《中英對照讀新聞》Pupils make more progress in 3Rs 學生的讀、寫、運算能力越有進步

The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do in international tests of literacy and maths, the largest stduy of its kind says.

學生越少在學校與家裡使用電腦，他們在聽寫能力與數學的國際測試上表現越好，規模最大的同類研究指出。

The findings raise questions over the Government's decision, announced by Gordon Brown in the Budget, to spend another 2.5 billion it has already spent.

這項研究成果使得政府將額外增加二十五億英鎊支出（用於電腦教學上）的決定出現疑問，財政大臣高登．布朗在預算報告上宣佈此決定。

However, the study, published by the Royal Economic Society, said: “Despit enumerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the contrary, the evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does not seem to contribute substantially to students' learning of basics kills such as maths or reading.”

然而，這份由皇家經濟學會公佈的研究指出：「儘管政治人物與軟體業者提出許許多多的迥異主張，不過，迄今的證據顯示，在學校使用電腦顯然不能大幅裨益於學生在諸如數學或閱讀等基礎技術的學習。」

Indeed, the more pupils used computers, the worse they performed, said Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Wossmann of Munich University.

事實上，學生越是使用電腦，他們的表現越差，慕尼黑大學的托瑪斯．傅賀斯與魯德格．沃斯曼說。

Their report also noted that being able to use a computer at work - one of the justifications for devoting so much teaching time to ICT (information and communication technology)- had no greater impact on employability or wage levels than being able to use a telephone or a pencil.

他們的報告也指出，工作上能使用電腦 - 這是投注如此多教學時間在資訊與通信科技上的原因之一 － 在就業競爭力與薪資水準方面，並沒有比能使用電話或鉛筆產生更大的影響。

Dictionary新聞詞典

3Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic。即是讀、寫與運算等基本學習能力。

the less…, the better…：越少…，越好。該句型衍生自 the more…, the more…：越…越…，比如，The more she knows the fact, the more angry she becomes.（她越知道實情就越生氣。）此外，the more…, the worse…同為the more…, the more…的衍生句型。

literacy：讀寫的能力。illiteracy即是文盲。

justification：證成、證明為合理。

employability：就業競爭力。