A Research On Obstacles And Solutions In Fast Reading Among Senior One Students

Improving students' reading abilities is one of the objectives of senior English teaching. The importance of reading is embodied in the national college entrance examination in recent years too. Since 1978, the proportion of reading comprehension in English test in the college entrance examination papers is increasing year by year. The number of reading passages rose from three in 1986 to five in 2006. Moreover, reading comprehensions account for 60% in recent years' college entrance examination which further requests us to pay more attention to the development of students' reading comprehension ability. And as we all know, the goal of teaching reading is to improve both the reading speed and the comprehension. But the fact is that many senior students' reading abilities are far below where they should be,and discrepancy turns to be greater. This has drawn close attention of many linguists and researchers working in this field.Based on a questionnaire investigation, theory study, test and interview, this paper has made a brief study on obstacles and solutions in fast reading among Senior One students. It focuses largely on fast reading skills. The present study intends to investigate fast reading skills employed by Senior One students who learn English as a second language. The author attempts to find out the obstacles and solutions in fast reading among Senior One students after they have finished their fast reading skills training. In the research, 146 students were chosen as the subjects, who are from two intact classes (Class 9 and 10) in Grade One, No.1 Senior High School in Wu Chuan, Huhhot. The study used a questionnaire and a reading proficiency pre-test and post- test were given to the students to collect relevant data. It is found that a majority of senior students fail to use fast reading skills in reading activities. Over half a year's (or one semester's) experiment,it has been found that the experimental group has made considerable progress in fast reading. Views are also held that lack of fast reading skills is one of the main factors that affect the improvement of reading ability. The results of the experiment support the hypothesis that fast reading skills training are practical and valid.