Teachers in many English classes across America are having students read fewer full-length books. 

美国许多英语课堂的老师都在减少学生阅读长篇书籍的数量。 

Recently, the Associated Press explored the issue in education. 

近日，美联社就教育问题进行了探讨。 

It reports that students instead are given only short parts of books. Educators said this is because they believe current students have shorter attention spans than those of the past. The teachers might feel pressure to prepare students for state and nationwide examinations know as standardized tests. They also might believe that short pieces of writing will help students in the modern, digital world. 

据报道，学生只获得了书籍的一小部分。教育工作者表示，这是因为他们认为现在的学生的注意力持续时间比过去的学生要短。教师可能会感到压力，让学生准备国家和全国性考试（称为标准化考试）。他们还可能认为短篇写作将对现代数字世界的学生有所帮助。 

The National Council of Teachers of English is a professional organization for teachers based in Champaign, Illinois. In 2022, the group released a statement about reading. “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education,” the group said. 

全国英语教师委员会是一个位于伊利诺伊州尚佩恩的教师专业组织。2022年，该组织发布了一份关于阅读的声明。该组织表示：“现在是时候将书籍阅读和论文写作作为英语语言艺术教育的顶峰了。” 

Seth French helped write the statement. He said the idea was not to remove books but to teach media literacy and have students read things in which they are interested. French taught an English class before becoming a dean at Bentonville High School in the state of Arkansas. He had students read plays, poetry and articles but only one book as a class. 

塞思·弗伦奇帮助撰写了这份声明。他说，这个想法不是要删除书籍，而是要教授媒体素养，让学生阅读他们感兴趣的东西。在成为阿肯色州本顿维尔高中的院长之前，弗伦奇曾教过英语课。他让学生读戏剧、诗歌和文章，但一堂课只读一本书。 

He said, “A lot of our students are not interested in some of these texts that they didn’t have a choice in.” 

他说：“我们的很多学生对其中一些他们无法选择的文本不感兴趣。

”Not everyone thinks English reading should involve only short, digital pieces of writing.

并非所有人都认为英语阅读应该只涉及简短的数字写作。

Maryanne Wolf studies the human brain at UCLA in Southern California. Wolf said deep reading is important to strengthen connections in the brain tied to critical thinking skills, background knowledge and empathy. 

玛丽安·沃尔夫在南加州加州大学洛杉矶分校研究人类大脑。沃尔夫表示，深度阅读对于加强大脑中与批判性思维技能、背景知识和同理心相关的联系非常重要。

She said educators must give students a chance to learn through what she described as “immersion into the lives and thoughts of others.” 

她说，教育工作者必须给学生一个机会，让他们通过她所说的“沉浸在他人的生活和思想中”来学习。

There is not a lot of information on how many books American students are required to read in school. But in general, students are reading less. 

关于美国学生在学校需要阅读多少本书的信息并不多。但总体而言，学生的阅读量较少。 

Federal data from last year shows 14 percent of young people said they read for fun every day. In 2012, that percentage was 27 percent. 

去年的联邦数据显示，14% 的年轻人表示他们每天都以阅读为乐趣。2012 年，这一比例为 27%。 

Some teachers say reduced reading has its roots in the COVID-19 crisis. 

一些教师表示，阅读量减少的根源在于 COVID-19 危机。 

Kristy Acevedo teaches English at a vocational high school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. 

克里斯蒂·阿塞维多在马萨诸塞州新贝德福德的一所职业高中教授英语。