A Survey On The Reading Section In Advance With English For Senior High School

Advance with English, designed on basis of The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (2003), is widely used in Jiangsu province. As a significant part of this book, the reading section is considered one of the most important parts that reflect the teaching concepts and principles in the Standard (2003). This section provides learners with various opportunities to practice their English, so as to improve their comprehensive English skills.On the basis of material evaluation theory and English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School (2003), this thesis tries to carry out a systematic survey on the passages in reading section by asking such questions as:what is the teachers and students’ general impression on the passages in reading section; what do the teachers and students comment on the design of reading section; what do the teachers and students think about the matching degree of reading section and the requirements from the students and the Standard. As a result, the strong and weak points of the reading section can be found out; and some specific and feasible suggestions will be put forward in accordance.First, it reviews the relevant documents, such as the syllabus, the materials and the Standard (2003). Then, the structure and purpose of the reading section is presented and analyzed. Two questionnaire surveys on both the teachers and students are carried out strictly afterwards. The data collected from the questionnaires is analyzed by computer software SPSS, and the data collected from the open questions is analyzed qualitatively by synthesizing, induction and description. Finally, the suggestions are given after finding the advantages and disadvantages through analyzing results of the questionnaires.Study shows that both teachers and students enjoy the well-organized structures, diversified topics, enriched language and cultural affairs; and they agree that this section matches well with Standard (2003). However, the shortcomings of this section cannot be neglected. The vocabulary in this section is too large, the writing styles of the reading passages are not colorful enough, length of some passages is too long and the teaching facilities available and teachers’ qualities have not been given due attention to.What’s more, in teaching reading, some teachers still stick to the traditional exam-oriented teaching concepts. Therefore, the author believes the English teachers should update their thoughts, and further learns and understands the concepts and principles in the Standard (2003). Meanwhile, they should rationalize the teaching of vocabulary, deal with the content of the reading passages flexibly, and make adaptations to some of the reading passages properly, and so on. Besides, teachers need to change their roles in class. They should improve their own qualities to meet the demands of teaching innovation.