An Empirical Study Of Primary School English Graded Reading Instruction Based On Krashen’s Monitor Theory

English graded reading aims to provide English graded books labeled with different difficulty levels and help the readers to choose appropriate books within their reading levels.The purposes of graded reading are to stimulate readers’ reading interests,influence their reading character and then to improve their reading ability.In China,English is used as the foreign language and the research on English graded reading in the context of Chinese culture is still in its infancy.There is no scientific evaluation system and tools to measure English reading ability of Chinese primary school students.So far very few theoretical studies have been conducted in the area of English graded reading instruction.Most English teachers only pay attention to vocabulary and grammar when it comes to English reading instruction.Students’ reading ability can’t be effectively improved.At present,the study of English graded reading is mainly targeted at middle and high school students as the subjects,and there is little research targeted at primary school students.This study attempts to use Krashen’s Monitor Theory as a guide to explore the effective practice of primary school English graded reading instruction from the perspective of second language acquisition.The research questions mainly involve three aspects:(1)Can Krashen’s Monitor Theory scientifically guide teachers to select appropriate English graded readers for Chinese primary school students?(2)Can primary school English graded reading instruction based on Krashen’s Monitor Theory help to improve the comprehensive English language ability of primary school students?(3)Can English graded reading instruction based on Krashen’s Monitor Theory help to improve the reading ability of primary school students,including phonemes,reading fluency,reading comprehension,information retrieval and cultural awareness?The author selected two classes in Grade 3 of a local primary school as experimental and control classes.In the experimental class,the author selected graded readers and carried out graded reading instruction based on Krashen’s Monitor Theory.In the control class,the author chose graded readers based on students’ age and the traditional reading teaching method was adopted.Through a four-month teaching experiment,a total of 90 students from two classes weresurveyed.Research instruments,such as questionnaire,pre-test and post-test,interview,were used and the data were processed and analyzed by using SPSS 17.0software package.The study shows that(1)Krashen’s Monitor Theory could provide scientific guidance for the selection of graded readers because it is proven that the selection of those graded readers improved students reading character;(2)Primary school English graded reading instruction based on Krashen’s Monitor Theory could improve comprehensive English language ability of primary school students;(3)English graded reading instruction based on Krashen’s Monitor Theory could effectively improve the reading ability of primary school students,including phonemes,reading fluency,reading comprehension,information retrieval and cultural awareness.