A Study Of The Application Of Information Theory To Fast Reading Instruction

In the daily work and life, when we read long passages, we usually don't have enough time or energy to read them word by word. We just search for relevant information rather than read carefully trying to understand every detail. Therefore fast reading as one of the most important activities has gained more and more attentions of linguists and language teachers. In order to fit into the development of society, the skimming and scanning reading comprehension has been added to the reading comprehension part in College English Test --- Band Four (CET-4) since 2005. It is one passage including about 1200 words with ten questions, which is requested to finish within fifteen minutes. It is a big challenge for most college students who have been taught by the traditional teaching methods for a long time to correctly deal with a large amount of information at a very limited time.To solve this problem, the author, based on the knowledge of discourse analysis and through empirical study, discussed how English teachers should employ information theory to instruct the fast reading teaching and whether or not the application of information theory to fast reading comprehension can enhance students'reading performance better than the traditional teaching methods.Firstly the author divided two natural classes consisting of 99 sophomores majoring in Physics from Shanxi Datong University into the experimental class and the control class. Prior to the experiment, all the subjects took a fast reading comprehension test. Reading material was CET-4 fast reading comprehension questions in December 2007. The pre-experimental test's mean scores of the two classes were 3.84 and 3.72 respectively, which ensured two classes were at the similar original reading competence. Then based on information theory, five fast reading passages from CET-4 of December 2007, June 2008 ,December 2008 ,June 2009 and December 2009 were analyzed as samples in order to explore some regularities of the signal devices of given information, new information and information focus and information distribution in the whole fast reading passages. This sample analysis was vital to the application of information theory to the teaching of fast reading. After analyzing the pre-test marks and sample passages of CET-4, the author taught the experimental class and the control class separately for eighteen weeks. The two classes were alike in all respects except for differential exposure to treatment. The control class stuck to the traditional approaches and the experimental class was taught the knowledge of information theory in the reading instruction. In the experimental process, mid-experimental test and post-experimental test were conducted after 10 weeks and 18 weeks respectively.Data analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), 13.00 Version. The SPSS 13.0 was operated to conduct t-test. Comparisons between pre-experimental test and mid-experimental test, pre-experimental test and post-experimental test, mid-experimental test and post-experimental test for the control class and for the experimental class were made respectively to see the degree of improvement in the subjects'reading competence. Data analyses showed that the experimental class yielded satisfying results: the students'progress was significant and stable. In the control class, although the subjects'developmental process was stable, their progress was not significant. Comparison of each test between the experimental class and the control class was made to evaluate the difference between the two classes. We found that two classes almost had the similar English level before the teaching experiment was carried out but with the development of time and the different treatment in teaching methodology, the experimental class performed better and better than the control class.The experimental results showed that application of information theory to the fast reading comprehension of CET- 4 can accelerate the reading speed and improve the ability of reading comprehension. The reason is that the subjects with the knowledge of information theory know what kind of information can be safely ignored and what kind of information should be paid more attention to so that they can quickly make access to the information needed when skimming and scanning. On the contrary, the subjects who were taught by the traditional teaching method still read slowly word-by-word and try to identify those unknown words or complex sentences for a long time, or they will hurry into another extreme and ignore too much important information, which consequently results in the misunderstanding of the text.Based on the results of the research, the author concludes that the employment of information theory will be much more effective and advantageous than the traditional approach in that the new method will help the learner to interpret the text actively and reasonably, in this sense, the learner can comprehend the text by grasping the development of the writer's thread of information.At last, the author suggests that it is necessary to inculcate the students with the knowledge of information theory in reading instruction to help the college students to tackle fast reading comprehension questions.