Fostering Students' Reflection Through Reading In Senior Middle School

Reflection is seen as an essential part of the learning process (Dewey, 1933; Hatton &Smith, 1995). Completing tasks and solving problems are necessary but not enough for learning. Students must be encouraged to reflect. The New English Curriculum Standard for the Basic Education Stage issued by the Ministry of Education in 2003 deems it as one of the overriding tasks for the study of English to cultivate good learning habits and develop efficient learning strategies on the part of the language learner. To reach this aim, one of the most efficient ways is to foster students'reflection. The improvement of reflection can develop students'learning strategy. Therefore, fostering students'reflection ought to be highlighted,and students must be encouraged to form a habit of reflecting.Reading is the most important part in both English teaching and learning of senior middle school nowadays. Researches on reading strategies training have become one of the hot topics in ESL teaching and learning recently. It is also indicated that reflection awareness is a necessary step to regulate reading process. Teachers should be aware that reflection processing can greatly influence reading comprehension, and students should be encouraged to monitor their reflection in reading and focus on effective processing strategies.So the author tries to foster students'reflection through reading in senior middle school so that students'reading comprehension can be improved, students'autonomy and even long life learning can be promoted.The whole thesis consists of five parts.The first chapter is introduction. It states that it is very important to improve students'reflection which can boost their English reading. The reason caused"high input, low output"in reading in senior middle school rests with the shortage of reflection fostering. Based on it, the author suggests that students'reflection be fostered through reading.The second chapter reviews reflection theories, Schema Reading Theory and three kinds of reading models.The third chapter is research design. Based on reflection theories, Schema Reading Theory and three kinds of reading models, the subjects, the materials, the instruments and the procedures of the experiment are presented and the lesson plan based on O'Malley and Chamot's CALLA model are shown in this chapter.The fourth chapter is the findings and analysis. The answers to the questions of the reflection sheet, the data of the posttest and the second survey of the questionnaire, the reading portfolios and journals are collected and analyzed by the author.The fifth chapter is conclusion. The conclusion and limitations of the research are stated at the end of the thesis. Some questions and suggestions on future reflection researches are also raised.By writing this paper, the author attempts to know:(1) Whether there is a remarkable improvement in students'reading comprehension ability as well as their comprehensive level of English;(2) Whether students'reflection ability can be fostered through the strategies-content-combined reading instruction, questionnaire, reading portfolios and journals;(3) Whether reflection can promote students'autonomy and even students'long-life learning;The study indicates that the experimental class have made considerable progress in reading as well as integrative skills; students'reflection can be fostered through reading by means of reading instruction, questionnaire, reading portfolios and journals; Reflection can promote students'autonomy and even students'long-life learning;...