An Empirical Research On The Effects Of The Application Of Problem-based Learning On Senior High School Students’ English Reading Comprehension

PBL,which focuses on problem solving,is a popular teaching method in the world.This method starts from problems.During the teaching process,the teacher instructs students to think and solve problems,and then,to achieve the purpose of understanding,mastering,and applying knowledge.This research is based on Dewey’s Education Thought,Humanism and Constructivism as well as Cooperative Learning.This research applies PBL to the teaching of English reading.This student-centered teaching process is consistent with the course standards.The teaching procedures are as follows: the teacher selects appropriate reading materials and prepares the questions.Then,the students think independently first and analyze questions and then discuss solutions in teamwork.After discussion,students conclude the learning and present the output.At last,the teacher carries out a comprehensive evaluation.The research applies PBL to the teaching of reading in senior high schools,with an attempt to answer the following two questions:1.Does PBL help to improve students’ performance of English reading?2.Can PBL change students’ attitude towards English reading in a positive way?The experiment was launched in the actual classes by selecting two classes from a senior high school in Guangzhou as the experiment class and the control class.There were 50 students in the experiment class and 54 students in the control class to participate in a 14-week experiment.The experiment class followed the steps of the teaching of reading with PBL while the control class still followed the traditional teaching of reading.The research instruments include tests(pre-test and post-test),questionnaires(questionnaire I and II)and semi-structure interview.Later,SPSS 17.0,Excel 2016,Word 2016 and NVivo 11.0 were employed to organize and analyze all collected data before and after experiments.The conclusions of the research are: 1.The comparison between the data of thePaired Samples T-Tests and Independent Samples Tests of the experiment class and the control class,reveals that PBL could improve students’ performance of English reading.2.According to the questionnaires and the semi-structure interview of 9 students before and after experiments,PBL was effective in modifying their attitude in a positive way.3.From semi-structured interview,the data show that the application of PBL has improved students’ other abilities,such as cooperation ability,expression ability and communication ability etc.The experiment results show that it is feasible and effective to apply PBL to the teaching of English reading in senior high schools.The research shows that PBL has the practical value in promoting and improving the English reading in the senior high school.It is expected that the conclusion could somehow inspire the teaching of English reading in the future.In order to implement PBL effectively in the teaching of English reading,there are some suggestions: 1.When a teacher designs problems,he or she should consider various factors before taking English reading class.2.During teaching process,a teacher should pay attention to the interaction with students and encourage students to speak in class.3.After class,a teacher should listen to the students’ feedback carefully and improve the teaching method continuously.