A Study On English Reading Strategies In Non-english Major Students In Higher Vocational Colleges

Reading is an effective way to acquire knowledge. This is also the focus of educators have been concerned. During the course of teaching, the author finds that the Higher Vocational College student have weak English foundation and low reading ability in general. How to improve the students’ English reading ability is very important. Since the 1970 s, the study of reading strategies has been carried out by many famous scholars both at home and abroad. However, the research has majorly focused on colleges and universities or high schools. Little attention has been paid to the research on higher vocational colleges.This research starts from the relevant theories of learning strategies, reading strategies, with the reference of O’Malley&Chamot’s definition of learning strategies, and Nuttal’s classification of reading strategies. The author selects 356 students in Zhang Zhou Institute of Technology as the research object, using a questionnaire survey, group interviews to collect the data and analysis. This research tries to answer the following two questions: 1.What is the main characteristics of English reading strategies of the Non-English Major Students in Higher Vocational Colleges? 2. What is the difference between good and poor English readers in using reading strategies?By using the SPSS and the chart to analyze the relevant data, the research draws the following conclusions: 1. Higher Vocational College students use more cognitive strategies. Due to the characteristics of English reading material in higher vocational colleges, students are better at the "skimming", "scanning" and some other simple reading strategies. 2. The high score group students use reading strategies more frequently than low score group students, especially metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies. Besides, they can use more reading strategies and more effectively.To some extend, this study has instructive and practical meaning to the English teaching of non-English majors in higher vocational colleges. At the same time, it allows teachers to better understand students’ reading situation and help themselves to adjust teaching methods and improve teaching result.