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An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Reading Strategy Training On Students' English Reading Proficiency In Junior High School

Posted on:2017-09-20Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:G Q QuanFull Text:PDF
GTID:2347330485950318Subject:Subject teaching · English
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Reading ability is a basic language skill in foreign language learning and the cultivation of reading strategies is the focus of the middle school English teaching, which is listed as one of five content standards in Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard issued by Ministry of Education in 2011. Since the 1970s, the scholars both abroad and at home have pay more attention to the reading strategies. However, most domestic researches focus on reading strategies among college students, the studies are seldom conducted on middle school students, especially on junior high school students. Many teachers don not attach much importance to reading strategy instruction. They still adopt the traditional teaching model to teach English reading, which is not good to improve students'autonomous reading ability. Therefore, it is necessary to explore English reading strategy in junior high schools.The study mainly focuses on the effectiveness of the reading strategy training in the reading classroom. Under the guidance of metacognitive theory, schema theory and Cohen's strategies-based instruction (SBI), the author conducts reading strategy training. The study aims to answer the following questions:1. What effects does the reading strategy training have on the experimental class students in terms of their strategy use?2. Can the reading strategy training improve the reading comprehension proficiency of the experimental class students? If it can, which group of students will make the greatest progress?3. What is the students'attitude towards the reading strategy training?The study lasted for eighteen weeks in four months. The participants are from the Qinghuayuan Middle School in Yicheng county of Linfen city. They are in Grade Three of the junior high school. The subjects from the two classes are roughly similar in reading ability. And the teacher, the reading practice time and reading materials are the same for the two classes. One of the classes is the experimental class that is adopted reading strategy training instruction, the other is the control class that is not adopted reading strategy training instruction. Through the questionnaires, the author investigates students' frequency of reading strategy use before and after the training, to compare whether their awareness and ability of strategy use has been enhanced through the training. The subjects'data of pre-test and post-test on reading comprehension are analyzed quantitatively via SPSS 17.0 with the aim to find out whether English reading strategies used by junior high school students may have a positive effect on improving their reading proficiency. The interview is also conducted to explore whether the reading strategy training can really facilitates the students'effective reading and to find out what the students'attitude towards the reading strategy training is.The research results show that reading strategy training on junior high school students enhances their awareness and ability of using reading strategy which can ultimately improve their reading proficiency, and especially the proficiency of the above medium-level students. After the training, most students hold positive attitude towards the reading strategy training. Thus, the strategies-based instruction is an effective way to facilitate junior high school students to form active learning affection and become autonomous and effective readers. Although there are many limitations for this study, it still plays an active role in strategy instruction theoretically and practically. And finally some suggestions are also given for consideration.
Keywords/Search Tags:reading strategy, strategy training, reading proficiency
PDF Full Text Request
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