Study On The Ways To Improve College Students' English Reading Abilities

Comprehension is perceived to be an essential component in reading, and reading comprehension has long been a popular subject of study among researchers. But linguists and language experts in reading have no finished theory of reading. The traditional opinion about reading is that reading is a "Bottom-up"decoding process. With the development of Linguistics and Psycholinguistics, some linguists come up with the concept of "Top-down"reading. Now, with the occurrence of interactive schema theory, It is thought that the efficient reading is the combination of "Bottom-up"and "Top-down"which is an interactive process, involving a complex psychological and social activity. As far as reading is concerned, there is much we need to know. This dissertation is on the reading theory and its implications and applications in the teaching of reading. There are six chapters in it. Chapter I is a brief introduction to the reason for the research, the research objective and the expected significance. Chapter II shows the definition of reading and reading process. Chapter III provides a review of the literature on schema theory and its relationship with reading. Chapter IV is the methodology used for the research (subjects, instruments, data collection and analysis procedures). Chapter V is the results and outcomes of the investigation. It shows the advantages and disadvantages of interactive theory in classroom teaching; the application of interactive theory in reading process and the significance of the schema theory in foreign language teaching. Chapter VI concludes the research. Research shows that interactive schema theory is significant in improving learning and teaching English reading; grasping reading skills correctly and improving reading efficiency.