A Study Of The Influence Of Reading Circles Model On Students' English Reading Self-regulated Learning Ability In Junior Middle School

Due to the limitation of the target language environment,the lack of English input is a major problem in English teaching of China.Hence,reading is becoming a main way to increase the input of English.However,especially in junior middle school,students' reading performance is not satisfactory,which exists many problems and students lack interest and initiative about English reading.Therefore,in order to solve this situation,scholars and teachers have actively tried various teaching methods or models to improve their English reading teaching.Among a number of reading teaching attempts,the Reading Circles model has been studied by researchers.In Reading Circles model,students act as the center of the class.They are the operators for reading activities,which means students should form reading circle,make reading plan,arrange roles,discuss in groups and finish their group reading log by themselves.Hence,to some certain extent,in this reading process,if students have good self-regulated learning ability,they will finish a series of reading task successfully,because in reading circles it needs their conscious regulation and monitor during the whole reading process.They have to use knowledge and strategies to carry out plans,inspire motivation,monitor and evaluate the result of reading.Therefore,in this study,the author made an experiment in a junior middle school to explore the influence of Reading Circle model on students' English reading self-regulated learning ability.The research questions are as follow: 1)Whether Reading Circles model can promote students' reading self-regulated learning ability? 2)Whether Reading Circles model can play positive role on students' performance in English reading? 3)What are the students' attitudes toward Reading Circles?Before the experiment,the author used a questionnaire to do pre-test of students' self-regulated learning ability in CC(control class)and EC(experiment class).This comprehensive questionnaire concluded two main dimensions which was adapted by author mainly based on Zimmerman(1997)' self-regulated learning theory and some authoritative questionnaires like Pintrich(1991)MSLQ,Weinstein(1987)LASSI,Ji'self-regulated questionnaire for middle school students,Fang's self-regulated learning questionnaire.After experiment,did test again.The results showed that,after the experiment,students' reading self-regulated learning ability in EC had improved,especially in their self-regulated learning strategies.Besides,the author did a independent sample T test to analyze the students' English reading scores after the experiment between CC and EC,it showed no significant difference,which means in the short time experiment Reading Circles model has no obvious effect on English reading scores.What's more,via interviewing with students in EC,the author found that students in EC have positive attitudes towards this model.Students also clarified some difficulties during the implementation of Reading Circles which included the limited school time to finish curricular Reading Circles.In addition,few students in groups were not active enough and so on.Above all,the author hold the view that it is feasible and effective to use Reading Circles model to teach English reading in junior high school,which can improve students' English reading self-regulated learning ability in some extent and make students like reading than before.