A Survey Of Senior High School Students’ English Reading Ability Based On China’s Standards Of English Language Ability

According to the “National English Curriculum Standards for General High School”（2017 version,revised in 2020）,students should be trained to develop the necessary language skills.Reading is one of the most important skills for developing language ability.Simultaneously,in the English test of the college entrance examination,the reading section accounts for nearly one-fifth of the total score,which has a significant impact on high school students’ overall English performance.Based on previous analysis,it is clear that improving reading ability is critical to the development of high school students’ language ability and the improvement of English achievement.The National Language and Writing Committee and the Ministry of Education relea sed the “China Standards of English”（hereinafter referred to as the “CSE”）in April 2018,which went into effect on June 1 of that year.The release of CSE,China’s first scientific and unified English proficiency evaluation standard,provides a new basis for measuring students’ English reading ability,as well as helping teachers and students better achieve t he teaching goals of the National English Curriculum Standards for General High School.Through reading a large number of literatures,It’s found that there are relatively more studies on the application of CSE to the university or higher vocational level,whereas studies that combine CSE with compulsory education or high school are relatively few.Referring to the previous literature review and summary,this paper investigates the current state of English reading ability among high school students based on the English reading scale.What’s more,it strives to discover the theoretical significance and practical value of using the CSE in English teaching.This study performes a survey among 206 senior high school students at No.4 Middle School in Baota District,Yan’an City,using the Production-oriented Approach,and the Constructivism Theory.The questionnaires,interview framework,and English reading test paper are utilized in the survey.To address the first study question “Which degree of English reading ability do senior high school pupils achieve,according to the CSE?”,the questionnaire is created using levels 3–4 of the whole scale and a self-assessment scale from the English Reading Scale.The interview framework is created based on the CSE and the questionnaire data,and it is intended to help the questionnaire answer the first research question.The English reading test papers are chosen based on the findings of the questionnaire and interviews,which are designed to answer the second study question“How is the English reading ability of senior high school pupils on three frequent types of expository,argumentation and narration,according to the CSE?” To summarize and sort the acquired data,this article uses SPSS22.0 software and Excel sheets.To investigate the English reading ability of senior high school students to whatever grade level the CSE requires,as well as the capacity of senior high school students to absorb details,reason,evaluate,and summarize the major subject of three frequent types（explanatory text,argumentative text and narrative text）.In this study,descriptive statistics are initially utilized to assess the overall English reading level of senior high school pupils ranging from Level 3 to Level 4 on the English Reading Scale.This thesis sorts out the original interview materials of three respondents based on the questionnaire survey in order to strengthen the impartiality of the study results.Secondly,utilizing English reading test scores,this thesis examines senior high school students’ English reading proficiency in expository,narrative,and argumentative compositions.According to the findings,the English reading ability of senior high school pupils at No.4 Middle School in Yan’an City’s Baota District has attained the CSE level 3,and there is a gap with the ability required by the CSE,so their reading ability has to be developed further.Expository and narrative writing average scores are 8.0 and 8.4 points,respectively,significantly better than the passing line of 7.2 points,however argumentative writing average score is lower than the passing line of 7.2 points,therefore high school pupils understand narrative and expository writings well,but not argumentative ones.In terms of sub-category ability of each style,the ability to understand details and the ability to reason and judge of expository texts are good,and the ability to generalize the main idea is at a medium level;the ability to understand details of narrative articles is good,the ability to generalize the main idea is moderate,and the ability to reason and judge is poor;the ability to understand details and the ability to reason and judge of argumentation are at medium level,and the ability to generalize main idea is poor.This research examines the current status of high school students’ English reading level using questionnaires,interview outlines,and English reading tests.It is hoped that by analyzing the data and discussing the findings,more teachers will be inspired to seek a new approach to English reading assessment.