The pictographic nature of the Chinese writing system helps to stimulate the thinking faculty of children. Their intelligence develops better while they learn the characters.

　　This was disclosed by Dr Zeng Zeng, assistant professor3 of psychology at NUS, in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao as was reported.

　　I am a retired Chinese-language teacher from Malaysia. From my experiences, I have long noticed that Chinese-medium-educated students always excel in mathematics as compared with those taught in other languages. The secret lies in the Chinese characters. The words for numerals are all monosyllabic4 in Chinese. In contrast, their equivalents in Malay have two or three syllables, like sa -tu, du-a, ti-ga , em-pat, li-ma , e-nam, tu-juh, lapan, sem-bi-lan, se -pu-luh. It takes a longer time to pronounce these words. Their English equivalents — one, two , three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand, million — include multi-syllabic words, too.

　　The difference between them is most striking when it comes to memorising the multiplication table . Children easily find that it is in the Chinese language that they can do the job fastest.

　　Children taught in Chinese find it easier to learn numerals and can do their calculations much faster.

　　This has been repeatedly borne out by reports on Chinese-medium-educated students winning prizes in International Mathematics Olympiads.

　　Mathematics has a lot to do with IQ tests, as it is well proven that children good at numbers tend to have a stronger reasoning faculty. So, I would like to call on Chinese parents to treasure the language of our ancestors. Teach the children Chinese so that they can think in the language. Keep their cutting edge in mathematics with the aid of Chinese characters, and this will improve their IQ.

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　　練習題：

　　Ⅰ. Se le ct one which be ars the same mea ning with unde rlined words:

　　1. Why local children aged between 6 and 12 display a higher IQ?

　　A. native; show B. naive; demonstrate

　　2. Chinese writing system helps to stimulate the thinking faculty of children.

　　A. encourage ; power B. discourage; face

　　3. I would like to call on Chinese parents to treasure the language of our ancestors.

　　A. cherish ; forefathers B. treat; antiquities

　　Ⅱ. Question :

　　Which fact can prove that students taught in Chinese having high IQ?

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　　參考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. A 2 . A 3. A

　　Ⅱ. Chinese-medium-educated students won prizes in International Mathematics Olympiads.

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　　參考譯文：

　　學漢字有助提高智商

　　學 習漢字可能是我國6 歲至12 歲孩童的智商比英國、德國和澳大利亞孩童高的原因。漢字的象形特性有助于激發孩童的思考能力。學習漢字無形中提高了孩子們的智商。上述這些話是新加坡國立大學心理學助理教授曾增博士接受《聯合早報》采訪時所說的。

　　我是一位早期在馬來西亞從事漢語教學的退休教師, 在教學中早就注意到以漢語為教育媒介的學生在數學領域中一直領先于以其他語言為教育媒介的學生。其原因在于: 漢語是以單音節語素為主, 一字一音節。反觀馬來語: sa-tu、du -a、ti-ga、em -pat、li-ma、e-nam 、tujuh、la-pan、sem-bi-lan 、se-pu -luh 等音節都比漢語長, 念起來都比漢語費時多了。又如英語o ne, tw o, three, fou r, five, six, seven , eigh t, nin e, ten, hundred, thousand , million 等, 其中也有好些是語音較長的文字。

　　當學童在學習背誦乘法表時最能發覺以漢語背誦是各種語言中最快捷的。所以數目字在以漢語為啟蒙教育的孩童中顯得比較簡單, 在運算過程中也就顯得簡易而快捷多了。

　　這些事實可以從報上屢見不鮮的國際奧林匹克數學比賽中來自漢語源流的學生所獲得的榮譽加以證明。

　　智商測驗很大程度上與數學扯上關系, 因為數學好的學童推理能力自然就強, 這是鐵一般的事實。因此, 筆者在此大力呼吁華裔家長珍惜祖先創造的單音節優秀語言, 在家中先教導孩子們學會漢語, 讓孩子們能先用漢語去思考問題, 保留這種對數學的優勢, 提高孩子們的智商。