A Study Of The Application Of Discourse Analysis To Senior 3 English Reading Teaching

Reading, an important means of gaining information and a most efficient channel of linguistic imput, is widely acknowledged to be crucial to the cultivation of learners' linguistic competence in the foreign language learning. Therefore, the teaching of reading occupies a significant place in English teaching. Nevertheless, the traditional reading pedagogy mainly focuses on the analysis and accumulation of vocabulary and grammar rather than analyzes the text as a unit, which inevitably results in students' lack of discourse knowledge and their slow development of reading ability. To achieve the aims set by the English Currriculum Standards for Primary and Secondary Schools(2003), it is necessary to reform the traditional reading pedagogy.The research is done within the framework of schema theory and cohension theory. Two classes in Yixing Senior Middle School are chosen as the control class using the traditionl way and the experimental class using discourse analysis. A four-month empirical research is carried out in the two classes via the pre-test, the post-test and questionaires. The results of the tests and questionaires clearly show that the experimental class have made much greater progress in comparison with the control class in guessing the meanings of new words from the context, mastering the main idea of a text and understanding the writing purpose. To conclude, the empirical research demonstrates the application of discourse analysis to English reading teaching can contribute to a better understanding of a text as a unit and thus it is a practical and effective approach to high school English reading teaching.