An Empirical Study On Application Of Text Analysis Theories In English Reading Teaching In Senior 3 High Schools

Reading is an important way of gaining information. In English learning, reading has widely been acknowledged as a crucial way of enhancing the integrative abilities of English. Therefore, English reading teaching has always been an important part of English teaching. However, traditional English reading classes mostly focus on vocabulary, phrases and some detailed language points rather than the macro understanding towards the reading materials. This empirical study aims at testing the validity of text analysis theories in enhancing the quality of English reading. Based on schema theory and cohesion theory, the author adopted two classes from grade Senior 3 as experimental class and control class, each containing 56 and 57 students for the experimental class and control class respectively. The experimental class will be taught under text analysis reading teaching for two months. Pre-tests and post-tests are conducted to reveal the result that the experimental class does better in guessing word meanings through language contexts, grasping main ideas and structures of passages and writing intentions. Therefore the test result verifies that text analysis theories(mainly partial theories of schema theory and cohesion theory) do help enhance learners’ text reading abilities. In English reading teaching, paying attention to background knowledge and analyzing macro structures and cohesion is an effective way of text analysis teaching. This study discusses the application of text analysis theories in senior English reading teaching through analyzing background information, macro-structure and information structure of a whole passage.