آزمون انگلیسی بزرگسال – پیشرفته

Grammar Section

Vocabulary Section

Conversation ( Function Section )

Reading Section

Children and Animals

How do children learn about wildlife in school? And is what they learn the sort of thing they should be learning? It is my thought that children should not just be acquiring knowledge of animals but also developing attitudes and feelings towards them based on exposure to the real lives of animals in their natural habitats. But is this happening?

Some research in this area indicates that it is not. Learning about animals in school is often completely disconnected from the real lives of real animals, with the result that children often end up with little or no understanding or lasting knowledge of them. They learn factual information about animals, aimed at enabling them to identify them and have various abstract ideas about them, but that is the extent of their learning. Children’s storybooks tend to personify animals as characters rather than teach about them.

For direct contact with wild and international animals, the only opportunity most children have is visiting a zoo. The educational benefit of this for children is often given as the main reason for doing it but research has shown that zoo visits seldom add to children’s knowledge of animals – the animals are simply like exhibits in a museum that the children look at without engaging with them as living creatures. Children who belong to wildlife or environmental organizations or who watch wildlife TV programs, however, show significantly higher knowledge than any other group of children studied in research. The studies show that if children learn about animals in their natural habitats, particularly through wildlife-based activities, they know more about them than they do as a result of visiting zoos or learning about them in the classroom.

Research has also been done into the attitudes of children towards animals. It shows that in general terms, children form strong attachments to individual animals, usually their pets, but do not have strong feelings for animals in general. This attitude is the norm regardless of the amount or kind of learning about animals they have at school. However, those children who watch television wildlife programs show an interest in and affection for wildlife in its natural environment, and their regard for animals in general is higher.

However, there is evidence that all of this is changing, and changing fast. The advent of the computer and interactive multimedia instruction in schools is changing the way that children learn about and perceive animals. The inclusion of pictures and audio enables children to look at and hear an animal at the same time. There is evidence that children recall more when they have learned about animals in this way, and furthermore, this is the case whether the animal is one they were previously familiar or unfamiliar with.

Interactive multimedia instruction has opened up a whole new world of learning about animals. It has made it possible to educate children about wildlife beyond simple facts and to inspire in children an understanding of their real lives and affection and respect for them. This is particularly important in modern urban life, where children’s only direct experience of animals is likely to be with domestic pets. Without first-hand experiences of wildlife, children need other ways of gaining an appreciation of and respect for animals. Previously, only the minority of children who belonged to wildlife organizations or watched TV wildlife programs developed this attitude. Now, computer technology is transforming the way children gain knowledge of wildlife. Games, stories, audio recordings, photographs, movies, and spoken narration all combine in multimedia form to present animals as real living creatures, as well as providing factual information about them.

In this way, children can appreciate the unique qualities of different animals and engage with wildlife in a more personal way than in the past. This is important, because what happens to the world’s wildlife will depend to at least some extent on the attitudes towards animals that people acquire as children. If they learn about them as real, living creatures in their natural habitats, they are more likely to have respect for them and to be concerned about their treatment when they are older.

Listening Section

Listen to Rick and Demi talking. Choose A, B, C or D to answer the questions.