Action Research On The Application Of "Reading Circle" Model To The English Extracurricular Reading In Rural Junior Middle School

In today’s new era of knowledge and information explosion,reading has become increasingly important.English reading is not only one of the significant ways of language acquisition,but also a key link of improving English listening,speaking and writing ability.The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)has also put forward higher requirements of the reading quantity for junior high school students.However,there are still many problems with English teaching in township junior high schools(rural junior high schools).A lack of effective reading strategies and guidance in the traditional teaching mode of English extracurricular reading has led to a serious lack of extracurricular reading among rural junior high school students,and discouraged students’ reading interest and self-confidence.The "reading circle" model is a way for students to learn to read in small groups with cooperative and independent manner.Many Researches have shown that this model can help students actively engage in reading activities,increase their interest in reading and improve their reading levels.Based on the constructivism learning theory and cooperative learning theory,this study applies the "reading circle" model to township junior middle school English extracurricular reading by adopting action research method,and verifies the effect of this model in improving English reading interest and critical thinking ability of township junior middle school students through experiments in teaching.The main research questions are as follows: 1.What is the current situation of rural junior high school students’ extracurricular English reading? 2.Does the application of the "reading circle" model in extracurricular English reading activities help cultivate students’ interest in English reading?3.Is the "reading circle" model conducive to the improvement of students’ reading level when applied to extra-curricular English reading activities? In order to answer the above research questions,two rounds of action research are conducted with a time span of 16 weeks.Students who are selected as subjects for the research are from Classes 6 and 7 of Grade 8 in a rural junior high school in Liaocheng City,Shandong Province.Data of the experiment were collected via a variety of research tools such as General Reading Proficiency Test(GPRT)papers,student reading status questionnaire and interview outlines,and SPSS 26.0 software was used for statistical analysis.Through the action research,the conclusions are as follows: 1.The current situation of rural junior high school students’ extracurricular English reading is not optimistic,there is still significant improving room of the development of reading habits and the cultivation of reading purposes.2.The application of the "reading circle" model in English extracurricular reading activities is conducive to cultivate students’ interest in English reading.3.After the "reading circle" model is applied to English extracurricular reading activities,students’ reading habits and overall improvement of reading proficiency have increased dramaticly.The results of the study show that it is feasible to apply the "reading circle" model to township junior high school English extra-curricular reading,which can bring inspiration to township secondary school English teachers for extra-curricular reading teaching and has certain reference value and practical significance.