An Action Research Of Genre-based Teaching Approach To EFL Reading Instruction In High School

Reading,which plays a critical role in English learning,is directly connected with the level of English learners.In Jiangsu college entrance examination reading comprehension takes up a quarter of the total score.That's why reading instruction has always been the top concern in English teaching.However,many English teachers in high schools have been trying to improve student reading speed and competence through the careful analysis and explanation,which mainly focus on language knowledge.The sole and traditional teaching method can not effectively improve students' reading proficiency.New English Curriculum Standard of High School has set a higher standard for English reading instruction.The improvement of English ability not only attaches importance to the language points,but also to the cultivation of discourse awareness.Therefore,the genre-based approach has been attracting the attention of many English educators and specialists in recent years.Genre-based teaching method is a kind of teaching method which applies genre analysis to the teaching of English reading.Genre-based teaching method provides students with the relevant genre knowledge and guide students to carry out genre analysis to cultivate students' awareness of genre.The students are taught to know the characteristics of different genres,get the main idea of the text,understand the writing purpose,and master the structure of the whole text,thus improving students' reading ability.In the application of genre-based teaching method,there are three schools.They are 1.EAP/ESP school;2.New rhetoric school;3 Australian school.Genre-based teaching method has been widely used in North America and Australia,but in the domestic research it is still used less,and it is used mainly in the teaching of college English reading.In view of this,the action research involving reading instruction based on genre teaching has lasted about one term,which takes grade two students as its subjects.The first stage of the action research is a pilot study that helps to develop research questions and hypotheses by questionnaires,interviews with students and pre-test.The second stage is the implementation of the research plan.Different genres are taught according to the "teaching-learning cycle" put forward by Martin.Students learn various texts through building the context,modeling analysis,linking to related texts and independent construction of text and consolidation exercises.The action research tries to solve the following two questions:1.Can genre-based approach improve high school students' learning?If so,what are the effects of it?2.How can teachers apply genre-based approach into reading instruction?The action research involves qualitative and quantitative research method with related questionnaire,the interviews,pre-test and post-test.The data are collected and analyzed before and after the action research.The major findings are as follows:1.Genre-based approach can stimulate students' reading interest,and increase their reading confidence.The students learn to use appropriate reading strategies flexibly.2.Genre-based approach greatly cultivates students' genre awareness,which makes them identify different genres easily.3.The reading instructed can be adapted according to according to the"teaching-learning cycle" put forward by Martin.Genre-based approach do increase students' test grades and improve their reading competence.This action research suggests that genre teaching contributes to students reading proficiency,helping them identify various text patterns and adopt appropriate reading strategies.