A Study On The Application Of Lexical Cohesion Theory To College English Reading Teaching

As the informationization of social life and economical globalization develop, thesocial status of English has become increasingly important. English, as one of mostimportant information media, has become the most widely used language in every field ofhuman life. It is widely recognized that reading plays an important role in improving thecomprehensive language competence in English learning. It is well known that studentslearn English and gain information mainly from the written language. And readingprovides the most efficient and the most important channel of linguistic input. It developsthe students’ linguistic competence and cultivates their communicative competence.The traditional English reading model has its shortcomings. Teachers often payattention to words, grammar and sentence structure in the process of teaching. So theteaching effectiveness is not very satisfactory. Students lack of overall understanding of thediscourse in reading. The majority of students’ reading is inefficient, slow and only stayson the surface to understand the language. Exploring the mode of teaching of reading hasbecome an inevitable requirement in order to effectively improve the students’ readingability.Based on Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion theory, this thesis attempts to apply lexicalcohesion to the English reading teaching in college and to build a new teaching model, thatis, the reading model based on lexical cohesion. The author attempts to study the role oflexical cohesion in English reading teaching so as to help students to improve their readingproficiency. It is expected that this study provides a feasible and practical strategy forEnglish reading teaching.This paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter, the author introduces thefull dissertation, including the research background introductions, description of thepurpose and significance of the research, as well as the structure of the dissertation. Thesecond chapter, the author reviewed the previous studies on the subject of this research,which includes the convergence theory of the lexical cohesion and the preliminarydiscussions of the lexical cohesion theory in the teaching of English reading. In the thirdchapter, the author introduces the research methods, in which the author describes thedevelopment and implementation process of the questionnaire and the tests methods thatthis study used. In the fourth chapter, the author will explore the practical application of thetheory of lexical cohesion problems in collegeThe research questions of this thesis are as follow.(1) Is the teaching method whichbased on lexical cohesion theory more effective than the traditional teaching method inimproving students’ reading ability?(2) Is the lexical cohesion theory helpful to developing the students’ reading strategies?This thesis bases on the lexical cohesion theory.64sophomores of tourismmanagement major from two parallel classes at Wenli College in Bohai University aretaken as the subjects. The reading test papers, questionnaire and SPSS are selected as theinstruments. By using SPSS to collect, analyze and discuss data, the conclusion can bedrawn:(1) experiment class has improved their reading proficiency under the guidance oflexical cohesion.(2) The application of lexical cohesion theory provides a feasible andpractical strategy for English reading teaching.It is expected that the implications of the study can be beneficial for both learners andteachers in the process of their English learning.