An Application Of English Newspaper Reading In Middle School English Teaching

It is well known that reading is one of the basic skills of learning English and plays a very important role in language learning. It has always had a prominent position in the interests of both reading researchers and teachers. For students in middle schools in China, reading is the key to learning and personal enjoyment. The role of reading comprehension tends to increase these years in Senior School Entrance Examination. Though efforts have been made to exploration in this field, the performance and proficiency of reading in middle schools remain unsatisfactory. The main reason lies in the fact that students lack reading skills and strategies and don't have sufficient reading practice, for there is no extensive reading course in most of the schools. Both teachers'instruction and students'learning methods contribute to this inefficiency.Based on recent theories and research on reading, especially the interactive reading model, the writer of present paper expects to improve middle school students'reading ability through English newspaper reading situation and existing problems of teaching in middle schools, and investigates approaches to solve the problems. The questions addressed in the current study include:1. What's students'current reading situation?2. Can English newspaper reading instruction promote students'reading skills and strategies?3. Can English newspaper reading improve students'reading ability as well as overall English proficiency?The study is aimed at testing if English reading ability of middle school students can be improved through English newspaper reading. The experiment is carried out in the author's two English classes, each including 30 students. It lasts for about six months, from August 2008 to March 2009. Before the experiment, the final exam of the last semester has finished for two months. The result of it shows that these two classes are almost at the same level, so one of the classes is appointed as the experimental group, and the other as the control group. The experimental group has got 9 boys and 21 girls, and the control group includes 10 boys and 20 girls. The average age of the experimental group is 14.5, while the average age of the control group is 14.6. The two groups both have seven classes each week; The textbook, Go for it! (Students'book), is used for both groups. The difference is that only the experimental group is given the instructions of reading English newspapers, such as 21st Century Teens Junior Edition in class. During the experiment, two exams were carried out, one was the mid-term exam in November, 2008 and the other was the monthly-test in February, 2009. From the results of the exams, we can find a big difference between these two groups. The report of the experimental group is much better than that of the control group. Besides, the students in the experimental group have greatly improved the accuracy of doing cloze-test and reading comprehension. During the research, questionnaires and tests were carried out, data were gathered and analyzed. The analysis of statistics reveals the following findings:1. English newspapers are excellent teaching and learning resources.2. The research draws a conclusion that newspaper reading instruction does enhance students'overall reading proficiency.3. The results of the research clearly indicate that reading strategy training through newspaper instruction has a strongly positive effect on students'reading strategies.4. Reading comprehension will be improved when teachers provide explicit instructions in the use of reading strategies.5. The result shows that newspaper reading teaching, if not treated as a separate course, can increase classroom teaching output and better classroom teaching methods.Although some limitations still exist in the current study, it has yielded some useful findings which are believed to have implications for reading learning and teaching. Finally, a few suggestions are offered for reading didactics in middle schools.1. Research on classroom teaching patterns and activities for English newspaper reading can make newspaper teaching much easier and more effective.2. Task-based classroom teaching and team work should be advocated.3. Strategy training actually works and produces more effective readers. The key points of teaching reading should be put on meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies. Especially cognitive should be taught directly among young readers.4. The interactive approach should be employed.