An Investigation Of Main Factors Influencing English Reading Comprehension Of Non-English Majors

From the teaching aims which College English Curriculum Requirements (1999) proposed, we can see that English reading plays an important role in English teaching. However, at present, many Chinese undergraduates have difficulties in English reading comprehension to varying degrees. So, the investigation and analysis on factors influencing students'English reading comprehension and countermeasures is the need to improve the efficiency of undergraduates'learning.This research, on the basis of analyzing previous information, was conducted mainly by questionnaire and supplemented by interviews. It was to investigate 160 non-English majors in Grade 2008 from Guangxi Normal University (GXNU). The questionnaire was formulated with the help of many other's investigations of factors influencing reading, such as Li Shaoshan's investigation of major factors affecting the reading process of Chinese learners of English (1998), XuYulong's investigation of school factors and students'factors (1998&1997) influencing reading, and Oxford, O'Malley and Chamot's Language Learning Strategies (1990). The dimension of the questionnaire consists of learners'language ability, learners'attitude towards learning, learners'cultural background knowledge, learners'reading motivation, learners'ability of monitoring the use of reading strategies and learners' ability of further thinking. This paper intends to answer below questions in a systematic way:1. What is the overall picture of main factors influencing English reading comprehension of non-English majors?2. Are there any differences between male and female students of non-English major concerning the factors influencing English reading comprehension? What are they?After analyzing the collected data by SPSS 11.5, the results of the research are as follows:1. Generally, the main factors including learners'language ability, learners'attitude towards learning, learners'cultural background, learners'reading motivation, learners'ability of monitoring the use of reading strategies and learners'ability of further thinking can influence learners'English reading comprehension to some extent. 2. There are some differences between female students and male students concerning the factors influencing English reading comprehension, but they are not significant. The influence of motivation on female students is more obvious than on males and the influence of further and abstract thinking on male students is more obvious than on females.This paper puts forward some suggestions on college English teaching for non-English majors:1. Teachers should cultivate students'interest in English reading.2. Teachers should train students to use appropriate English reading strategies in reading.3. Teachers should input culture knowledge in teaching.4. In English reading class, teachers should pay close attention to students'affective needs.5. Teacher should foster learners'English reading ability according to gender differences.In the meantime, some suggestions for the non-English majors are as follows:1. Student can develop their language ability.2. Student can stimulate their intrinsic motivation in English reading class.3. Student can change their roles to be more active in English reading class.