An Investigation Into English Reading Strategies Of Art-Major Students In Xinjiang

Reading is among one of the many important ways for person to communicate and gain information.It is also a significant tool to cultivate and improve students' English reading ability in English teaching,which makes it crucial to improve students' English achievement.English teachers are paying more and more attention to the ways on how to enhance students' reading strategies efficiently and effectively in order to advance the students' reading skills.The researchers at home and abroad have done a lot of researches on reading strategies.Since 1970s',the function of learning strategies to language learning has been concerned by many foreign researchers and some Chinese researchers.These researches include some researches on English reading strategies,which generally focus on the training or using of some specific English reading strategies and most of whose subjects are involved English-major college students,vocational college students have been involved little,especially those who are majoring in arts.In order to know art-major students' English reading strategies proficiency in vocational college,this study chooses 112 art-major students in Xinjiang Education Institute as subjects and aims to investigate the present situation of English reading strategy use in them.This thesis is of importance for English reading teaching in art-major students both theoretically and practically.The study aims to find out: 1.What is the general situation of English Reading Strategies used by art-major students in Xinjiang Education Institute? 2.What are the differences of English reading strategies use between high achievers and low achievers? 3.What are the differences of English reading strategies use between male students and female students? 4.What are the differences of English reading strategies' using among different art-majors' students? The author conducted questionnaires among 112 art-major students of Xinjiang Education Institute about their reading strategies,and SPSS19.0 is used for data analysis to study how the students use their reading strategies.The final results indicate: the frequency of overall strategies' using of art-major students at Xinjiang is not high;the participants in this study are medium users of English reading strategies(Mean=3.0120,Std.Deviation=0.51378),and the most frequently employed are social/effective strategies,while the least employed are meta-cognitive strategies;high achievers use wider range of English reading strategies than low achievers;there is no distinct difference in cognitive strategies use and social/effective strategies use between male students and female students,but meta-cognitive strategy use is significant(sig.=0.029<0.05);there are no differences between different majors.The findings may provide both language teachers and learners with a better understanding of strategies employed by art-majors at Xinjiang Education Institute,and may help teachers improve teaching practice and promote autonomous and effective study of students.It is far from enough for students only to know reading strategies.They must know how to use them actively and persistently and properly to help them improve proficiency of the target language.Only through constant practice can these strategies be internalized and automated by students.This thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter one is a brief introduction to the background of the reading strategies,including research purpose,significance and structure.Chapter Two is a general survey of the previous research on language leaning strategies and English Reading Strategies,the significance of language leaning strategies and English Reading Strategies,reviewing research achievements.Chapter Three provides definitions and classifications of language leaning strategies and English Reading Strategies,and gives theoretical framework of reading strategy study about art-major college students.Chapter Four is the core part of the thesis: focusing on the research questions,subjects,instruments,data collection and data processing.Chapter Five makes analysis based on the data collected from the questionnaire and the interview by means of SPSS19.0 in order to find the general characteristics of strategies used by art-major college students,the differences and similarities between high achievers and low achievers,the differences and similarities between male and female students,the differences and similarities between different majors.Chapter Six serves as a conclusion of the thesis.In this part,the author presents the findings and some implications to teachers,art-major colleges students and authorities respectively on the basis of the findings in the study,and finally discusses the limitations about the study as well as suggestions for further study.