A Study Of The Supplement Of Cultural Background Knowledge On The English Reading Accuracy In Senior High School

In recent researches of the English reading, the cultural background knowledge teaching and learning are applied in English reading classes largely. And the English Curriculum Standard issued in 2003 also suggested to cultivate the students’ cross-cultural communication abilities and students’ cultural awareness. In consequence, many researchers have discovered the great influences of the cultural background knowledge in students’ reading comprehension, but how dose it influence students’ reading accuracy, which has not been researched yet. Theretofore, it is meaningful for the author to do this research.This thesis mainly aims to the question: how does the cultural background knowledge influence students reading accuracy? The author uses questionnaire, reading comprehension test and teaching experiment to confirm her research hypothesis. The subjects of this experiment are the students who come form Chongqing Tongliang Number one middle school. The number of these subjects is 80, and they are divided into two equal classes, one controlled class, while another experimental. Reading teaching methods are different in different classes. In controlled class no extra cultural background knowledge is provided while in experimental class students will be equipped with the teaching method of English background knowledge. In this way, the author attempts to see whether the teaching and learning of cultural background information will help students improve their reading accuracyHaving analyzed the data, the author found that the difference is not clear in these topics concerning students’ daily life, but influences are obvious in educational and travel topics. Students get better results when answering these types of questions, including getting the main idea, referring, identifying the author’s purposes or attitudes.Therefore, the teaching and learning of cultural background knowledge can help students improve their reading accuracy.