An Investigation Into The Status Quo Of English Reading Teaching Based On The Inquiry Into Thematic Meaning In Junior High Schools

The inquiry into thematic meaning is of great importance in English teaching.However,enough importance hasn’t been attached to the inquiry into thematic meaning in junior high school English teaching,so teachers have some problems in the process of discourse analysis,goal design and activity implementation.Reading teaching bears the responsibility of cultivating students’ key competences,and thematic meaning leads reading teaching.Hence,investigating the status quo of English reading teaching based on the inquiry into thematic meaning in junior high schools is necessary.To deeply understand the current situation of English reading teaching based on the inquiry into thematic meaning in junior high schools,this study takes a key junior high school in Nanchong as an example,and an in-depth investigation is carried out.Based on theme-based Instruction,with the help of questionnaires,classroom observations,interviews and other methods,this study conducts a two-month investigation among 30 English teachers from a key junior high school in Nanchong.To understand the current situation of English reading teaching based on thematic meaning inquiry in junior high schools,the following questions are concerned:(1)What are junior high school teachers’ attitudes towards English reading teaching based on the inquiry into thematic meaning?(2)What’s the status quo of junior high school teachers’ discourse analysis?(3)What’s the status quo of junior high school teachers’ objective design?(4)What’s the status quo of junior high school teachers’ activity design and implementation?This study has the following findings:(1)Junior high school teachers value English reading teaching based on the inquiry into thematic meaning.But there are a small number of teachers gainsay it,which may result from their language-centered teaching concept and the lack of knowledge on NECS.(2)The status quo of junior high school teachers’ discourse analysis based on thematic meaning is not optimistic.Some teachers disagree that theme leads the content while some teachers fail to analyze the thematic meaning of the discourse accurately and deeply.(3)The status quo of junior high school teachers’ objective design is not very optimistic.First,some teachers set objectives about key competences like thinking quality objectives that are not closely related to the thematic meaning of the discourse in the unit.(4)When it comes to activity design and implementation,many teachers are unable to design activities with higher thinking level.At the same time,some teachers do not regard students as the subject of the inquiry process.However,it’s desirable that most teachers adopt tools like mind maps to facilitate students’ inquiry into thematic meaning.