주세요.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUj7P0nSWFY

The little girl you saw in the video above is our daughter, Raine. We began teaching her to read when she was just 2 years and 8 months old. The video clips you watched above were recorded when she was just 2 years and 11 months old - barely 3 months after we began teaching her to read using our extremely simple, step-by-step program. The best part of it all is that being busy parents ourselves, we spend only 5 to 10 minutes teaching her to read each day.

이 동영상에 등장하는 꼬마는 아직 만 3세가 되지 않았는데도, 글자를 줄줄 읽어냅니다. 특이한 것은 우리나라 어린이들처럼 문자를 통으로 그대로 읽는게 아니라 음가 하나하나를 짚어내면서 소리를 적절히 조합해가면서 단어를 만들어 읽고 있습니다. 수업중에 금소영 선생님이 강조하시던 '통으로 영어단어를 외워서 읽는게 아니라 철저히 소리에 입각해서 모르는 글자도 스스로 읽어낼 수 있도록' 리딩을 가르친다는게 바로 이런거다 싶었네요.

이 동영상이 게재된 사이트는 Children Leaning Reading이라는 교육용 프로그램을 판매하는 사이트입니다. 홈페이지에 가보시면 어린이들을 위한 리딩 교육에 관련한 기사들도 모아놓고 있고, 실재로 이 프로그램을 통해 줄줄 리딩을 하는 어린 아이들의 생생한 동영상도 볼 수 있게 되어있더군요.

자기들이 내놓은 리딩 프로그램의 당위성을 설명하면서 phonomic awareness에 대해 언급한 내용이 있어 잠깐 발췌해 봅니다.

The spoken english language is made up of words and sentences, and these words are made up of individual sounds or phonemes. Once a child can speak, he or she can learn to say and recognize these individual sounds through a process called developing phonemic awareness.

According to the National Reading Panel, phonemic awareness improves children's word reading and reading comprehension, and it also helps children learn to spell. Researchers have indicated that phonemic awareness has a direct correlation with students' ability to read as they get older, and it helps to build a foundation for children to understand the rules of the English language.

Only Very Smart and Gifted Children Can Learn to
Read at a Very Young Age. WRONG!!

It is well documented that phonemic awareness, and NOT IQ, predicted the accuracy of reading and spelling abilities of young children. With that said, I think that many people are of the mindset that only exceptionally smart children can learn to read at a very young age; however, I'm of the mindset that learning to read at a young age can produce exceptionally smart children! As research has indicated, reading and spelling abilities are NOT predicted by IQ but by phonemic awareness of the child. Our program will help your child develop superb phonemiec awareness skills.

(http://www.childrenlearningreading.com/)