A Study Of Extracurricular English Reading Of High-grade Students In Primary Schools

Extracurricular English reading refers to reading English materials other than textbooks.After class,students read materials for interest and delight or for information within the scope of language proficiency.In English Curriculum Standards(2011),the requirements for primary students' reading ability are to understand the content of simple reading passages and develop reading habits.Extracurricular English reading,especially picture book reading,can provide a wide range of reading materials,help develop their English reading habits,and consequently promote their reading comprehension.Based on Piaget's cognitive developmental theory,Krashen's second language acquisition theory,and schema theory,this thesis explores students' recognition of and attitudes towards extracurricular English reading,the implementation of primary students' extracurricular English reading,and teachers and parents' recognition of and attitudes towards extracurricular English reading by means of questionnaire and interview.In this study,the participants are 294 high-grade students of three primary schools of Yantai,as well as five English teachers.Through the analysis of the questionnaires and interviews,some major findings are made as follows.Firstly,primary students have realized the importance of extracurricular English reading.However,most students do extracurricular English reading because of teachers and parents' requirements,rather than their own interest and delight.Secondly,due to the insufficiency of vocabulary,Students prefer to read picture books with interesting stories and fewer new words.The delightfulness,vividness and liveliness of picture books with fewer new words can stimulate students' desire to read.However,the results and data analysis show that students' reading quantity is far from satisfactory.Besides the selection of reading materials and reading quantity,reading methods can also influence the implementation of primary students' extracurricular English reading.It is necessary to set up classes for the guidance of extracurricular reading.Lastly,teachersare crucial in the process of students' extracurricular reading.Almost all teachers agree upon the implementation of extracurricular English reading.However,teachers should strengthen their participation of students' extracurricular English reading,rather than only recommending reading materials.The same as teachers' participation,parents' participation in the children's extracurricular English reading is also inadequate.To improve this situation,this study puts forward four suggestions from the perspective of teachers and parents,including cultivating students' positive reading attitude,selecting suitable reading materials,enlarging students' reading quantity,and introducing scientific reading methods and cultivating good reading habits.