A Survey Of English Reading Strategies Of Senior High School Students

As the focus of foreign language learning has shifted from “how to teach” to “how to learn”,the focus of English reading research has also shifted from the “reading results” to“reading processes”.Meanwhile,the reform of the College Entrance Examination and the National English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017)put forward specific requirements for the English reading ability of senior high school students.How to improve students’ reading ability has been an important topic for reading researchers.Previous studies have proved that reading strategies have an enduring influence on improving students’ ability of English reading and the use of comprehensive language.Therefore,it is of great necessity to study the use of English reading strategies of senior high school students.Based on the classification of reading strategies proposed by O’Malley and Chamot(1990),this research adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,using“Questionnaire on the Use of English Reading Strategies” and interview as research tools to obtain the research data and research results.The research subjects are from the four senior high schools in Cangzhou City,Hebei Province,composed of 200 second-year senior high school students.This research mainly addresses the current situation of the use of English reading strategies of senior high school students and the differences in the use of English reading strategies between the groups of high achievers and low achievers.After collecting data,the author uses SPSS 23.0 to analyze the 195 valid questionnaire data.The major findings of this research are concluded as follows.First of all,the current situation the use of English reading strategies of senior high school students is not optimistic.The research results show that the overall frequency of the use of English reading strategies of senior high school students is at a moderate level.It shows that senior high school students have inadequate ability to use English reading strategies.The frequency of the use of cognitive reading strategies is in the first place,followed by metacognitive reading strategies and social/affective reading strategies.Among cognitive reading strategies,students do better in using reading sub-strategies of using references,inference,using images and translation.Second,there are significant differences in the use of English reading strategies between the groups of high achievers and low achievers.The high achiever group can use English reading strategies more flexibly and effectively.High achievers are better at using reading sub-strategies of selective attention,plan ahead,self-monitoring and inference,with the frequency of these reading sub-strategies being significantly higher than low achievers’.However,there is no significant difference in the use of sub-strategies of translation and cooperation.Third,senior high school students have shortcomings in using some English reading strategies,especially in the use of strategies of self-management,self-evaluation,transformation,summary and cooperation.It is hoped that this research can enrich the related research of reading strategies and bring some enlightenment to the teaching and learning of English reading strategies in senior high school.