Research On An Application Of Cohesion And Coherence Theory To English Reading Teaching In Senior High School

Reading is a major approach to language input and language acquisition,as well as an important step in developing students' overall language competence.Reading takes a great proportion to English for senior high school students.However,in English reading course of senior high school,the majority of teachers pay too much attention to the grammatical structure and vocabulary,neglecting the integrity of the whole structure.Meanwhile,in the process of English reading comprehension,students apply to rote memorization for vocabulary and check the key sentences of answers,who lack the interest in English reading.Therefore,it is necessary to apply an authoritative theory to English reading teaching in senior high school.The Cohesion and Coherence Theory is the core of discourse,and the compositions of a text depend on cohesion and coherence.This thesis is conducted an empirical research by applying the theory to English reading teaching so as to present a more effective and practical teaching method.Two research questions are proposed as follows:1.Can the application of Cohesion and Coherence Theory motivate students' English reading interest?2.Can the application of Cohesion and Coherence Theory improve students' English reading scores?The students from two classes of Grade one attached to Liangji Senior High School of Hengshui in Hebei Province are selected as the experimental subjects.One class is randomly chosen as the Control Class with 38 students,and the other class is selecting into the Experimental Class with 38 students.The contrast experiment lasts for one semester.Both classes are given the pre-questionnaire and pre-test before the teaching experiment.The students' reading scores of the two classes is at the same level through the pre-test.In teaching experiment,the Experimental Class is taught with Cohesion and Coherence Theory,yet the students are using normal teaching methods to teach in the Control Class.After the teaching experiment,the two classes receive a post-questionnaire and post-test.The results of the experimental data is analyzed by SPSS 19.According to the data analysis and discussion,the research findings show that applying Cohesion and Coherence Theory consciously in English reading is helpful to motivate students' reading interest.Meanwhile,students' reading scores have enhanced based on Cohesion and Coherence Theory.