A Study Of Applying The Register Theory Into College English Teaching Of Reading

Register theory is one of the most important theories of Systemic Functional grammar. According to the definition of M.A.K Halliday, the situational elements that determine the language characteristics can be divided into three variables:field, tenor and mode, and these three variables determine the choices of the register together. The register theory of Halliday reveals the different forms of language changes caused by the changes of situational contexts, which provides a new perspective for the reading teaching. In light of the register theory, register has two functions: reflecting the culture and predicting the text, so teaching methods on the basis of the characteristics of the register is helpful for students to acquire the cultural characters and expressions of this language, to understand the text more quickly and more effectively, and then to improve their ability of reading comprehension. Recently some Chinese and overseas scholars have explored to apply the register theory into the reading teaching. Their studies show non-English majors often ignore the register during the reading process, and that they understand the text by means of the grammar and vocabulary. For this, one of the reasons is the neglect of the register problem. As a result, it is greatly necessary for the non-English major teachers to instruct some knowledge about the register so as to strengthen their sensibility to the register in the reading process.From the perspective of the register theory, this study combines the quantitative and qualitative analysis to probe into the register’s guiding meaning on the reading teaching. The detailed research questions are as follows:(1) what are the problems of the students in reading comprehension based on the register theory?(2) How can the register theory be applied into college English reading class?(3) To what extent reading proficiency is improved through the register-based English teaching of reading?In order to make this research successful, the author randomly selects200non-English majors from two classes as the subjects. The experimental study is conducted in the first semester of the second year. The instruments for collecting the data include the interview, reading comprehension test and training experiment. By means of SPSS15.0, the data of the pre-test and post-test are analyzed by Independent-Samples T Test and Paired-Samples T Test. Besides, the data of the two interviews are analyzed qualitatively. Finally, the conclusion can be achieved as follows:firstly, at present there is some ignorance of the register in the participants’ reading process; secondly, register theory is not only simple, but also useful, and can be used into the reading teaching of college English; thirdly, the English reading teaching method based on the register theory can improve the learners’ reading ability.This study is aimed at looking into the influence of the application of the register-based reading teaching method on the non-English majors’ reading proficiency. Its significance exists in the following aspects:(1) on the basis of the register theory, the problems of the participants in English comprehension are truly reflected, which provides some meaningful data for how to strengthen the register awareness to read effectively;(2) the study result is of a great help to strengthen the teachers’ awareness of instructing the knowledge about the register;(3) the analysis of this study can aid the teachers to better understand the relationship between the register theory and reading teaching;(4) this study extends the thought for the reading teaching model of Chinese universities.