Action Research Of Promoting Junior High Students' Extracurricular English Reading Through Cooperation

Reading is an important means for students to acquire information and learn cultural knowledge, and it is also an important way for students to improve their ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students can improve their creative ability and create a good learning atmosphere if they study in a cooperative way in an English reading class. Guided by the theory of reading, theory of comprehensible input and theory of cooperative learning, this action research was aimed to enact extracurricular reading among junior high students in accordance with the requirements of English key abilities and to examine its effect on the students 'English reading skills and their learning attitude and strategies as well. This action research aims to answer the following questions:1. How does a teacher teach the Extracurricular English Reading lesson through cooperation to the junior high students efficiently?2. How does the Extracurricular English Reading Lesson influence students'attitude to English learning and English learning achievements?My actions include offering planned extracurricular activities by utilizing educational resources available; recommending suitable reading materials including world famous classics; guiding students' extracurricular reading systematically and instructing students to do the reading in an organized way and using reading strategies;providing post-reading feedback; promoting collaborative learning and self-reflection.Meanwhile, the researcher collected data through questionnaires, interviews,documents, and keeping journals by teachers and students; and then conducted analysis of the data according to the research purpose.The results, which come out of 3-semester-long actions and data work, indicate that extracurricular reading activities can:1. greatly stimulate students' interest and raise students' initiative in learning English;2. dramatically speed up students' reading and improve their reading ability as the result of individual reading approximately 220, 000-word publications;3. to a great extent improve students' integrated language capability and their humanistic qualities;4. help improve personal qualities of the teachers participating in this research and thereby harmonize relationships between teachers, and those between teachers and students.In conclusion,this action research on extracurricular reading bears significance of reference and inspiration regarding bringing about change to low efficiency and boringness in classroom teaching of the English language. Based upon the above research and analysis,I expect to offer lessons that can be of some help to doing research on extracurricular reading and to teaching of extracurricular reading.