Investigation Of Extracurricular English Reading Of Senior High School Students In Guangxi Minority Nationality Areas Under New Curriculum Standards

Reading ability is an important aspect in foreign language learning.Many linguists and educators have found that a large amount of reading have a positive effect on language learning.Besides,the requirement of “New Curriculum Standards”for senior high school students’ extracurricular English reading volume has increased from 300,000 words to 360,000 words,showing that the importance of extracurricular English reading becomes more and more prominent.In addition,in terms of students’ language inputs,merely relying on the classroom teaching is not adequate and it is necessary to do some extracurricular reading so that students can have a more comprehensive understanding of English itself and English learning ability.However,due to various reasons,there exists a big gap between the English level of students in Guangxi minority nationality areas and that of students in the eastern and central areas,and students have their own characteristics.Based on the theory of Constructivism and Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition Theory,the study illustrates the necessity and importance of conducting extracurricular reading activities,and tries to answer the following 3 questions:1.What is senior high school students’ attitude towards extracurricular English reading?2.What is the situation of senior high school teachers’ guidance to students’ extracurricular English reading?3.How do senior high school students conduct extracurricular English reading?Both quantitative and qualitative research are utilized in the study.The research subjects of this study are 290 students and 6 teachers from Baise Senior High School of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.They are from Grade One,Grade Two and Grade Three respectively.Through the questionnaire,this paper investigates students’ attitude towards extracurricular English reading and the implementation modes of it;through interviews,it finds out the data of teachers’ guidance on extracurricular English reading.The results show that:1.Generally speaking,senior high school students do not hold optimisticattitude to extracurricular English reading.They can realize the importance of extracurricular English reading,but their interest in reading is not high,and their reading purposes are not clear enough;senior high school students think that it is necessary for teachers to guide them in extracurricular reading;inadequate vocabulary and poor grammar are the main reading obstacles for senior high school students.2.Senior high school teachers’ guidance to students’ extracurricular English reading mainly focuses on reading strategies,and the guidance content is not comprehensive;senior high school teachers’ detection strength of the completion of extracurricular reading is not strong enough;senior high school teachers have many methods to deal with students’ reading problems,but the methods can not be implemented practicably.3.Senior high school students carry on extracurricular English reading mainly by in-class reading materials and by using relatively single reading strategies.Specifically,senior high school students’ reading materials mainly come from the resources in class,and the sources of reading materials are narrow;the reading strategies used by senior high school students are relatively single,and they fail to grasp and use reading strategies well.According to the problems arising,some teaching and learning strategies are put forward,including developing students’ interest in reading and rectifying students’ concept of reading,creating context for English learning,establishing relevant extracurricular reading mechanisms,widening the sources of reading materials and mastering reading strategies,aiming to further optimize English reading teaching and further improve students’ reading ability so that students can meet the relevant requirement of New Curriculum Standards and have a better mastery of English.