美国资深ESL专家教你怎样提高英文写作（二）

今天EWIS继续给大家分享Successful English的写作建议。通过翻译这篇文章，EWIS学到了一个新的概念——Vicarious learning，即观察学习。读完整篇文章之后更是感慨良多，觉得作者所提的学习方式跟EWIS提倡的是一样一样的，特别是关于死记硬背那点，相信很多学生都曾经深受其苦，到头来什么都没学到。这篇建议的重点就在于“观察”二字，只要你肯用心观察，学习是个自然发生的过程。

Learning to write – almost anything 英文写作的学习——写什么都成

Xurxo knows the secret of learning to write. When I read one of his essays and asked him where he learned to write so well, he said, “Reading NewYork Times essays.” The secret to learning to write is fairly simple – if you want to write essays, read essays. In other words, read the kind of thing you want to write.

须尔肖深知写作学习的窍门。当我读他文章的时候我问他是从哪儿学到他的写作技巧的，他告诉我，“从《纽约时报》上”。学习写作的窍门其实非常简单——要写必须先读。换句话说，想要写出什么样的作品，你就必须去阅读什么样的作品。

When you read, you walk into a writing classroom. You see how to spell words. How to punctuate sentences. How to organize paragraphs. The more you read, the more you’ll learn about writing. You can learn to write – like Xurxo did – by reading. And you can do that because reading allows you to learn vicariously.

当你阅读的时候，你就相当进入了一个写作教室。你会学到怎样拼写单词，怎样为句子添加标点符号，以及怎样组织段落。你读的越多，你学到的写作知识就越多。正如须尔肖一样，你是可以通过阅读来学习写作的。这样做的好处就是阅读可以帮助你进行观察学习。

Vicarious learning 观察学习

You learn vicariously when you see or hear someone do something that interests you. If you’re eating with a group of people and someone says, “Pass the sugar, please,” you suddenly know how to ask for the sugar and, possibly, what sugar is. And if you continue to watch and listen, you learn what to do with the sugar when it is passed to you, to put it in your tea and not on your potatoes. The learning happened automatically and, in this example, instantly.

当你看到或是听到某人做你感兴趣的事的时候，观察学习就发生了。比如说，你跟一群人聚餐，某个人说了一句，“Pass the sugar, please”（请把糖递过来），你当时就会学到“sugar”（糖）的意思，以及跟别人要糖时的表达方式。如果你继续观察和倾听，你将会学到当别人把糖递给你的时候你该怎么做，你会知道糖是用来放进茶里的，而不是洒在土豆上。在这个简单的例子当中，学习的过程是自然而然，并且当即产生的。

Vicarious learning explains why young children often speak and act like their parents – and sometimes embarrass them when they do! It also explains why, when they’re older, they speak and act like their friends or their favorite sports or entertainment heroes.

观察学习解释了幼儿时常模仿父母说话和行为的原因。有时候正是因为这种现象，父母还会被他们的孩子弄得很尴尬！同样的，孩子长大以后会去模仿他们的朋友以及体育娱乐明星，这也是一种观察学习。

Vicarious learning also explains why I do certain things when I teach. I watched and listened to the teachers I admired and automatically learned something from them about how to teach.

观察学习还解释了我本人的教学行为。通过观察和聆听我敬仰的老师授课，自然而然地我就从他们身上学到了如何教学。

Vicarious learning is automatic and when it happens, you usually don’t notice it. It requires little or no effort. One person does something and, as a result, someone who is watching or listening learns.

总而言之，观察学习是自动产生的，你通常也不会注意到，它就那么轻而易举地发生了。某人做了某件事，然后另外一个看到或听到的人就学到了东西。（注：观察学习也叫替代性学习。是指通过对学习对象的行为、动作以及它们所引起的结果观察，获取信息，而经过学习主题的大脑进行加工、辨析、内化，在将习得的行为在自己的动作、行为、观念中反映出来的一种学习方法。Source: http://wiki.mbalib.com/zh-tw/观察学习）

Learning to write vicariously 通过观察学习写作

If you want to take advantage of this powerful way to learn to write, there are two things to keep in mind.

如果你想好好利用上面提到的方法来学习写作，有两个方面必须记住。

First, if you want to learn to write by reading, you have to identify yourself, or be able to imagine yourself, as a writer. You need to see yourself as someone who could do the same thing as the writer you are reading. That’s why I learned from my favorite teachers – I watched and listened to them as a (future) teacher.

第一，如果你要通过阅读来学习写作，你必须先将自己定位或是想象成一个作者。你需要相信自己能够写出跟你所读的文章一样的作品。这也是为什么我从我最喜欢老师那里学到教学技巧的原因——我在观察和聆听当中已经把自己定位为一名教师了。

Second, you won’t learn to write by reading if you try to study and memorize what the writer is doing. The key is to be aware of what the writer is doing – to read with a kind of relaxed concentration – but not to analyze what he or she is doing.

第二，如果你尝试死记硬背你读的文章，你是学不好写作的。读文章的秘诀在于，你要去用心感受作者的笔触，去认真但放松地阅读，但不要去分析和深究作者所写。

As you read, different aspects of the writing may come to your mind – the spelling of a word you’ve never seen but use when you speak, the way the writer expresses a certain idea, etc. Enjoy what you’re reading, think along with the writer, and let your brain do the work automatically.

当你阅读的时候，写作的方方面面会自然出现在你脑海当中，比如说一个你口头使用过但从没在纸上见过的单词，作者表达某个概念的方式等等。试着去享受你所读到的东西，跟着作者的思路，让你的大脑自动去学习。

Getting started 开始学习

To get started, try this. Choose an essay by William Zinsser; he’s interesting, easy to understand, and a very good writer. Or from the New York Times, like Xurxo did. Read it once – like a reader – to understand what the writer is saying. Then read it again – like a writer – and think with the writer as you read. 开始学习的时候，你可以尝试以下方法。选择一篇William Zinsser的文章开始读。他是一名很好的作家，文章有趣、易懂。当然，你也可以像须尔肖一样选择一篇《纽约时报》的文章。读第一次的时候，你要像一名普通读者一样去理解作者想表达的内容。读第二次的时候，你就要把自己定位为一名作者，去跟随你所读文章作者的思路。 If you continue to read this way, you will pick up most of what you need to write well. Like Xurxo, you will learn to write by reading. Writers and writing teachers I know agree – it’s not possible to learn everything you have to know to write well by studying and practice. But it is possible to learn to write by reading. In fact, it’s the only way. 一旦你养成这样阅读的习惯，你将会习得写好一篇文章所需的大部分技巧。正如须尔肖一样，阅读会帮助提高你的写作。我认识的作家和写作教师都知道，光是通过学习和练习写作是不可能学到写好文章的所有技巧的，但是阅读可以。事实上，这是唯一途径。 - See more at: http://successfulenglish.com/2010/08/learning-to-write-almost-anything/#sthash.7CBRugop.dpuf

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