A Study Of Reading Strategies For Higher Vocational-technical College Students

English Reading strategy is considered to be one of the main determinates in developing English reading ability. It has significant influence on the whole process and the outcome of English reading. Many researchers have discussed its influence on the results of English reading and have proved that it is one of the main variables restricting students'reading achievements. On the basis of the previous researches, this thesis probes into the characteristics of HVTC students'use of English reading strategies and explores some probable factors affecting their strategy choices. In particular, the following questions are discussed:1) What is the overall tendency of HVTC students'reading strategy use?2) What is the relationship between HVTC students'reading strategy use and their reading proficiency levels? Do good and poor readers use different reading strategies?3) Do gender, English proficiency and English reading motivation influence HVTC students'use of English reading strategies? This empirical study is carried out by means of questionnaires. The English reading strategy questionnaire is used to evaluate HVTC students'English reading strategy use, while the English reading motivation questionnaire is used to assess subjects'English reading motivation. The two questionnaires are together administrated to 256 sophomores from three different HVTCs in Xi'an and 206 valid ones are finally collected. The data obtained are analyzed with T-test, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, covariance analysis and regression analysis by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 13.0). The following are the major findings of the present study:1) In terms of frequency of reading strategy use, social-affective reading strategies are reported as the most frequently used, followed by metacognitive reading strategies and cognitive reading strategies.2) As for the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency, this study indicates that two of the three types of reading strategies (i.e. metacognitive and social-affective reading strategies) are significantly correlated with reading achievements. Good English readers use metacognitive and social-affective reading strategies significantly more often than poor readers do. But no significant difference can be seen in cognitive reading strategy use. 3) Of the three individual factors being studied, only English reading motivation and gender enter the regression model, respectively accounting for 47.3% and 1.7% of the variance in English reading strategy use. English proficiency is excluded from the regression model. In other words, it is found that English proficiency is not significantly related to English reading strategy use. Further studies also show that male subjects use English reading strategies more frequently than female subjects do, that the intrinsic reading motivation is the most powerful predictor for the use of the three categories of reading strategies, and that the higher the readers'reading motivation is, the more the reading strategies they use.Finally, based on these findings, the author puts forward some ways of furthering the teaching of English reading strategies in HVTCs.