A Study On The Improvement Of Reading Comprehension Of Senior High School Students Based On The Discourse Analysis Theory

The main research of discourse analysis theory lies in the research of the discourse and context,the semantic consistency and the relationship between discourse analysis and language structure,which especially emphases the researches on the whole discourse context,the real language environment as well as the appropriate cohesive devices,etc.Based on the discourse analysis theory,English reading teaching can contact students with the real discourse context and improve their reading comprehension capability by analyzing the discourse cohesive devices and discourse structure.It is regrettable that the research and application of discourse analysis theory are mainly concentrated in universities,which means the research of discourse analysis theory in senior high school English reading teaching remains to be enhanced.This research deeply analyzes the relevant domestic and international theories on discourse and discourse analysis,and focuses on the theoretical basis and framework of the research on discourse analysis based English reading teaching in senior high school,including the definition of discourse and discourse analysis,classifications of discourse Analysis,discourse schema theory,cohesion and coherence theory,discourse context theory,textual pattern theory and previous studies on the application of discourse analysis to reading teaching.Based on these theories,this research,which focuses on describing the methods and effects of combining discourse analysis theory with English reading teaching in senior high schools,answers the following two questions:(1)What is the actual situation and the main reasons of senior high school students in English reading practice at this stage?(2)Compared with traditional English reading teaching method,what the effect of the discourse analysis based English reading teaching method on the comprehension ability of senior high students? And in which aspects?In order to explore the way of combining discourse analysis theory with high school English reading teaching and its actual teaching effect,this study took 96 students of the equivalent English reading level as the research objects,who come from two classes in the second grade of an ordinary senior high school in Leshan for the three-month empirical research.On condition that other experimental variables were all consistent,one of the classes was regarded as the experimental class to implement discourse analysis based English reading teaching mode,while the other class was used as the control class and was taught by conventional teaching methods.In order to ensure the validity of the experiment,this study mainly used three tools:two questionnaires,a pre-experiment reading test and a post-experiment reading test.For the sake of learning the changes in the reading habits and discourse awareness of the experimental class students,a questionnaire survey was conducted on the experimental class before and after the experiment.In addition,this study also carried out two English reading tests before and after the experiment in both experimental class and control class and compared the scores of the two classes,of which the aim is to confirm that the discourse analysis based reading teaching and the ordinary traditional reading teaching have different effects on the improvement of students’ reading ability.This paper collects data from the two pre-test,post-test and experimental class questionnaires,and then analyzes all the data by the means of SPSS.The experiment results show as follows:(1)The senior high students face the problems of the huge amount of new words in text and the lack in awareness and capacity of analyzing the whole discourse,which roots in their absence in the theoretic knowledge of discourse analysis and the relevant English reading practice or training;(2)Applying discourse analysis theories to high school English reading teaching practice can effectively help students to improve their English reading capability and language using ability,which can also cultivate students’ discourse awareness and good reading habits.This thesis provides a feasible and effective way for the future English reading teaching in senior high school-combining the theory of discourse analysis with the teaching practice of English reading in senior high school can have a positive effect on the reading comprehension ability,reading habits,English language competence,interest and confidence in language learning of the senior high school students.