Studies On English Novel Reading Strategies Of Senior High School Students By The Method Of Think-aloud

Reading has a pivotal role in English as a Foreign Language Learning,which is an inputting action of acquainted foreign culture.Reading strategy,as a key element of successful reading,has been a research hot point for many years.Experts have made a lot of efforts to help the high school students reading effectively.However,in different situation,the application of strategies varies greatly during the reading process.On account of the predominant advantages of coherent plot and strong story of English novel,it is relatively valued in domestic research.Therefore,this thesis made a descriptive analysis of English novel reading strategies in order to help students read English novels more effectively.This thesis intends to answer the following two questions:(1)What are the predominant reading strategies used in the process of the English novel reading for the subjects?Regarding this research question,the author discussed two sub-questions:(1)What is the most commonly used category of reading strategies for the subjects?(2)What are the most commonly used reading strategies for the subjects?(2)What are the differences in the use of reading strategies between high-proficiency level readers and low-proficiency level readers?Based on the classification of reading strategies of Mokhtari & Sheorey(2002),this thesis examined the reading strategies of four high school students.The author collected data by using Think-aloud Protocols(TAPs)as a research instrument.Then coding the reading strategies used by each participant.In addition,besides the meaning identification of surface structure,the author also hoped to further explore,making a conclusion from cognitive scope.For Think-aloud protocol,such a silent mental activity,expecting to be widely apply in reading research.The findings of this research are listed following:(1)Support reading strategies is used by comparatively most of the subjects.(2)Among all the strategies,there are five strategies totally considered to be the most frequently used strategies.They are: paraphrasing text information;translating from one language to another;guessing meaning of unknown words;reading text out aloud;and going back and forth to find relationships among ideas.(3)There are significant differences in the strategies used between high-proficiency level readers and low-proficiency level readers.There are little differences between high-proficiency level readers and low-proficiency level readers in the use of global reading strategies.However,there are significant differences in using problem solving reading strategies and support reading strategies.In general,in the process of English novels reading,high-proficiency level readers use more types and frequency of reading strategies than low-proficiency level readers.It shows that the high-proficiency level readers hold more metacognitive awareness in the process of English novels reading than low-proficiency level readers.And they can plan,monitor and adjust their activities.High-proficiency level readers can generally manage their reading activities by choosing the appropriate strategy.If a reading strategy is invalid,they will suspend or change the strategy.According to the findings mentioned above,Think-aloud is recommended to be applied in the process of English novels reading.And English teachers should pay more attention to English reading strategies teaching and the cultivation of students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies so as to improve students’ ability of autonomous reading.