A Social Constructivist Model Of Meaning Construction In ESL Reading

College students have already mastered much linguistic knowledge of English when they enter college, but that does not necessarily mean that they could use the language fluently and successfully in communication, including reading in English. English reading is especially a weak point to many students in fact. In this case, they do need opportunities in class to practice reading under teacher's guidance. Then, what and how the teacher should guide students to read in class is considered. Recently, in China, the theory of social constructivism prevails in research on reading. However, there are few researches on how to apply these achievements into teaching practice. The aim of this thesis is to inspect, through an experiment, whether the social constructivist model of meaning construction is suitable for the college English reading teaching to non-English majors, and how to help them shake off the fetters of traditional way of reading practice. In order to test the feasibility of such reading teaching, two classes are employed to receive different instructions. Experimental class is given courses focusing on the meaning construction of a reading passage based on the social constructivist model. While, at the same time, Control class is still taught according to the traditional way of reading teaching from the course book. After a four-month training, it turns out that all those studies and experiments indicate the necessity, feasibility and practicality of the instruction on reading practice based on the social constructivist model. This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces current situations of reading in College, an analysis of reading problems and research questions. Chapter Two offers the theoretical foundations for the social constructivist model of meaning construction, and its implications in classroom teaching. Chapter Three deals with the experiment of how to apply the social constructivist model of meaning construction in ESL reading in Experimental class while Control class with the traditional way of reading teaching and the effectiveness of adopting the SCM from data analysis. Chapter Four introduces the implications of the SCM in reading classroom teaching. Chapter Five summarizes the major findings of the research, limitations of the present research and suggestions for the further research.