An Empirical Study Of English Reading Teaching In Senior High School Based On ESA Teaching Model

English reading teaching is an important part of English teaching system in the senior high school.However,there are inevitably some problems in senior high school English reading teaching under the background of examinations in China,such as: the teaching content is monotonous,teachers place too much emphasis on language knowledge points;The teaching mode is outdated,teachers still dominate the classroom,and students learn mechanically;The teaching process is boring,and there is a lack of activities based on the real context for students.These problems make it difficult to motivate students to read and affect the effectiveness of reading teaching.In 1998,Jeremy Harmer,a British educator,introduced the ESA model in his book How to Teach English.ESA teaching model emphasizes that students are the main subject of the classroom,and teachers should pay attention to students’ interest in reading,create an authentic language environment,motivate students to read English,and improve their comprehensive language skills.Based on the ESA teaching model,this study takes motivation theory,language input hypothesis and language output hypothesis as the theoretical basis,and selects two classes of students in a senior high school in Xi’an as the research subjects.Through various methods such as testing method,questionnaire survey method and interview method,the study aims to investigate the following two questions:（1）Can English reading teaching in the senior high school based on ESA teaching model improve students’ English reading performance?（2）Can English reading teaching in the senior high school based on the ESA teaching model motivate students better to read English? During the experiment,the author selected two classes of Grade 2 for one semester,with class（1）as the experimental class and class（2）as the control class.Before the experiment,the pre-test and pre-questionnaire were administered to the two classes,and there were no significant difference between the the students in the two classes for their reading performance and reading motivation.During the teaching process,the author used the ESA teaching model to guide reading teaching in the experimental class and the grammar-translation method in the control class.In the post-test and post-questionnaire of the two classes after the experiment,the test results showed that the experimental class using the ESA teaching model had higher reading performance than the control class;And the data results of questionnaire and interview showed that the students in the experimental class were motivated better to read English.Based on the experimental results and findings of this study,it can be confirmed that after applying the ESA teaching model to the English reading in the senior high school,students’ interest and autonomy for reading were enhanced;and it was helpful for students to effectively mobilize background knowledge,enhance their awareness of using reading strategies,activate language use and improve their English reading level.Therefore,the ESA teaching model has a positive effect on students’ reading performance and reading motivation.