A Study On The Effect Of English After-class “Reading Circles” Activities On Senior High School Students’ Thinking Quality

In recent years,the English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(MOE,2018)in China pay more attention to the cultivation of students’ core competence in English,which is the necessary character and key capacity that students should develop through English learning.Among them,the cultivation of students’ thinking quality is particularly important.However,in the actual teaching practice,the teaching process of English reading is too simplified and stylized and it pays attention to the explanation of language points but ignores the deep understanding of the text,which is not satisfactory for the cultivation of students’ thinking quality.To fulfill the demands of the new curriculum standards as well as the needs of students learning English,based on a thorough analysis of domestic and foreign related research,the author proposes the research hypothesis that using English after-class“Reading Circles” activities can have a positive impact on students’ thinking quality,and conducts an empirical study in a high school in Xi’an.The experiment lasts for three months from October 2021 to December 2021.The students in the class are split into three groups based on their average reading comprehension scores in the last three English tests and their English teacher’s introduction: high level,middle level,and low level.And at each level,four students are chosen as the participants(12 students in total).This study mainly attempts to answer two questions: 1)Does English after-class“Reading Circles” activities contribute to the improvement of students’ thinking quality?2)What are the aspects of the effect of English after-class “Reading Circles” activities on the thinking quality of students at different levels? This thesis collects and analyzes data through the pre-test and post-test paper results,and think aloud experiment.The main findings are as follows: 1)English after-calss “ Reading Circles ”activities can help improve students’ thinking quality,and the effect is significant.2)The use of English after-calss “Reading Circles” activities can improve students’ ability to sort and generalize information.Students can analyze and infer text information and judge opinions of the author.Students have become more and more proficient in finding the required information within the target range.Students can summarize the main points and understand the hidden meaning of the article.Students can integrate the content of the material,analyze the author’s opinion and evaluate the persuasiveness of the author’s opinion.As a result,in senior high school English classes,teachers should encourage students to conduct English after-class “Reading Circles” activities in order to improve students’ thinking quality.During the study,due to the limited level of the author’s theory and practice,there are inevitably some limitations in this study,such as the limited number of samples and the lack of diversification of the test questions.The author suggests that in the future research,the samples selected in the experiment should be more extensive and representative,and the difficulty level of test questions should be more consistent.