A Study Of English Reading Strategies For Non-english Majors In A Vocational College

Reading is a main access to language input for English learners, and it’s also oneof the important skills that learners need to master. Therefore, the study of the use ofEnglish reading strategies is of great significance in foreign language learning andteaching. Most of the studies of college English reading strategies at home and abroadapply the combination of theory and practice, and mainly focus on three aspects incontent, which includes reading strategy training, contrast study, and the relationshipbetween reading strategies and grade. Besides, most of the previous studies focus onstudents from universities, only a few on students in vocational colleges.This article starts from the relevant theories of learning strategies, readingstrategies, reading model and reading strategy training. The author investigates andanalyzes the overall state of English reading strategies of non-English majors in JilinCommunications Polytechnic, and reveals the general characteristics, individualdifferences and problems that exist. Through investigation, the following findings areobtained:1.the overall reading strategy use frequency scale among non-English majorsin this university is lower;2.the frequency scale of self-awareness, prediction andrepetition strategies is higher than others;3. the frequency scale of skimming andstructure analysis strategies is lower.Based on the investigation the author chooses two classes as the experimentalclass and control class to carry out a reading strategy training which lasts for16weeks. A pre-test and posttest are respectively conducted before and after the training,with the purpose of testing the effectiveness and availability of reading strategytraining in the vocational college. The aim of pretest is to select two classes thatalmost have the same English level as the subjects of the experiment. The trainingmainly focuses on skimming strategy and structural analysis strategy. After thetraining, the same test paper is used to a posttest. The results show that reading strategy training that combines explicit training with classroom teaching caneffectively enhance students’ English reading level in vocational colleges.This article adopts the instruments of questionnaire, interview and readingstrategy training experiment.127non-English major students from JilinCommunications Polytechnic participated in this training. Besides, the authoranalyzes the statistical data by means of EXCEL form and Cochran-Cox inspectionmethod. The focus of the analysis includes:1. compare the data between the pre-testand post-test of the experimental class;2. compare the data between the pre-test andpost-test of the control class;3. compare the post-test of experimental class andcontrol class. Finally the conclusions are achieved: firstly, the reading strategytraining can significantly improve the learners’ proficiency; secondly, the strategytraining that combines explicit training with classroom teaching, that is, applies themethod of “teacher’s demonstration---students exercise under the guidance---studentsdo the exercises independently”, and is helpful to improve students’ reading level.Thirdly, it is feasible to carry out the reading strategy training in vocational colleges.At last, tentative discussion about the results, implications and limitations are made.Suggestions about the future study are also offered at the end of the article.The significance of this research lies in that: it objectively reflects the realsituation of the reading strategies used by the subjects, which provides meaningfuldata to make the further research for strategy-based reading. Besides, it helps teachersto find the weak points that are hard for students to master in the strategy training,which will improve the quality of training and help students read effectively.