A Study On The Discourse-Based Approach To English Majors Reading Teaching

This thesis focuses on the application of discourse analysis after the reconsideration of reading process from the perspective of cognitive psychology, and aims at introducing the discourse-based approach-teaching English majors reading with discourse analysis. As far as English teaching is concerned, reading is a decisive part, and how to enhance teaching efficiency of reading has been sparked so much public debates than any other teaching topic. Nevertheless, Chinese's college students' reading ability is not satisfactory. Obviously, it is necessary for the English majors, who have a good command of English than average non-English majors, to foster high reading ability and comprehend the high-level meaning of the text.It involves two theories in this thesis: cognitive psychology and discourse analysis. Success in an EFL reading course requires both teachers and students to have a clear idea about the nature of reading. The research findings of cognitive psychology can help to achieve a higher level of comprehension of reading activities and then to get a significant efficiency in the teaching of reading. In this thesis, the nature of reading will be expounded from cognitive psychology. As we all know, cognitive psychology advocates researches in the structure and the process of psychological activities emphasizes the interaction between individual and his/her environments. It believes that the process of efficient reading involves the interaction between writers and readers and this interaction is made possible through the discourse. Therefore, to study discourse analysis is of particular importance in promoting EFL learners' reading ability and efficiency. Thus, there is a need to establish discourse analysis in reading instruction. Discourse analysis drawn great attention among linguistics. As language exists in discourse rather than in sentence, discourse should be our goal when study the nature of language. Apart from its great theoretical value in linguistic study, discourse analysis highly valued in the teaching of English. Some researches have proved that the knowledge of discourse analysis highly related to their proficiency in English by Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (Yang Li, 1996). But do the teachers and students realize the importance of the discourse analysis, does it applies in...