A Relevance-Theory-based Experimental Research On The Teaching Of English Reading In A Junior High School

English reading is one of the most important skills in junior high schools. In the current English teaching of junior high schools, the traditional teaching approach mainly focuses on the instruction of new words, grammar and language points, but it neglects to cultivate students' English reading proficiency. Under this approach,students can increase their quantity of vocabulary and make sentences without grammar mistakes. However, the efficiency of their English reading is not obviously improved. In the recent decades, some researchers try to apply Relevance Theory to English reading teaching. However, having reviewed the relevant literature, the author found that most researches on the application of Relevance Theory to the teaching of English reading were based on the college level and rarely associated with junior high schools.Given the above issues and the current status, this thesis attempts to make an experimental study to explore whether the application of Relevance Theory to the teaching of English reading is practical in a junior high school. To be more specific, the following two research questions are put forward in this thesis:(1) Can the Relevance-Theory-based teaching of English reading improve the English reading proficiency of the junior high school students?(2) If yes, how are these improvements represented?An experimental study which lasts for three months is conducted. The subjects are86 students of two parallel classes in Grade Three(Class 8 is the control group and class 7 is the experimental group) from a junior high school of Zhongshan city. The students in the experimental group are taught in the Relevance-Theory-based reading method, while the students in the control group are taught in the traditional reading method. Tests, questionnaires and interviews are carried out in the experiment. Pre-test and post-test of reading proficiency are taken at the beginning and end of the experiment for two groups, meanwhile, questionnaires and interviews are also taken in the experimental group before and after the experiment. After data collection, the author uses SPSS 19.0 to analyze the results.The study results of the pre-test and post-test in two groups demonstrate that the Relevance-Theory-based teaching of English reading can improve the English reading proficiency of the junior high school students. The results of the questionnaires andinterviews before and after the experiment reflect that the Relevance-Theory-based teaching of English reading can improve the junior high school students' English reading abilities in three aspects: inference ability, context analysis and optimal relevance.Finally, some pedagogical implications can be drawn: 1. Teachers should improve students' inferential ability in English reading process. 2. Teachers should help students construct relevant context in English reading process. 3. Teachers should cultivate students' ability of seeking optimal relevance in English reading process.