An Empirical Study Of Value-added Evaluation On Improving Junior High School Students' English Reading Achievements

Reading in a foreign or second language has received a great deal of attention from researchers overthe past20years. Macaro (2008) proposes reading as a skill is invisible, both in and out of class. Theproductive skills of speaking and writing can be easily monitored, at least at the end-product stage. It isdifficult for teachers to assert that a student had produced "a very good piece of reading". In our readingclass, however, one great challenge is that even when students can read in their second language, much oftheir reading is not fluent. Students are not actively coped with the text in a meaningful way, they may bemoving through it one word at a time and not reaping the joys of reading.Language evaluation theory is passing through a revolution with the development of the languagelearning theory and information technology. In China, as the New English Curriculum is generalized andimplemented, the application of students' interest-oriented and autonomous learning ability have also beenimproved. The value-added evaluation as a way of important evaluation is in line with the requirement ofNew English Curriculum. This kind of evaluation ranks the students by the added-value and reflectsstudents' advancement at one stage; actually, it evaluates students via the progress and diligently devoid ofhigh or low marks. The value-added evaluation not only can promote students' comprehensive languagecompetence and benefit their healthy personal development, but also give teachers useful feedback onteaching and learning, in addition to these factors, it can inform the ongoing development and perfection ofthe English curriculum. This thesis attempts to explore effective ways of using value-added evaluation inarising students' reading interests and improving their reading achievements.In this thesis, the author reviews the "evaluation" and reading theories firstly, and then demonstratesthe possibility of using value-added evaluation in reading.One hundred and sixteen subjects participate in this experiment. They are Grade Eight students fromtwo natural classes of the experimental middle school in Jiaozuo. These research questions in thisexperiment are as follows:(1) What are the reading situations of the experimental students before and after the value-addedevaluation? (2) Is there a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in readingachievements after the value-added evaluation?(3) What are the effects of the value-added evaluation on the experimental class?The data are collected from questionnaire and reading tests, besides these, the author uses SPSS17.0to describe and analyze the collected data and materials. The results are as follows:The questionnaire reveals, after the experiment,17aspects of the mean score in the questionnaire areincreased, especially in terms of the Reading interests and confidence, Reading habits and Readingstrategies.The results of the T test shows that there is a significant difference of English reading achievementsbetween the experimental class and the control class after the study.After the value-added evaluation, this new ranking method was approved by most of the students inthe experimental class, and this method raised the students' interests and confidence in reading, especiallythe part of verbal report, which helped the students to monitor their own reading process effectively and tolearn other students' method at the same time. Generally speaking, this method strengthened theircooperative ability and problem-resolving ability.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces research background, motivation,significance and the layout of this thesis. Chapter two reviews the related theories and the definitions ofevaluation and reading. Chapter three presents the research design including research questions, researchsubject, material analysis and research procedure. Chapter four makes an analysis on the statistical data, thedata of interview and verbal report. Chapter five summarizes the major findings of the study.Based on this thesis, the author combines the research results with teaching and learning practice andoffers some beneficial suggestions to the reading course. Meanwhile, the research findings also enrich therelevant studies in this field. At last, the paper points out the limitation of the thesis and puts forwardprospects for further research.