英語教學1
要喜歡英文當然要了解英國的歷史，英國不是原本就很強大的國家，十世紀以前，英國是蠻荒的邊陲國家，沒人想佔領它，它最主要的歷史故事是貝爾伍夫(Beowulf)，英雄對抗巨大的龍，從古英文就已經有這樣的主題了。
回顧多年來學習英語學習的歷程，84年重回大學從英文系開始，輔仁大學主要以英國文學為訓練的learning program，英國文學對很多學子是困難的，尤其以英文為第二外語者，當時要分析文學理論，第一篇作品王爾德的"快樂小王子"
小王子在生前是快樂無比的，在宮廷裡自由自在的成長；死後的小王子被做成雕像紀念，站在城裡的廣場，看著人來人往，雖然有許多過往甜美的回憶，但是看著日漸貧脊的城市，內心百感交加。
這樣的故事讓我雖然英文字彙能力沒有很厲害的時候，我也不禁潸然淚下。文學的魅力就在此。當有機會但英國旅遊時，對照過往的文學故事，很驚訝樸實的建物，許多紅色瓦牆，文字的魅力躍然眼前。
古典文學有其時代的氛圍，維多利亞時期的風格，簡約也充滿觀察室間的冷暖，很適合孩子的品德教養，快樂小王子，美其名快樂，去蘊藏無限悲苦的情景，真的父母們一定要拜讀。
參觀莎士比亞的故居，心裡已經浮現出許多十四行詩:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the
darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold
complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By
chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall
not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall
Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time
thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long
lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red,
than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If
hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red
and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is
there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love
to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing
sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,
My mistress, when she walks,
treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
As any
she belied with false compare.
曾經有父母問我可不可以教孩子英文詩，我當然要說十四行詩是英文詩的基礎，雖然是風花雪月的故事，但是愛情造就了無限文學的價值，當然許多簡單的英文詩也搭配著音樂，讓孩子更容易朗朗上口。
莎翁的羅密歐與茱麗葉其實也是詩集，Michael Rosen ( We are going on a bear hunt 的作者)編輯了繪本賞析古詩Romeo and Juliet 該作者為英國為學教授也寫了許多詩集，詩人功力不斐，由他編輯增加了可讀性。
英國非常重視兒童文學常常可以看到詩詞分享的聚會在書店舉行，簡單的結構從小就是父母與孩子的文學創作時間，簡單的英文寫作也可由英文詩創作開始。
例如
egg
leg
I took an egg.
I broke his leg.
