English Press Aided Reading: A New Model For English Teaching In Senior Middle School

Reading, as a main route to obtain information in EFL context, is the most important of the four language skills in teaching English. At present, in the classroom of senior middle school the reading lesson is used as an opportunity to teach pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and oral expression. Students'reading occupies no more than 15 percent of the time used in class. Students'reading skills and reading speed are limited by the deficiency of such single course structure. The current round of reforms concerning English curriculum aims to change the following practices: 1. Over-emphasizing the transmission and explanation of knowledge about grammar and vocabulary. 2. Neglecting to develop students'ability to use language in an authentic situation. Hence great attention has been paid to the study of how to teach reading efficiently.According to New English Curriculum for Chinese Senior Middle School, we should develop and make full use of rich teaching resources, which should be authentic, close to the students'lives, and full of the spirits of our times. Students should be involved in an experiential, practical, participatory and a cooperative learning to develop their comprehensive language competence. 21st Century Teens was assigned by China National Institute for Educational Research (CNIER), a state level institute of educational sciences responsible to the Ministry of Education, to conduct a research on using English press as a supplement to English teaching in 2002. In order to better use 21st Century Teens to expand curriculum resources, several methods of press-aided English teaching have been put forward and it's proved that students of experimental schools have made much progress in English learning.Therefore, based on the achievements made by other experimental schools, and the present situations in Hechi, from September, 2004 to July, 2005, the author carried out an experiment in a senior middle school in Hechi. 120 students were chosen, who were divided into two groups, 60 of whom were treated as subjects arranged to utilize 21st Century Teens to supplement their reading, while the others as control group following the traditional teaching. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results drew out the conclusion that 21st Century Teens can provide Chinese teachers and students of English with up-to-date information, enrich their curriculum resources and assist English teaching in senior middle school. As a consequence, the English level of the learners has been improved.This thesis consists of five parts:The first part is an introduction. It mainly focuses on the present situation of reading teaching in local senior middle school and the significance of this study.In the second part the relevant research, the concept, the goals and the models of reading are discussed. Some reading models, such as"bottom-up"model,"Top-down"model,"interactive reading"model are evaluated.The third part focuses on the methods of English press-aided reading teaching in China.The fourth part introduces the process of our experiment on press-aided teaching, and discusses the finding of both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the related data.The fifth part draws a conclusion of this experiment and points out the implications.