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

鲁滨逊漂流记岛是一个位于智利西部667公里的偏远岛屿。它是胡安Fernández群岛的一部分，该群岛有三个岛屿，但这是唯一有人居住的岛屿。进入鲁滨逊克鲁索岛是很困难的，夏天有飞机进入，但在冬天，只有每月一班的船为岛上服务（如果可能的话）。这意味着岛民在地理上和文化上都与大陆隔绝，尽管他们是智利人。目前岛上的人口约为800人。这些人中的大多数是19世纪末建立这个岛的家族的后裔，大多数人以捕龙虾为生。所有的人都住在同一个城镇，所有的孩子都上同一所学校。虽然学校遵循大陆的课程，但教师通常来自大陆，为期2-3年，因此不一定融入岛屿文化，教学工具也不一定根据岛民和他们的生活方式进行修改。该岛的孤立意味着，如果儿童希望继续接受高等教育，他们必须在很小的时候搬到大陆。前往大陆就医和牙科治疗也是必不可少的，这意味着孩子们可能会错过很多学校。这些因素可能成为获得高质量教育的障碍，反映了智利和世界各地许多孤立的土著社区所面临的挑战。《鲁滨逊漂流记》中的人群在教育机会方面的脆弱性，因语言和学习障碍的高发而进一步增加，这些障碍与较低的教育程度和就业机会有关。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。现在的课程是在一个集装箱里进行的，几乎没有空间给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训练为有语言障碍的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能促进识字和计算技能的发展，并为课堂学习提供更广泛的框架。我们想在鲁滨逊克鲁索岛上试行这种计划，看看这种干预措施是否对与世隔绝的智利人口也有利。这是测试该系统的理想人群，因为他们有许多复杂的因素挑战教育进程。如果干预措施在这里起作用，我们愿提出建议，将该方案扩大到智利其他孤立的土著和农村人口。我们将与智利大学的语音和语言专家合作，他们与岛民有联系，并与牛津大学的专家合作，牛津大学的专家曾在英国和巴西设计和试验过干预措施。我们将与当地专业人员合作，为该项目提供培训和支持，跨越国际边界转移技能，并在智利建立研究能力。我们希望从这个项目中吸取的经验教训能够推广到大陆和其他地区的土著居民和大陆居民，使智利能够在对抗教育不平等方面发挥领导作用。

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.