The Application Of Inquiry Learning In Teaching Senior English Reading

The main target of the new curriculum reform is to change students' learning style.The new curriculum reform lays emphasis on the following;to engender a transformation in teaching strategies that rely too much on receptive learning, memorizing and mechanical drilling;to develop effective methods to direct students to be ready and active participants in inquiry and practice during the learning process,and finally,to equip students with abilities of data collecting and information processing,of analyzing and solving problems while gaining new knowledge,and of communicating and cooperating with fellow students.Inquiry learning,which is regarded as an important way to develop students' enterprising spirit and practical ability,having gotten concem of the education circle,becomes central to the new curriculum reform.More and more educators,teachers especially, have been most attentive to the latest developments in researches on inquiry learning,but how to improve senior students' English learning by applying inquiry learning effectively is an area yet to be explored.The aim of the present thesis is to study and apply inquiry learning to teaching English reading in senior schools and verify its effectiveness and feasibility.The experiment was carried out among 109 students in senior three from an ordinary middle school.During the period of experiment,fifty-five students in the experimental class were involved in inquiry reading in English reading teaching,while traditional reading teaching method was employed among fifty-four students in the control class.Two instruments were used in the research; the pre-test,post-test and questionnaires.The findings are as follows;(1)The reading abilities of the experimental class have evidently improved after the experiment.(2)Inquiry learning has been contributive to the improvement of the senior students' writing ability,even their overall English proficiency.(3)Inquiry reading has a more positive effect on the senior students in molding excellent personalities. It is expected that this investigative study could hopefully contribute to the theory and practice of English learners and educators,in particular to the improvement of senior English teaching and learning and to the on-going new curriculum reform.