A Research On The Application Of Project-based Learning To English Reading In Junior High School

The English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education 2022 emphasizes that English,as the most widely used language in the world,plays an important role in international exchanges and cooperation.Meanwhile,reading is an important skill for students to acquire information and broaden their horizons.Therefore,it is necessary to find a new teaching method that can improve students’ reading skills and stimulate students’ interest in reading.However,many teachers who actually utilize translation to explain English texts in English reading class and spend an excessive amount of time on grammar explanations.The majority of students exhibit little interest in English reading,and their reading test results are not ideal.The importance of respecting students’ prominent role in the learning process is emphasized by the project-based learning.During a set timeframe,students collaborate in groups to accomplish projects and then present project achievement to teachers and other students.Up to now,the development of project-based learning has been relatively mature,and both domestic and international researchers have found it to have positive effects on the teaching of English.However,the majority of researchers choose to use the project-based learning in senior high school or college instruction to examine the impact of the method on teaching English reading,while very few researchers look at the impact of the method on teaching English reading in junior middle school,which is a key factor of the author’s decision to conduct this experiment.This thesis tries to investigate the effects of project-based learning on junior high school English reading teaching with the support of constructivism theory,cooperative learning theory and Dewey’s "learning by doing" theory,and intents to address three issues: 1.What is the main present situation of English reading teaching in the second middle school of Shandan County,Zhangye City,Gansu Province?2.What is the effect of project-based learning on junior middle school students’ English reading scores? 3.What is the influence of project-based learning on junior middle school students’ English reading attitude? This study lasted for four months,and the participants of the experiment from two classes of Grade nine in Shandan County No.2 Middle School.In the experimental class(50 students),project-based learning is adopted in reading class,there are two reading classes(90 minutes in total)per week,while in the control class(50 students),teacher pay more attention to grammar and spend too much time to translation English text when teaching reading class,and the teaching time and progress are consistent with that of the experimental class.The research tools of this study are test,interview and questionnaire,and the collected data is analyzed by SPSS 25.0.Through research found that,English teachers at Shandan County No.2 Middle School spend an excessive amount of time translating texts when instructing students in English reading.The students’ interest in learning is not high,and the teaching effect is not ideal.Adopting project-based learning in junior middle school English reading class has positive influence on improving students’ English reading achievement and changing students’ attitude towards English reading.Therefore,this study has a positive impact on junior high school English reading teaching.