讀誦Reading and Reciting

讀誦

Reading and Reciting

背誦：歷史、技巧、效用

Reciting： History， Technique and Effect

中國的古人從五歲起就學習誦讀和記憶經典。從遠古直到上個世紀初，中國人都使用這種讀書方法。引入現代教育之後，中國的學校裡仍然保留背誦這個學習方法。只是對於誦讀技巧本身，不再做詳細的解釋和教學。

Ancient Chinese started to learn reading and reciting classics from five years old。 From remote ancient times to the beginning of the last century， the Chinese had always been using this reading method。 Despite of the introduction of modern education， Chinese schools have kept this learning method。 But teachers do not give detailed explanation on the skill of reading aloud and reciting。

西方人其實也有記誦的習慣。近代以前的社會里，人們是透過教會來學習語言文字的。出版印刷發達之前，《聖經》等基督教文字都需要誦讀來學習和傳播。還有就是史詩、遊吟詩人、戲劇等表演傳統，是文學語言透過口頭傳播的實際體現。

People in the west also have the custom of reading and reciting。 In the society before early modern times， people learned reading and writing at the church。 And before the flourishing of printing and publishing， the Bible and other Christian texts all needed to be learned and spread through reading and reciting。 Moreover， performance traditions of epic， minstrelsy and drama are all practical manifestation of the mouth-to-mouth spreading of literary language。

誦讀本身並不是簡單的口語使用過程。因為書面文字的存在，文字的音形義需要同時處理，而且這個過程的不同部分不是同時進行的，也不是完全自動的，需要誦讀者調動大量認知資源。所以，誦讀最終形成了專門的吟唱聲調，比正常口語慢，也比正常口語複雜，更具音樂性。

Reciting is not a simple process of using verbal language。 Because of the presence of written text， the sound， form and meaning of written language need to be processed together。 The different parts of this process do not go in parallel and they are not completely automatic。 A reader needs to mobilize a large amount of cognitive resources in his mind。 As a result， a special chanting tone has been developed for reciting， which is slower， more complicated and more musical than normal verbal language。

當然，機械記憶，簡單地背字詞發音，並不是好方法。體現音形義結合，才是誦讀最重要的部分。應該對誦讀材料做充分的解析和統計，提供字句、意群、段落數目統計，文字多層結構關係、詞彙語義特徵關係等等輔助資訊，方便記憶概念結構。

Of course， rote memorization， namely simply remembering the pronunciation of words， is not a good way。 Representing the combination of sound， form and meaning is the most important part in reciting。 A reader needs to do full analytical and statistical work on the reading material。 He or she needs to get certain auxiliary information on the reading materials， such as the statistics on the numbers of words， sense groups， sentences and paragraphs， the multi-layered structure of the text， and the semantic features and relations of the words， so as to facilitate the memorization of conceptual structure。

語言與事物的關係，經常可以透過記憶的經典材料中體會出來。經歷過的重要事件、看到聽到的優美場景，會自然觸發自己先前記誦過的經典名句。這也是文學家修辭用典的基礎。

The relations between language and things can often be enlightened through the classical material a person has recited。 An important event experienced or a beautiful scene seen or heard would trigger the memory to the sentences in the classic a person has recited。 This is also the basis for anecdote and allusion in literary rhetorics。

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