阅读教学 ▏如何透过故事的细节描写来分析和判断人物性格的变化？--《绿山墙的安妮--安妮到来》

garyhyz 2019-07-08

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绿山墙的安妮--安妮到来 来自郑新民谈英语教学与研究 05:39

讲解者：郑新民，香港大学哲学博士 (PhD),上海外国语大学教授。

Editor's Remarks

编者按

英语学习不像您所想象的那么难，但也不像您所想象的那么易。要多听，多读，多练习！有了好的阅读读本，教师如何做到切合学情，面向全体，紧扣读本，圈点精彩，分类分层，螺旋上升，巧设提问，激发思维？

《绿山墙的安妮》讲述了纯真善良、热爱生活的女主人公小安妮，自幼失去父母，11岁时被绿山墙的马修和玛丽拉兄妹领养，但她个性鲜明，富于幻想，而且自尊自强，凭借自己的刻苦勤奋，不但得到领养人的喜爱，也赢得老师和同学的关心和友谊。今天“郑新民谈英语教学与研究”结合《绿山墙的安妮--安妮到来》,跟大家谈一谈如何通过故事中的细节描写来分析和判断人物性格的变化。

Hello, dear listeners, this is Prof. Zheng Xinmin from Shanghai International Studies University. In today's programme, we're going to talk about Anne of Green Gables--Anne Arrives written by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Well, let's take a quick look at what happens in the story. The story begins when Anne is sent to Prince Edward Island after a difficult life of living in stranger's homes and orphanages. Mattew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt a boy from the orphanage to help Matthew on their farm. Through a misunderstanding, the Orphanage sends a girl, Anne, instead.

Anne talks a lot and is extremely imaginative. Marilla thinks Anne talks too much in the beginning. But Matthew loves her immediately. Although Marilla is disappointed that Anne is a girl, she takes pity on her and decides to adopt her. Anne promises to try to be good. She goes to the local shcool and finds a best friend, and has good times and bad times. It is her imagination that makes life interesting.

As we mentioned earlier in our programme, a character is anyone in a story. As the story is told, we learn more about what someone or something is like and how they might grow and change. Each character has distinct characteristics that allows our students to set them apart.

Well, after reading the story, we may have our students introduce the main characters they have met in the story and also try to give each of them a brief description. The possible answers are as follows:

Anne: The protagonist of the story. Anne is an orphan who is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert and grows up on their farm, Green Gables. She is very talkative and extremely imaginative.
Marilla: An unmarried woman who raises Anne. Marilla is all angles and straight lines, with a stern face and tightly knotted hair.
Matthew: A sixty-year-old bachelor who lives at Green Gables with his sister, Marilla. Matthew is painfully shy and a little eccentric.
Gilbert: A handsome, smart boy who becomes Anne's rival when he teases her about her red hair.
Mrs. Rachel Lynde: The town busybody. She likes nothing more than giving her opinion and preaching morals. She is extremely outspoken.
Diana: Anne's best friend. Diana is a plump, pretty girl of Anne's age. She is full of romantic notions about love and friendship.

Alright, after doing this activity, we may ask our students to discuss some of the key characters of the story, such as Anne, Marilla, and Gilbert. Please remind our students that when they read they should always pay close attention to the little details of the characters to see if they make a change throughout the story.

In what way did Anne, Marilla, or Gilbert change during the story?
How do you know?
What did they do or say?

Remind our students that in the story writing, in order to maintain literature effect, writers often select to make their characters go through three different types of changes, i.e. no change, massive change and subtle change. This is very much different from our real life. As a matter of fact, in our real life, by the time people reach adulthood, they might make the occasional efforts to change, for instance, to be more tolerant, yet their chief characters are more or less set.

Conclusion

结语

To conclude today's programme, in my opinion, reading the plot of a story is ultimately reading all about the changes of characters. Without the characters' ending up transformed, there would be little point in writing or reading storybooks at all. This is Prof. Zheng Xinmin, broadcasting from Shanghai International Studies Universtiy. Thank you for being with us and goodbye until next time.