A Study On Senior High School Students' Extracurricular English Reading From The Perspective Of Key Competencies

It is crucial to develop the key competencies of students with the implementation of both new turn of curriculum reforms and the 2017 version of English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School.It's essential to carry out extracurricular reading,which works as an extension and supplement of class reading.Extracurricular reading can consolidate the existing knowledge of language and develop independent reading as well as thinking ability.Extracurricular reading has been studied by many scholars and teachers at home and abroad,and they have made some fruitful studies.But studies on the extracurricular reading from the perspective of key competencies are comparatively limited and scarce.This thesis took it as the breakthrough point to probe the current situation of extracurricular reading in senior high school students.The participants are 165 senior two students selected from High School in Huaibei Normal University.The thesis makes a survey with a questionnaire,case analysis,testing,and interviews to study the current situation of senior high school extracurricular English reading from the perspective of key competencies,to find out problems,and to put forward corresponding suggestions.The main findings of this study are as follows: high school students can gain a sense of accomplishment through extra-curricular reading,focus their attention while reading,and have a solid foundation in their language knowledge.They can use logical thinking while reading.However the current status of senior high school students from the perspective of key competencies is not optimistic.The following problems remain to students: in terms of learning ability,students' interest and initiative are not high,they can't use reading strategies properly,they lack reading goals and plans,neither do they have abilities of self-monitoring and self-evaluation;in terms of linguistic competence,students have trouble in understanding texts and they can't use what they have learned in specific contexts;lack of English reading materials,they know little about cultural character;students' critical thinking and creative thinking are scarce.In addition,through comparing data collected,the results also show that some differences between sexes and classes exist in some aspects.Finally,based on the research and their possible causes,the author makes some suggestions on improving the teaching of English reading.The suggestions include:creating a harmonious reading environment to stimulate students' interest in reading;providing guidance with students and developing their reading strategies;giving students various ways of evaluation to motivate their self-monitoring and self-evaluation awareness;studying discourse in depth and grasping the core content of teaching;selecting appropriate reading resources to enrich students' background knowledge;training students' thinking quality through teaching.