A Study On The Status Quo Of Senior High School Students’English Extra-curriculum Autonomous Reading

Reading, one of the four basic language skills, is pivotal for language proficiency. Many researchers and scholars have devoted themselves to studying classroom reading instruction. However, extra-curriculum autonomous reading, an extension and supplement to classroom reading instruction, has not received due attention in the language teaching and learning research circle.Based on autonomous learning theories, second language acquisition theories and theory of Constructivism, the present paper takes114Senior One students from Yangzhou Xinhua High School as research subjects to investigate the status quo of English extra-curriculum autonomous reading in senior high school (SHS). The research questions addressed in this paper are:1) What are the general patterns of SHS students’extra-curriculum autonomous reading?2) Are there any differences in the performance of extra-curriculum autonomous reading between low achievers and high achievers? If yes, what are the differences?3) What is the relationship between English extra-curriculum autonomous reading and students’English proficiency?Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in the study. The questionnaire is adopted as quantitative methods. Then, the data is processed by Excel and SPSS17.0. The qualitative research is a semi-structured interview carried out in Chinese and tape-recorded. The results are afterwards carefully analyzed.Detailed analysis of both quantitative and qualitative research yields the following findings:Firstly, the status quo of English extra-curriculum autonomous reading SHS students is not quite satisfactory. In spite of the fact that majority of SHS students realize the importance of autonomous reading in improving their reading ability, they do not, in their practice, pay due attention to extra-curriculum reading. Students have good strong motivation in doing English extra-curriculum autonomous reading, but a great proportion of them do so merely for their better performance in exams, instead of being driven by the motivation of cultivating their reading ability. In the reading plan making, some students do not have plans at all, or, even though some students have made their reading plans, they usually cannot carry them out well. Apart from these weaknesses, they also show problems in lack of effective guidance, proper knowledge and application of reading strategies, and reflection and evaluation of their own extra-curriculum reading. These facts suggest that they are not very well self-disciplined in extra-curriculum autonomous reading and lack of autonomy in doing reading tasks.Secondly, high achievers do much better in extra-curriculum autonomous reading. In comparison with the low achievers, the high achievers show much more interest in extra-curriculum autonomous reading, so they are more self-motivated in doing extra-curriculum autonomous reading. And high achievers are eager to improve their reading ability through doing extra-curriculum autonomous reading in order to get a high score in the examination. High achievers also do better in setting their reading objectives and making their reading plans. They are usually to carry out their reading plans well. In terms of reading strategies, the high achievers also do better in putting them into practice. Therefore, there exist some significant differences between the high achievers and low achievers in the performance of extra-curriculum autonomous reading.Thirdly, extra-curriculum autonomous reading and English proficiency are positively correlated with students’English proficiency. In other words, the students who perform very well in extra-curriculum autonomous reading would have higher English proficiency. That is to say, the high school students who have some optimal in English extra-curriculum autonomous reading perform well in different aspects of extra-curriculum autonomous reading, such as plan-making, usage of reading strategies, reflection and evaluation of their autonomous reading and so on. These advantages cause their higher English proficiency.In light of the findings, this paper suggests that teachers should keep it in their mind to inspire students’awareness towards extra-curriculum autonomous reading. They should take measures to strengthen students’interest and motivation to take an active part in doing extra-curriculum autonomous reading, to help and guide students to develop practical and feasible extra-curriculum reading plans. Teachers should guide students to use some specific reading strategies and care more for low achievers in the extra-curriculum autonomous reading instruction. They should also try to create some connections between in-classroom reading task and extra-curriculum reading tasks. And at some stage of instruction, teachers should provide some evaluations and assessment on their extra-curriculum reading. For students, they must sharpen their awareness of the importance of extra-curriculum autonomous reading and try to take an active part in doing extra-curriculum autonomous reading.