A Comparative Study Of The Use Of Reading Strategy Between Good And Poor Readers Of English In Senior High School In Bayannaoer City

Reading is the most important purpose and also the most important means of language learning. The development of the reading ability is one of the most important goals of learning and teaching in senior high school. After three years of learning, many students don't get a high level in reading ability, even far behind other students. This problem has attracted many language researchers and language teachers'attention. Reading strategies have been found to be prominent among various factors affecting foreign language reading by researches.The present study intends to investigate the reading strategies employed by senior high school students in Bayannaoer City. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of English reading strategies used by senior high school students, to detect the differences in the use of reading strategy between good readers and poor readers , and to examine the correlation between their reading strategy employment and reading proficiency, in the hope of exploring the correlation of reading strategies to reading proficiency and helping the senior high teachers to know the characteristics of the use of reading strategies of senior high students and help them to instruct the students correctly. The writer attempts to answer the following research questions:(1)What is the overall pattern of English reading strategies employed by the senior high school students in Bayannaoer City?(2) Do good/poor readers differ in the types of L2 reading strategies used?(3) Do good/poor readers differ in the quantity of L2 reading strategies used?(4) Do good/poor readers differ in the quality of L2 reading strategies used?The learners'reading strategies were explored through a survey and an interview: a questionnaire to survey the types and the frequency of reading strategies used by the subjects; and an interview to investigate the subjects'differences in the quality of using metacognitive and affective strategies. The study reveals that:(1) For senior high school students in Bayannaoer City , the most-often used reading strategies are affective strategies and the least-often used reading strategies are metacognitive strategies;(2) The two learner groups, good readers and poor readers, are almost the same in their use of metacogntive strategies; but different in their use of cognitive, affective and social strategies;(3) And on the other hand, the two learner groups differ in the quantity and quality of reading strategy use. Namely, compared with the poor readers, the good readers are able to(a)employ more reading strategies;(b)choose strategies more appropriately;(c)comprehend more effectively, given that they have chosen the same type of reading strategy;(d)choose reading strategies more flexibly, which means that good readers adapt themselves, to a greater extent, to the various task demands by using different reading strategies whereas the poor readers tend to employ fixed strategies, disregarding task variations.At last, the thesis puts forward some suggestions for English teachers: (1) a need for recognizing students'strategy use; (2) raising students'awareness of reading strategy use; (3) strategy instruction should be integrated into teaching activities; (4) the poor readers should be motivated to use these reading strategies specially.This paper consists of six chapters. Chapter One is the introduction of the paper. Chapter Two provides a brief literature review of language learning strategy and reading strategy. And Chapter Three describes the research design encompassing research questions, subjects, instruments and research procedures. Chapter Four explicitly specifies the results and analysis of the research. Chapter Five specifies the results and analysis of the interview. Chapter Six provides summary, limitations of the research and implications.