Reading Strategy Choice And Reading Ability Of College Non-english Majors:a Correlation Analysis

Researches have proved that the choice of reading strategies will influence students’ reading ability, and using proper reading strategies improves students’ reading ability. However, previous studies mainly focus on junior and senior high school students; few studies concentrate on college non-English majors, nor do they distinguish them from college English majors. In order to help college non-English majors achieve more satisfactorily,this essay chose 93 students from Xi`an University of Finance and Economics as the subjects, analyzing the status quo of their use of reading strategies as well as the different choices of the reading strategies between the high score group and the low score group through test,questionnaire survey and interview. SPSS2.0 was employed for descriptive statistics, T-test and correlation analysis. The results are as follows:First, the frequency of strategy use among college non-English majors falls within the range of mediority.Second, the proper use of English reading strategies can influence students’ reading ability positively.Lastly, students in the high score group can use reading strategies more flexibly than those in the low score group.Based on the results above, some suggestions are proposed for strategy training in college English reading class:1) Reading instructors are supposed to help students enrich their knowledge on reading strategies and cultivate their awareness in that matter;2) Priority should be give to the enhancement of the practice of affect strategy,metacognitive strategy and social strategy;3) Instructors’ supervision and feedback are necessary for students at different levels.