The Influence Of English Leveled Readers On Senior High School Students’ Motivation In Reading

The thesis mainly discusses the impact of English leveled readers(ELR)on Chinese senior high school students’ reading motivation.The author has reviewed the research of linguistic experts at home and abroad on the extensive reading and reading motivation in learning environments including mother tongue,second language and foreign language,reaching a conclusion that a large quantity of reading foreign language materials has obviously improved the reading motivation of foreign language.However,motivation belongs to the the category of psychological research,and it is indeed difficult to measure and evaluate.The influence of reading materials and reading quantity obtained previously by linguists on reading motivation was essentially on subjective and qualitative research,but lacked empirical analysis and quantitative research,and the experimental subjects were mostly college students.In addition,ELR have developed into a mature system in the English-speaking countries,but they are still barely emerging in China.From these two perspectives,this study is granted certain perspective.The current status of Chinese senior high school students in reading English is not as ideal as expected,and students generally lack motivation for reading English.The newly released English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School Curriculum(2017 version)puts forward a hierarchy of requirements for reading quantity and reading abilities of students and sets reading goals for different levels.The author of this thesis has conducted an ELR project among 75 high school students from a senior high school in Pidu District,Chengdu.One average class and one key class had been chosen and the project lasted 3 and a half months.A verified Motivation for Reading Questionnaire(MRQ)which was based on Mori’s MRQ model for EFL learners was delivered to 75 students to determine whether the ELR project affected students’ reading motivation.According to the pre-reading motivation questionnaire,it showed that there were no obvious differences in reading motivation between the key class and the average class.However,the post-questionnaire indicated that learners who were exposed to the ELR program tend to achieve significantly higher scores on measures of reading motivation,especially for these students’ intrinsic motivation.What’s more,students in the key class showed stronger reading motivation as a consequence of their reading amount,reading report’s completeness and so on.Thus,choosing ELR spontaneously is probably more suitable for students in the key class.In the context of vigorously advancing reading as a method for cultivating a “whole-person”the author believes that(1)ELR can be used as a supplement for students’ extra curricular English reading materials;(2)to strengthen the training of foreign language teachers’ on ELR;(3)ELR project has certain value of promotion and it can be put forward in some areas with conditions firstly.