回想以前对孩子英文阅读能力的培养,除了每晚的亲子故事外,经典儿歌童谣的传唱和诵读原来也起到了不小的作用。当时并不知道会对以后的学习产生巨大的作用，只知道这些作品朗朗上口，孩子愿意反复吟诵。后来在孩子四岁时突然有一天孩子能把整本没读过的书念出来，我去感谢老师，老师却说在幼儿园阶段我们也没有特别地去教孩子们阅读，只是常一起唱儿歌，指着书本读故事，这才发现婴儿时期种下的种子现在发了芽。

特地到中英文网上查找儿歌和童谣对儿童教育的好处。先来看看什么是儿歌。儿歌是以低幼儿童为主要对象，以简短的韵语形式描述事物、抒发情感的富有童趣的歌谣。儿歌的特点是内容浅显单纯、饶有童趣，形式上简短易唱、节奏明快、朗朗上口。

“儿歌”一词出现于“五四”以后歌谣运动大发展时期。鲁迅、周作人、刘半农等现代文学大师对儿歌的搜集、整理和研究做出了重要贡献。儿歌这一艺术形式古已有之，我国古代不叫儿歌，而叫做童谣、童子谣、儿童谣、孺子歌、小儿语等。儿歌有许多儿童喜闻乐见的种类和形式，如摇篮曲是儿童接触最早的儿歌，躺在襁褓中的婴儿听着妈妈亲切、温柔、舒缓而富有节奏感的哼唱，身心会感到无比的愉悦，对婴儿的身体健康和心智发育有好处。此外，伴随儿童不同阶段的成长，还有游戏歌、数数歌、连锁调、问答歌、绕口令、颠倒歌、谜语歌、字头歌、节气歌等多种常伴儿童身边的儿歌形式，它们或增长知识、或训练语言、或愉悦精神、或宣泄情感，对儿童健康成长起着别的艺术形式无法取代的重要作用（http://xt.baitengwang.com/item30489n.aspx）。

再来看看外国专家对其重要性的评价。There is overwhelming evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes and rhythmic poems, songs, and chants significantly enhances early reading skills and phonemic awareness.  In fact research highlights phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of a child's reading success.(Stanovich, 1986,1994). 有大量证据表明早期学习童谣，韵律诗，歌曲和吟唱方式可以显著提高儿童早期阅读能力和对音素的意识。事实上研究更强调了对音素的意识在决定儿童成功阅读的能力上是一个有力的因素。换句话说，如果孩子在上学前没有接触到任何声音形式的语言或太少，以后在正式学习阶段就会觉得将语言和文字联系起来非常困难。下面是在一个英国童谣网站上找到的五点早期学习童谣的原因，现将它翻译出来供有心人参考。

1. Start reading nursery rhymes to your child when they are a baby; three months is a good age to start. Reciting nursery rhymes to your baby will help them understand the grammatical structure of language and learn to read.当您的孩子还是一个婴儿时就开始给他们读童谣，3个月时是一个很好的开始年龄。给您的宝宝朗诵童谣将有助于将来他们了解语言的语法结构和学习如何阅读。

2. It is important to participate in nursery rhyme activities because it will help your child develop an awareness of the syllables and sounds that make up the words you are reading to them. During your time reading nursery rhymes to your children, sing or clap along with the rhyme. Clapping will help the syllables stand out better and your child will be able to easily identify them.让儿童参与唱诵儿歌童谣的重要性在于因为它会帮助您的孩子对构成单词的音节和发音产生意识。在您给您孩子读童谣时,配合着韵律一起轻唱或拍掌。拍掌将有助于更好地使音节突出，您的孩子可以更轻易地识别它们。

3. Nursery rhyme activities also allow children to develop language skills by making them more aware of different words used in their language. They will be able to distinguish between words that sound alike and the different meanings each word has. For example, reading nursery rhymes with the word "cat" will help them associate the word to "hat", but they will know they are completely different things.唱诵儿歌童谣也让孩子们通过了解语言中使用不同的词汇这一点来发展他们的语言技巧。他们将能够分辨发音相似的单词和明白每一个字都具有不同的含义。例如，读含有“猫”这个单词的童谣将帮助他们联想到单词“帽子”，但他们会知道它们是完全不同的事情。

4. Reciting nursery rhymes on a regular basis will help your child learn the rhythms of speech and intonation. Nursery rhymes help your child make up the grammatical structure of their language and they will learn how to place an emphasis on certain words or phrases.  By placing an emphasis on two or three words of a sentence, your child will begin to recognize speech patterns and language structure. They will quickly learn that emphasis is used in every day language.定期朗诵儿歌会帮助您的孩子学习讲话的节奏和语调。童谣能帮助您的孩子组成他们语言的语法结构，他们将学习如何强调某些词或短语。通过强调一个句子中的两个或三个单词，您的孩子会开始认识到说话的形式和语言的结构。他们会很快学会强调单词在日常语言中经常使用。

5. Nurseryrhyme activities also teach your child how to say consonant sounds clearly. For example, the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" has the letter "d" repeated several times. When your child reads this rhyme aloud, they will need to make the appropriate sound for the letter "d", causing their brain to use different tongue movements to place an emphasis on different parts of the words. It helps your child learn how to properly enunciate and become more fluent in their speaking skills(http://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com).唱诵儿歌也教孩子如何清楚地发辅音。例如，童谣“Hey Diddle Diddle”中字母“D”反复出现几次,当您的孩子大声地读这首童谣时，他们需要作出适当的声音来发字母“D”，致使他们的大脑命令舌头作出不同方位的活动以强调单词中不同的音节。它可以帮助您的孩子学习如何清晰正确地发音并使其表达能力更为流畅。

虽然以上针对的只是英文儿歌，其实细看看也适用于中文的儿歌童谣，比如通过熟悉韵律，词语的强调快速学习新的语言，又如轻松学习相似的词汇和讲话的节奏来了解语法的结构。还有很重要的一点就是通过儿歌童谣让下一代继承璀璨的民族文化。希望每个儿童都能愉快地学习儿歌和童谣，成功地迈向知识的殿堂。