On Self-Access Reading In English Teaching At Higher Vocational College

English is becoming more and more important in modern society. However, the efficiency of learning and teaching English at Higher Vocational College is not satisfactory especially in reading. Although the students have mastered the basic vocabulary and grammar, they are still poor in English reading. The reason is that traditionally, the teachers just focus on basic language instruction; reading is considered as a passive action on the part of reader and there is not enough practice in actual reading teaching. The students are only occupied with taking notes in class. Gradually, they regard reading as a heavy burden and lose their interests and eventually they take no responsibility and autonomy in English reading. Therefore, enhancing the teaching and learning of English reading to improve the students'reading ability is the main focus.There are many researches on English reading teaching and learning, but most of them are concerned with that in middle school or university; there are few ones that lay focus on the English reading teaching and learning at Higher Vocational College. In addition, most of the researches only emphasize training reading strategies and neglect arousing students'interest and autonomy. Based on schema theory and self-access learning theory, the author puts forward self-access reading (SAR) teaching and learning method to cultivate the students'English reading motivation and develop reading strategies to improve their reading ability.Schema theory lays emphasis on the readers'prior knowledge, i.e. background knowledge in understanding process. Two types of schema often discussed in reading research are formal schemata and content schemata. Swales (1990:87) believes that when content and formal schemata are familiar, the text will be relatively accessible. Carrel (1988:476) concludes her research: When either form or content is unfamiliar, the text will be un-accessible, unfamiliar content poses more difficulties for the reader than unfamiliar form.Self-access learning theory emphasizes the learner's autonomy during learning.