The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a blackboard is a thing of the past. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smart phone, writing by hand has become something of old skill. However, while today’s educators are using more and more technology in their teaching, many believe handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful--both in school and in life.
Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology(心理学) at the University of Washington, says it’s important to continue teaching handwriting and help children learn the skill of writing by hand.
Berninger and her workmates carried out a study that looked at the ability of students to complete different writing tasks---both on a computer and by hand. The study, published in 2009, found that when writing with a pen and paper, people wrote longer articles and more complete sentences.
In a more recent study, Berninger looked at what role spelling plays in a student’s writing skills and found that how well children spell is tied to how well they can write. “Spelling makes some of the thinking parts of the brain active which helps us get our vocabulary, word meaning and ideas. It is allowing our written language to connect with ideas.” Berninger said.
Spelling helps students translate ideas into words in their mind first and then to transcribe(转换) “those words in the mind into written symbols(标志) on paper or keyboard and screen,” the study said. Seeing the words in the “mind’s eye” helps children not only to turn their ideas into words, says Berninger, but also to notice spelling mistakes when they write the words down and to correct them over time.
“In our computer age, some people believe that we don’t have to teach spelling because we have spell checks,” she said. “But until a child has spelling ability of about a fifth grade level, they won’t have the knowledge to choose the correct spelling among the choices given by the computer.”
【小题1】Which of the following best shows the role of spelling?

Now students' English handwriting（书法）gets worse and worse. That makes their teachers feel worried. Is your English handwriting beautiful? If n  1., here are four steps that really work!

Use paper with lines

Using paper with lines can keep you writing straight i  2. of up or down when you write English words or sentences. Those lines on the paper can help you to write words in the right size. Be s  3. to fill the lined space completely. And make sure those capital letters(大写字母) are written properly.

Slow down

If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. For some kids, going slower makes the handwriting clear. If you write too q  4., it's hard for you to stop where you should, and even worse, you may make more m  5..

Hold your pencil right

When you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much e  6.. Some kids press down really hard when they write. That makes the handwriting not nice. Try to be relaxed and don't hold the pencil so hard. Let your writing appear nice and clean. If you do so, people will guess you are a student w 7. a good habit.

Draw more pictures

Drawing can improve your handwriting. You need to use the skills to control your pencil better w  8. you are drawing pictures. Even though you have no chance to draw at school, you can practice by y  9. at home.

Handwriting is very important. Imagine you are a world-famous movie star or a well-known sports player, what do you do when your f  10. run up to you? Give them your autographs(亲笔签名), of course!