A Research On Strategy-based Instruction In College English Reading Class

As a major method of language input, reading plays an important part in second language acquisition, and a great number of researches have been done on reading strategies in second language acquisition since the 1970s. Based on the previous studies, this thesis has been written in an attempt to prove the necessity and feasibility of reading strategy training on empirical ground. Through the training to the English majors in a normal university, the weak points of the process have been found and some meaningful suggestions are provided in this thesis.This research on reading strategy training was carried out in an academic year among 330 first-year English education majors in eleven intact classes of 30 each in Zhangzhou Normal University. Six classes were designed as the experiment group and the other five as the control group. The experiment group adopted the Strategies-Based Instruction (SBI) reading teaching model, while the control group still took the traditional teaching model. To make sure that there was no significant difference between the two groups, the pre-test and pre-training questionnaire were used for investigation before the training. And according to the feedback and analysis of the questionnaire, the teacher designed and implemented her training project. The reading strategies trained were language learning management, word use strategies, text understanding, reading speed, inference, patterns of organization and critical reading. To test the effectiveness of this training project, the post test and post-training interview were carried out at the end of the training project.The project studied the effect of training on the students'reading comprehension by means of analyzing the results of the test, questionnaire and interview, employing both quantitative and qualitative approach.The pre-test and post test data were collected and independent T-test was run to measure and analyze the effectiveness of the reading strategy training. The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:1. Before the systematic training on reading strategies, first-year English majors had paid little attention to reading strategies and had developed some bad reading habits.2. Most of the students welcome and accept SBI teaching model in the training.3. Students'reading comprehension can be developed by means of SBI and the overall excellence of the reading strategies use has been largely proved.4. SBI teaching model promotes the awareness of reading strategies, and it works efficiently in developing the reading strategies concerning inference, patterns of organization and critical thinking.