The Design And Application Of Guided Learning Plans In English Reading Classes In Senior High Schools

A new round of English curriculum reform in senior high schools moved the focus of senior high school English teaching to cultivating students' core competencies,which include language ability,cultural quality,thinking quality and learning ability.And that has become what most senior high school English teachers are concerned about.English reading classes,the major place for students to learn English in senior high schools,play a vital role in cultivating students' core competencies.In traditional English reading classes,teachers mainly focus on students' literal understanding of a text and the accumulation of language knowledge,without paying much attention to the teaching of reading strategies,the training of thinking ability and the cultivating of cultural awareness.Students have to spend a lot of time doing large quantities of reading exercises to improve their ability of doing reading comprehension exercises in exams.In recent years,in order to improve teaching efficiency,many a teacher tries to design guided learning plans to facilitate their teaching of English reading.However,the present application of guided learning plans in English reading classes lacks continuity,systematicness and pertinence.Besides,many English teachers are puzzled about its designing principles,forms and application.The guided Learning Plan is a plan designed by an individual teacher or a groupof teachers,on the basis of language materials and students' participation,to achieve certain learning aims.Applying guided learning plans to English reading classes,on the one hand,helps students to master English reading strategies more systematically and on the other hand,it is beneficial to cultivating students' automatic and cooperative learning ability,as well as cultural awareness.But in practice,students do not have a clear idea of the function of guided learning plans and the differences between guided learning plans and regular reading comprehension exercises.Therefore,the author of this thesis tries to design a series of guided learning plans on the basis of certain learning aims and reading materials,and apply them to English reading classes in senior high schools.This research is aimed to answer the following three questions: what are the problems faced by teachers and students in English reading classes in senior high schools? With consideration on the problems in reading,what is the format of guided-learning plans for English reading classes? What is the effect of applying guided learning plans on English reading classes in senior high schools? This thesis contains six parts.The first chapter presents a brief introduction to the background,the significance and the structure of the thesis.The second chapter is a literature review on guided learning plans and related theoretical basis.Chapter Three presents the methodology of the research,including research questions,participants and instruments.Chapter Four is about the procedures of the research.Chapter Five covers major findings,implications and shortcomings of the thesis.The last part is a conclusion of the research.In the process of preparation,the author adopts interviews and questionnaires to investigate senior English teachers' attitudes towards the application of guided learning plans in English reading classes,as well as students' knowledge of guided learning plans and reading strategies.Meanwhile,the author designs a series of guided learning plans,basing on different students and learning aims.Then the author takes one class taught by her as the experimental class and compares it with another class taught by another teacher.The English reading proficiency of the two classes is equally matched at the beginning of the research.Through one-term experiment,the author makes some important discoveries by means of testing and observation.Some of them are as follows: the reading proficiency of the experimental class is greatly improved;students in the experimental class have a more systematic understanding and better use of reading strategies;guided learning plans are helpful to cultivating students' automatic learning ability and cooperative learning spirit;students have a wider horizon of global culture and stronger tolerance of cultural differences.Meanwhile,the application of guided learning plans is able to help teachers relieve the burden of having classes,enabling English reading classes in senior high schools to become more interesting,more targeted and more systematic,which improves the efficiency of English reading classes.In short,the application of guided learning plans in English classes contributes to dealing with the problems faced by teachers and students.The guided learning plans designed by the author provides a format for the senior English teachers in the school where the author works.In addition,the way of designing and applying guided learning plans can also be adopted in listening and writing classes.