An Experimental Study Of English Reading Teaching Based On Cohesion Theory In Senior High Schools

Reading is an effective way to improve students' comprehensive ability of using language, and it plays an important role in language learning. However, the conventional English reading teaching approach mainly focuses on the cultivation of students` ability to analyze words, sentences and grammar, ignoring the method guidance about reading comprehension and ignoring the training of related reading skills from the aspect of macro. As a consequence, students` discourse competence is relatively weak, which limits students` development of English proficiency. But the new curriculum makes it clear that the goal of senior high English course is to make students form the preliminary comprehensive ability of language use, promote the development of mind as well as improve comprehensive humanistic quality. And it establishes a clear classification criteria about the composition of language skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing. So how to change the current teaching situation of English reading in order to achieve the requirement of new curriculum about reading? The author believes that the effective combination of cohesion theory and English reading teaching in senior high school can meet the requirements of the new curriculum. So this paper aims to explore the application and combination of cohesion theory and English reading teaching. Expecting students`mastery of cohesive devices, including the grammatical cohesive devices and the lexical cohesive devices, can help them improve their reading proficiency and change reading habits and strategies. Meanwhile, it is the requirements that the new curriculum has proposed for senior high school students` reading proficiency.To be more specific, the author tried to answer the following two questions: 1)Can the application of cohesion theory improve students `English reading proficiency?2) Can the application of cohesion theory contribute to changing students` reading habits and strategies? The experimental research lasted 13 weeks, which was carried out to prove influences of cohesion theory-based teaching on students` English reading proficiency. There are two natural classes whose students lie in the similarEnglish level chosen to participate in the study from Dong Jiang senior high school.One is EC and the other is CC. During the whole procedures, the two classes have the same study conditions but different teaching approaches. In the EC, cohesion theory is applied into reading teaching while CC still adopted the conventional way.The results of this research confirms that the application of cohesion theory does improve students` reading proficiency. And to some extent, it also fostered the change of students` reading habits and strategies. Therefore, the author concluded that the application of cohesion theory in senior high school English reading teaching is feasible, and it also will provide some references for English teachers in their reading teaching. Finally, the author puts forward pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies.