A Study Of Full-Analysis Strategy Of Reading Comprehension

The research literature on learning strategy instruction has focused on what strategies to teach and how to teach these strategies. This thesis enriches the repertoire of strategies for teaching by formulating the Multilevel-Analysis Strategy for Reading Comprehension (MSRC), and the design and practice of teaching MSRC is a contribution to the understanding of how to teach strategies.MSRC is based on the requirements that the High School Curriculum Standards for Chinese posed on students'reading ability as well as research findings of cognitive psychology about the mental processes of reading. MSRC is designed for secondary school students who already have some experiences and knowledge on reading. MSRC is a strategy that asks four main questions: What is expressed in the text? How is it expressed? Why is it expressed in this way? and What did you sense when you read it? And there are more detailed questions organized under each of these four questions. All these provide a framework, a hierarchical order and a fixed program for reading.The design of teaching MSRC is based on a review of modern cognitive psychology theories, learning theories, metacognitive theories and the SIM theory, while the characteristics of strategy use in secondary school Chinese and the three important factors that influences strategy choosing and using in Chinese learning are also taken into consideration. The objectives, assessment, content, principles and steps of instruction are clarified in this thesis. The instruction of MSRC has five sequential steps, namely consciousness-raising (showing the usefulness and effectiveness of the strategy), exemplifying (using examples to present the strategy in every detail), transferring (by discussion and generalization), reflecting and assessing (to review and extend the use of the strategy) and self-producing (internalizing and producing new strategies). My study also included actually teaching this strategy in a school that tested my design and practice and provided me with reflection of teaching MSRC. The meaning of my practice is not limited to MSRC itself. Rather, the study of teaching MSRC can be understood on a higher ground to be an inquiry into the more general issue of how to teach learning strategies.