已有 455 次阅读 2016-3-21 11:39 系统分类:成长记录
蓝思(Lexile)分级是由美国教育科研机构为了提高美国学生的阅读能力而研究出的一套衡量学生阅读水平和标识文章难易程度的标准,是衡量阅读能力(Reader Ability)与文章难易度(Text Readability)的科学方法。简而言之,使用这一标准一方面可以方便学生测试自己的阅读水平;另一方面给出版物标识蓝思难度分级后,学生可以找出符合自己阅读难度的图书去阅读,以便循序渐进,步步提高。目前,蓝思分级已经发展为全美最具公信力的阅读难度分级系统。
(测试某篇文章或者某本书的蓝思等级请登录http://www.lexile.com→Learn more about lexilemeasures→Tools→Lexile Analyzer,首次使用时注册用户名密码,导入一篇1000单词以内的文本文档即可测试该文章或书籍的蓝思等级。)
(以上为摘录材料)
如果你想知道某本书的蓝思值,可以上蓝思官网查。也可以直接将TXT文本上传到蓝思官网(1000词以下)进行测试。伍教练就尝试测试了发表在作文选、报纸、博客的4篇英文拙作,结果如下:
I was there
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b5cb56b01009l0t.html
Lexile Measure 1090L
Mean Sentence Length 16.52
Mean Log Word Frequency 3.41
Word Count 347
A shaken family in a village
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b5cb56b01009obs.html
Lexile Measure 1070L
Mean Sentence Length 17.96
Mean Log Word Frequency 3.62
Word Count 431
An introduction of Augustus and Dialysis English
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b5cb56b01000889.html
Lexile Measure 1100L
Mean Sentence Length 16.38
Mean Log Word Frequency 3.37
Word Count 606
She's on Line
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b5cb56b010007wr.html
Lexile Measure 400L
Mean Sentence Length 7.61
Mean Log Word Frequency 3.72
Word Count 411
◆蓝思值的缺点
WIKI对Lexile褒贬不一(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexile)
有教育专家用个别书的数字质疑这个评估体系,The Library Mouse, by Daniel Kirk, is a 32-page children’s picture book rated by Amazon.com as “for ages 4-8” and has a Lexile score of 830. However, Stephenie Meyer’s 498-page, young adult novel Twilight only garnishes a Lexile score of 720. Similarly, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby, Age 8, has a Lexile score of 860, while Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park only has a score of 710. 无非是说,小孩读的书L值高,而一些难读的书L值反而低。
同一本书里头不同部分的L值变化范围太大:Within a single chapter of Pride and Prejudice, for example, 125-word excerpts of text (the unit of assessments used to obtain students’ Lexile levels) that were pulled from every 1,000 words had Lexiles that ranged from 670 to 1310, with an average of 952. The range of 640 on the LS [Lexile Scale] represents the span from third grade to college.”
还有学者指出,原著里如果多用句号,少用逗号,蓝思值也会变化,但这算是不同的难度么?伍教练查Oedipus the king,就发现三个版本的蓝思值从940到1070不等。
类似的还有Flesch-Kincaid Index,在WORD上就可以测试,但似乎挺麻烦的。还有许许多多更复杂的指标,例如Amazon上丹布朗的《数字城堡》的分析:
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Fortress-Thriller-Dan-Brown/dp/sitb-next/B005Q8BBOK
Text Stats
Readability (learn more) | Compared with other books | ||||||
Fog Index: | 7.7 |
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Flesch Index: | 68.4 |
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Flesch-Kincaid Index: | 5.9 |
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Complexity (learn more) | |||||||
Complex Words: | 11% |
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Syllables per Word: | 1.5 |
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Words per Sentence: | 8.6 |
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Number of | |||||||
Characters: | 610,362 |
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Words: | 101,853 |
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Sentences: | 11,797 |
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Fun stats | |||||||
Words per Dollar: | 8,502 | ||||||
Words per Ounce: | 21,219 |
(里头还有有趣的统计,例如每一块钱能买多少单词,书本每一磅重量有多少单词。晕!)
其实这些玩意都是为初学者起步的时候用的,读了几本原著的人哪里还需要挑低值的小朋友幼稚书来透析?
◆选书建议:蓝思与生词量一起考虑
蓝思是用了词汇重复频率、句子长度,而伍教练自家首创的“首万词不同单词数”则偏重生词数。之前的词汇量科学测试(http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b5cb56b0100ucck.html)发现,国内英语学习者的词汇量大多为美国几岁小孩的水平,同龄人对比,词汇量差了一大截,估计蓝思测量的时候对非英语读者的词汇量考虑不足,愚以为首万词生词数更符合国情!
以下是伍教练从一个超过3万本的蓝思数据包分解出来的原著蓝思值,对比伍教练首创的首万词生词数,一共55本。
蓝思/首万词不重复词数/原著名称/作者
570 1684 Daughter of Deceit Victoria Holt
660 2228 Death on the Nile Agatha Christie
670 2115 Twilight 3 -Eclipse Stephenie Meyer
690 2021 Twilight 2 -New moon Stephenie Meyer
690 2202 Twilight 4 -Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer
710 1613 Little Prince Antoine de Saint Exupéry
720 2120 Twilight 1 Stephenie Meyer
790 2024 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami
790 1423 The Catcher in the rye Jerome David Salinger
790 1490 The Chronicles of Narnia 1-The Magician's Nephew C.S. Lewis
810 1715 Lord of the rings 2-The Two Towers J.R.R. Tolkien
820 2179 Howards End E. M. Forster
830 2244 Foundation Issac Asimov
840 1629 The Chronicles of Narnia 5-The silver chair C.S. Lewis
850 2782 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
860 2600 Lord of the rings 1-The fellowship of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
870 1663 The Chronicles of Narnia 3-Prince Caspian C.S. Lewis
870 2344 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy
880 1856 Harry Potter 1-Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J.K. Rowling
880 2172 Harry Potter 3-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling
880 2067 Harry Potter 4-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling
880 1396 Who moved my cheese? Spencer Johnson
880 2929 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
890 2522 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
890 1573 The Chronicles of Narnia 7-The last battle C.S. Lewis
920 2626 Lord of the rings 3-The Return of the King J.R.R. Tolkien
940 2079 Harry Potter 2-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
940 1724 Oedipus the king Sophocles
940 1419 The Chronicles of Narnia 2-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
940 1554 The Old Man And The Sea Ernest Hemingway
950 2179 Harry Potter 5-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling
950 2295 The adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
960 2246 The three musketeers Alexandre Dumas, père
970 1892 The Chronicles of Narnia 4-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C.S. Lewis
970 1778 The Chronicles of Narnia 6-The horse and his boy C.S. Lewis
980 2376 Harry Potter 7-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling
980 2277 Sister Carrie Theodore Dieiser
990 2015 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
990 2571 The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough
1000 1958 Lord of the rings 0-The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
1030 2111 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
1030 2113 Harry Potter 6-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling
1040 1915 The moonstone Wilkie Collins
1070 1954 David Copperfield Charles Dickens
1070 2167 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
1100 2240 Gone with the wind Margaret Mitchell
1100 1684 Pride and prejudice Jane Austen
1160 2537 Tess of the D'urbervilles Thomas Hardy
1190 2204 A short history of nearly everything
1270 2354 Vanity Fair William Thackeray
1320 1730 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
1340 2526 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo
1410 2371 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
1500 2294 The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio
用SPSS做了首万词不同词数与蓝思值的相关分析,发现相关系数只弱爆的0.23。
建议词汇量很小的国人先参考首万词不同词数,然后再看看蓝思值,两者都低说明的确比较容易阅读!最让伍教练惊奇的是,在我读的第一本英文原著Daughter of Deceit只有560L,难度是我读过的书里头有蓝思数据者之中最简单的,生词量也很少——这是天大的幸运,让伍教练从一本相当容易读的言情小说开始了透析大业。然而,《欺骗的女儿》不是流行畅销书,只有电子版(可向伍教练索取),不算很容易获得。
(此书的透析初体验http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4b5cb56b010007sx)
按照蓝思值推荐,首选《尼罗河上的惨案》、《暮光之城》系列——这些书对中国读者而言生词可能偏多。综合考虑,推荐最容易的书变成《小王子》,其次是《麦田里的守望者》,而不再是《谁动了我的奶酪?》(880L偏高,居然比肩单词王《呼啸山庄》???)。
蓝思没有The Bridges of Madison County、Lady Chatterley's lover、The Godfather之类成人读物的数据,看来真的是为了小盆友而设计的。但古代著名黄书The Decameron居然有,而且难度超高——1500L!可能是蓝思认为《十日谈》太难,不会有小盆友看的——其实伍教练觉得这本书的句子不算难,毕竟是翻译过的,特此推荐有心学坏的孩子拜读!
最简单的是BR级别,即0L,蓝思建议这些书不宜独自阅读,而是由家长朗读,或者家长孩子一起读。伍教练想这些书用来透析可能也是太简单了,如果还读不懂,我也只能无语。例如这本No Kiss for Grandpa,情节灰常简单:
When Grandpa visits his grand-kitten, Louis refuses to give his grandfather a kiss. When Grandpa wants to build a sandcastle, Louis again refuses. But Grandpa is patient and clever, and he finally wins a kiss from his grand-kitten. Full-color illustrations(原来是儿童图画书).
最难的是1890L的书,例如这本:
http://www.lexile.com/book/details/9780520240322/
有志者不妨挑战一下。