Application Of Whole Book Reading To English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

With the gradual advancement of the English curriculum reform in compulsory education,the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)proposes that Grade 8 students accumulate more than 100,000 words in English extracurricular reading.The reading texts in junior high school English textbooks are relatively short and fragmented.The fragmented reading materials do not provide a complete description of the development of the storyline and the characteristics of the characters,which leads to relatively scattered and fragmented language knowledge input from students.In contrast,extracurricular reading materials are rich in the genre,complete in the plot,and vivid in character,so they can be used to supplement the in-class reading materials to strengthen students’ understanding and mastery of the in-class reading content,optimize the problem of fragmentation of students’ language knowledge points and promote the holistic of language knowledge.For this reason,English whole-book reading teaching in junior high school has emerged and been widely promoted.Whole book reading teaching can create a good reading environment for the class to read together and improve the quantity and quality of students’ English reading,helping improve students’ English reading motivation and comprehension.It also improves the problem of students’ fragmented reading.Therefore,front-line teachers gradually accept and recognize it,and its effectiveness is being explored.To investigate the effectiveness of English whole-book reading teaching in promoting students’ reading comprehension proficiency and motivation,the author took the language input hypothesis theory and constructivist theory as the theoretical basis and focused on the following two questions by combining quantitative and qualitative research.1.What are the effects of whole-book reading teaching on junior high school students’ English reading comprehension proficiency?2.What are the effects of whole-book reading teaching on junior high school students’ English reading motivation?In this research,students in Grade 8,Class(a)of H junior high school conducted a thirteen-week whole-book reading teaching practice.Before the practice,the author used a reading motivation questionnaire to investigate the participants’ reading motivation and used a reconstructed reading comprehension pre-test paper to measure the participants’ reading comprehension proficiency.The participants voted for the teaching practice reading materials: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe.After the practice,the reading motivation questionnaire and the reading comprehension post-test paper were used to investigate the participants’ motivation and reading comprehension changes.And research participants were classified into three reading levels: high,middle,and low,according to the post-test reading comprehension test scores.Two respondents were randomly selected from each of the three different levels for an interview at the end of the practice to understand further students’ feedback about English reading motivation.The results showed that:(1)The participants’ English reading comprehension proficiency improved significantly after English whole book reading teaching,reflected in the improvement of the four aspects: guessing the meaning,details extraction,inference and judgment,and the generalization of the main idea.(2)The participants’ English reading motivation improved significantly after English whole book reading teaching,reflected in the four dimensions: self-efficacy,intrinsic motivation,extrinsic motivation,and social interaction motivation.It can be concluded that whole-book reading teaching can stimulate the students’ English reading motivation and reading comprehension proficiency.Teachers can provide appropriate scaffolding in whole book reading teaching,increase textual self-evaluation in the stage of students’ self-evaluation,implement the guidance of reading methods,and adjust the innovation lesson into two consecutive classes.