Study On Application Of Genre-based Teaching Approach In College English Reading Instruction

In the study of foreign language,people have reached an agreement on the issue that reading skills play a crucial role in improving comprehensive language skills.It is the common goal and top priority for college English teachers to improve the current college reading instruction and college students' reading ability.In the long-term college English reading, teachers are always following the traditional pattern in which the macrostructure of the text and students' communicative ability are often overlooked.Therefore,many college students' reading ability is not satisfactory.In the long course of English study,the teacher-centered and examination-oriented English teaching pattern has become a shackle which prevents students from developing their reading ability.Genre-based teaching approach has provided a new attempt for English reading instruction from a new perspective,which applies the theory of genre and genre analysis to teaching activities revolving around schematic structure of the text.This approach aims to improve students' reading ability as well as communicative competence by providing them with a repertoire of genre knowledge and helping them cultivate the awareness of generic conventions under certain social and cultural contexts.By understanding different generic structures, cognitive models,communicative purposes and language features,the students' genre awareness can be cultivated.Therefore,applied in English instruction,the approach will improve the students' reading ability and communicative competence.To enhance the present college English reading instruction,this thesis intends to apply genre-based approach into college English reading instruction and prove its validity and feasibility by means of qualitative and quantitative methods.To achieve the purpose,the author first elaborated the theoretical basis and the present research achievements of genre-based teaching approach.Secondly different models of reading instruction are introduced,such as bottom-up models,top-down model,interactive model and schema theory.Then different ways of analysis for text are discussed,which are register analysis, grammatical-rhetorical analysis and interactional analysis.At last the author indicates that genre analysis is a better way to analyze a text theoretically compared with other ways. The author puts forward three hypotheses to be tested.1.Genre-based teaching approach will obviously improve students' reading ability.2.Genre-based teaching approach will enhance students' communicative ability.3.Genre-based teaching approach will result in significant improvement in students' learning autonomy.To fulfill the study aims,the author conducted an experiment study to determine to what extent the genre-based teaching approach will improve the students' reading ability when applied in EFL reading instruction of non-English majors.Experiments were carried out among 91 second-year students in Binzhou Medical College for one term.Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in the experiment,including two reading comprehension tests,individual interviews,two questionnaires and classroom observation.Both experimental class and control class took the two tests,but only experimental class was given individual interviews, questionnaires and classroom observation.Two of the hypotheses were confirmed from the data analysis.The students in the experimental class developed a relatively better understanding on how to construct a text.They had gained better control of the schematic structures of the discourse.The study also indicates that students in both classes did better in understanding direct information,which was the result of their good mastery of bottom-up approach in reading.Compared with the control class, students in the experimental class got a better result on indirect questions in posttest,which indicates that students in the experimental class had higher ability to infer opinions and attitude. Such ability is largely based on the recognition of linguistic style and its use to achieve appropriate purpose.The students who were exposed to genre-based teaching approach had the ability to aware the cognitive structure and the genre characteristics of the text they read.Thus, the study indicated that genre-based teaching approach obviously improves students' reading ability.Teachers should guide students to relate reading process to genre analysis and try to apply them in the process of comprehension.Meanwhile students' chances of talk were increased.As the experiment processed,the class-communicating climate improved.The students were getting familiar with the procedures. Most of them cooperated well with other group members.They discussed,suggested,negotiated, elaborated and so on,which in turn,resulted in increased language proficiency.Thus it indicated that genre-based teaching approach enhanced students' communicative goals. Students' autonomous study ability was improved greatly.They began to analyze a text by themselves and consulted some useful materials by many channels when they met with a new genre,which was beneficial to their future study and work.Hereby conclusion can be drawn that the positive effect of genre-based approach on the experimental group was obvious.Students' reading ability,especially their comprehension level had been distinctly improved.The study holds considerable pedagogical implications,which include cultivating students' genre awareness and developing their reading strategies.Then suggestions for the teachers are made.Teachers play a very important role in the genre-based teaching approach and it demands the English teachers' higher qualification.Although genre-based teaching approach in reading instruction is still at a relatively early stage of development in China and has met with a lot of problems,more and more English teachers have begun to realize its importance.More and more researchers and teachers have become interested in them and tried to apply them to the practice of foreign language teaching. Meanwhile,more and more studies on genre-based teaching approach have been conducted in recent years.Due to the limitations of the present researcher's academic knowledge and limited conditions,the present study was merely a tentative one,leaving too much room to improve.The author hopes that the study results and analyses would be helpful for EFL reading instruction and serve as a small step toward further study in this field.