On The Influence Of Critical Reading To The Teaching And Learning Of English Reading In Senior High Schools

In the information age, people are required to have critical thinking to analyze and to make judgmentsof the information they get. It is well-known that reading is an important way to acquire different kinds ofinformation. It is stated in English Curriculum standards (2003) that critical reading can meet the need ofand contribute to the development of critical thinking. The senior high school students are easily influencedby the texts, and so in English reading they can be taught how to read critically.It is suggested that critical reading should be applied to the English reading classes, which may helpimprove the students' reading comprehension and reading interest.Data of classroom observation in the English reading classes show teachers often focus on languagepoints, hoping that students can master a large number of words and have a skillful knowledge of grammar.As a matter of fact, students can hardly understand the whole text completely only by words and grammar,especially when the stereotyped teaching model hampers students' thinking. Data of interview and thequestionnaires show that most students have little reading interest, reading strategies or readingcomprehension ability, instead they are just passive readers, still in the literal reading.In order to develop students' English reading interest, reading strategies and reading ability, the authorof the paper makes use of the methods of classroom observation, interview and the questionnaires toobserve and analyze teachers and students of the affiliated middle school of Henan Normal University.Teaching experiment is done as well so as to prove that critical reading can overcome the problems in theteaching and learning of English reading.Results and analysis show (1) conscious critical teaching and learning of English reading can helpteachers enrich teaching topics and broaden the students' knowledge;(2) conscious critical teaching andlearning of English reading can help teachers raise more open questions, and extend students' mutiplethinking;(3) conscious teaching and learning of English reading can help improve students' reading fromthe literal reading to the level of discourse structure, to understand the main ideas of the text, improve thestudents' reading strategies, and help them improve reading competence and reading interest.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction of the whole study, which mainly introduces the background, motivation and objectives of the study. The second chapter is the reviewof theoretic basis of this thesis, introduces the research of critical reading home and abroad, mainly therelated theories, the definion of critical reading and critical reading skills. Chapter three presents theresearch methodology, which consists of the questions, participants, methods and procedures of the study.Chapter Four presents the research results and discussion of the students' scores, questionnaire andinterview, the teaching material, and the teaching experiment. Chapter Five is the conclusion of this study.It summarizes the major findings of the study, and provides some pedagogical implications.