A language and reading intervention programme for Chile, piloted in the Robinson Crusoe population.

鲁滨逊漂流岛是一个偏远的岛屿，位于智利以西667公里处。它是胡安费尔南德斯群岛的一部分，其中有三个岛屿，但这是唯一有人居住的岛屿。进入鲁滨逊克鲁索岛是困难的，夏天有飞机进入，但冬天只有每月一艘船服务于该岛(如果可能的话)。这意味着，尽管这些岛民是智利人，但他们在地理和文化上都与大陆非常隔绝。该岛目前的人口约为800人。这些人中的大多数是19世纪末建立该岛的家族的后代，大多数人以捕龙虾为生。所有人都住在一个城镇，所有的孩子都在一所学校上学。虽然学校遵循大陆的课程，但教师通常来自大陆，任职2-3年，因此不一定融入岛屿文化，教学工具也不一定总是适应岛民及其生活方式。岛上与世隔绝，意味着孩子们如果想继续接受高等教育，就必须在很小的时候就搬到大陆。前往大陆进行医疗和牙科治疗也是必不可少的，这意味着孩子们可能会缺课很多。这些因素可能成为高质量教育的障碍，反映了智利和全世界许多与世隔绝的土著社区面临的挑战。鲁滨逊漂流记人口在教育机会方面的脆弱性由于语言和学习障碍的高发生率而进一步增加，这些障碍与较低的教育水平和就业机会有关。此外，最近一场海啸袭击了该岛，摧毁了包括学校在内的现有市政设施。课程现在在一个集装箱里进行，几乎没有空间供个人辅导或安静的课程。在英国，研究表明，弱势群体可以通过学校的额外课程得到帮助。语音、字母知识和阅读方面的培训为语言困难儿童提供了最好的长期教育优势。坚实的语言基础反过来又有助于提高识字能力和算术技能，并为课堂学习提供更广泛的框架。我们想在鲁滨逊漂流岛上试行这种方案，看看这种干预措施是否对与世隔绝的智利人口也有利。这是测试这一制度的理想人群，因为他们有许多复杂的因素，挑战着教育进步。如果干预措施在这里奏效，我们愿提出建议，将该方案扩大到智利其他与世隔绝的土著和农村人口。我们将与智利大学的言语和语言专家合作，他们与岛上居民有现有的联系，以及牛津大学的专家，他们在英国和巴西设计并试验了干预措施。我们将与当地专业人员合作，为该方案提供培训和支助，跨越国际边界传授技能，并在智利建设研究能力。我们希望，从该项目中吸取的经验教训能够推广到大陆和大陆以外的土著和大陆人口，使智利能够在对抗教育不平等问题上发挥领导作用。

The Robinson Crusoe Island is a remote island situated 667km west of Chile. It forms part of the Juan Fernández archipelago in which there are three Islands but this is the only inhabited one. Access to the Robinson Crusoe Island is difficult, there is aeroplane access in the summer but in the winter there is only a monthly ship which serves the island (if possible). This means that the Islanders are very isolated, both geographically and culturally from the mainland, even though they are Chilean. The current population of the Island is approximately 800 people. The majority of these people are descendants of the families that founded the Island in the late 19th century and most people earn a living from lobster fishing. All people live in a single town and all children attend a single school.Although the school follows the curriculum of the mainland, the teachers usually come from the mainland on a 2-3 year post and so are not necessarily integrated into island culture and the teaching tools are not always modified to the Islanders and their way of life. The isolation of the island means that children have to move to the mainland at a young age if they wish to continue their studies into higher education. Travel to the mainland is also essential for medical and dental treatment meaning that children can miss a lot of school. These factors can act as a barrier to a high quality education and reflect the challenges faced by many isolated and indigenous communities through Chile and the world.The vulnerability of the Robinson Crusoe population, in terms of educational opportunities, is further increased by a high incidence of language and learning disorders, which are associated with lower educational attainment and employment opportunities. In addition, a tsunami recently struck the island wiping out existing municipal facilities including the school. Classes now take place in a shipping container with little space for individual tutoring or quiet lessons. In the UK, studies have shown that vulnerable populations can be helped by extra lessons at school. Training in speech-sounds, letter knowledge and reading provide the best long-term educational advantages for children with language difficulties. Strong language foundations, in turn, bolster literacy development and numeracy skills and provide a wider framework for classroom learning. We would like to pilot this kind of scheme on the Robinson Crusoe Island to see if such interventions are also advantageous in isolated Chilean populations. This is an ideal population to test out the system because they have many complicating factors that challenge educational progression. If the interventions work here, we would like to make recommendations to extend the programme to other isolated, indigenous and rural populations in Chile. We will work with speech and language experts at the University of Chile, who have existing contacts with the Islanders and with specialists at the University of Oxford who have designed and trialed interventions in the UK andBrazil. We will work with local professionals to provide training and support of the programme transferring skills across international boundaries and building research capacities in Chile. We hope that the lessons learned from this project can be extended to indigenous and continental populations on the mainland and beyond, allowing Chile to take a leadership role in the confrontation of educational inequalities.