An Investigation Of English Reading Strategies Used By Students In Senior High School

Foreign language teaching lays an emphasis on language input. However, English teaching in middle schools in China lacks natural environment for language acquisition. As language input through listening is not extensive, language input depends more on classroom teaching and students'wide and effective reading. The impact of traditional method of translation still exists. A serious problem of middle school English teaching is its low efficiency. Some statistical analysis of the NMET English test shows that the scores of Reading Comprehension are among the lowest. Problems may exist in the English reading of middle school students.Cognitive theory emphasizes conscious learning, viewing second language acquisition as a cognitive skill. Reading is also a complex cognitive process. Language comprehension is generally viewed in cognitive theory as consisting of active and complex processes in which individuals construct meaning from written information. The process of comprehension is differentiated into three interrelated processes: perceptual processing, parsing, and utilization."Bottom-up model","top-down model","interactive model","schema theory"and others explain thoroughly the process of reading and the many factors that have effects on reading comprehension. Foreign language (or second language) reading theories are greatly influenced by researches on native readers. However, on this thesis, researches on reading strategies should be done in the light of learning strategies. As for English learning in China, English reading is both a method of learning and the purpose, so English reading is closely related to English learning. But we can never draw an equal sign between reading and learning. Reading strategies have their own characteristics. With the review of literatures on learning strategies in second language acquisition, O'Malley & Chamot's (2001) system of learning strategy definitions and classifications stands out with a clear arrangement and a powerful framework for considering development issues in second language acquisition.The author of the thesis points out: reading strategies refer to the measures readers employ for effective reading comprehension, including reader's conscious control of the reading process, and a flexible use of a variety of reading skills and methods. The thesis holds that reading strategies include skills, with the former being actions that readers select and control, emphasizing readers' active participation.The classification of reading strategies is based on O'Malley & Chamot's (2001) strategy framework, with reference to other related researches and consideration of the reading practice of senior students. The thesis mentions 8 metacognitive strategies: arranging and planning, advance organization, directed attention, selective attention, self-management, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement , and 10 cognitive strategies: contextualization, resourcing, deduction, inferencing, elaboration, transfer, translating, note-taking, applying images and sound, summarizing.The carry-out of the investigation is based on the theories mentioned above. The investigation consists of two parts: a questionnaire and a reading comprehension test. The participants are students from two Senior high schools, two classes from a key school and two from a normal school. English learning in Senior High School is quite important in the process of language learning, so the investigation of reading strategies used by Senior High school students can provide some implications for language teaching in Senior High School. The investigation makes it clear that neither metacognitive nor cognitive strategies are frequently used by Senior High students while they are reading passages in English. Note-taking and summarizing are their least favorite. Students don't often evaluate their reading. And there is no consistent plan for after-class reading with reading materials limited among textbooks and passages in English test papers. They seldom read English newspapers, magazines or other English stories. The frequency and ability of using elaboration, contextualization and referencing are not satisfying, though they are the main parts of reading comprehension tests. The results of the reading test show that the students lack the abilities to answer the correspondent questions effectively in using these three strategies.At last, the author puts forward some suggestions for English teachers: (1) change teaching concept. Teachers should not just explain grammar and vocabulary which appears in the text, but also demonstrate to the students useful reading strategies; (2) foster students'ability of self-evaluating; (3) emphasize the reading process and design all kinds of reading activities; (4) provide students with guidance in their after-class English reading; (5) integrate reading strategy training into classroom teaching; (6) train students to infer the meanings of new words; (7) take seriously the analysis of the reading comprehension passages.