A Study On Application Of Relevance Theory In College English Reading Teaching

English reading, as an important subject of English teaching, has attracted the attention of experts and scholars. The research on the teaching of English reading in recent years has also made many achievements.In the thesis, the major studies of reading models in the past decades are first reviewed and then the gaps among them are pointed out. Based on the gaps, a new way to probe reading process is set forth under the framework of Relevance Theory. According to Relevance Theory, reading process is an ostensive-inferential communication making process, a process of seeking optimal relevance and selecting context. Therefore, the ability to figure out the optimal relevant information with the inference of contextual effects within limited time is the key to improve the efficiency of reading comprehension.In order to verify whether college students’ English reading proficiency could be improved by the application of Relevance Theory in English reading teaching, an empirical research has been carried out in the way of making questionnaires and tests. The research questions of this study are as follows:1. What are the changes of students’ attitude toward applying Relevance Theory to English reading teaching before and after experiment?2. Can the Relevance Theory enhance the proficiency of college students’ English reading?3. In which aspects does Relevance Theory enhance students’ English reading ability?Eighty-six freshmen from Manage Department in Liaoning Institute of Technology participated in this experiment from September of 2014 to January of 2015. The teaching method in which Relevance Theory is applied in English reading was done in the experimental class, while the control class adopted traditional English reading teaching method. Before the teaching treatment, a test was given in two classes to obtain the students’ proficiency of English reading. Besides, a questionnaire was conducted in experimental class to investigate the current situation of students’ attitude towards English reading. After the teaching treatment, a test was given in both classes, while a questionnaire was only given in experiment class, the questionnaire before the teaching treatment was the same with the questionnaire after teaching it, and then the data were analyzed with SPSS17.0.Based on the analysis of the results, the implementation of Relevance Theory in English reading has got a positive effect on students’ attitudes, and the students’ proficiency of the experimental class has been improved better than that of the control class. Besides, the students’ inference ability in the experimental class has been obviously improved.And on this basis, some implications for the teaching of college English reading are brought out in the thesis. English teachers are advised to select appropriate reading materials for students to treat basic knowledge rationally, enlarge the students’ background knowledge, and to cultivate students’ inference strategies in reading comprehension, thereby to improve the students’ reading ability essentially.