A Case Study Of English Reading Comprehension Difficulties

Reading ability is viewed in language teaching as a crucial element in the evaluation of learners language competence. Therefore, the improvement of learners reading ability and their reading performance has become a hot issue in language teaching research. Teachers should have a clear and deep understanding of their students reading difficulties in order to take effective teaching measures and improve the teaching of reading.The author of this thesis conducted a case study which lasted for nearly four months with 12 teaching sessions in all. The researcher, also the teacher, investigated the English reading comprehension difficulties faced by one Grade Seven junior middle school student. The data collection methods adopted in this study were questionnaire, interviews, observation, verbal reporting, and teaching journal.Reading, which is not merely an information processing process but a complicated psychological process as well, is closely related to linguistics and psychology. Based on three reading models, schema theory and Krashen s Affective Filter Hypothesis, the researcher discusses the factors that hinder the subject s reading comprehension from two perspectives, taking both linguistic and non-linguistic factors into consideration.The findings of the research show that in terms of linguistic factors, deficiency in vocabulary, sense group and text structure are responsible for the subject s difficulty in reading comprehension. In respect of vocabulary, the subject has three problems: limited vocabulary, trouble in differentiating words with similar spellings, and the disregard of polysemy. Moreover, the subject s poor knowledge of syntax and ignorance of rhetorical structure hinders his reading comprehension.Apart from linguistic factors, the subject s unsatisfactory reading performance might be attributed to non-linguistic factors which are made up of motivation, reading strategies, self-efficacy and background knowledge.The research demonstrates that the subject has a weak motivation and even holds a negative attitude towards English learning. In addition, he seldom uses predication and word-attack skills in the course of reading. Although the subject has a good knowledge of skimming and scanning, he fails to use them effectively. Furthermore, the subject s inaccurate evaluation of himself and his weak sense of self-control and of benefits he can gain from reading contribute to his poor reading comprehension performance. A lack of background knowledge also impedes the learner s reading comprehension.The pedagogical implications, the limitations of the research and suggestions for further study are discussed in the last chapter.