A Study On The Effects Of Extracurricular English Reading In An Urban Junior High School

Reading is a main channel for people to learn languages,to acquire knowledge and information as well as to cultivate their thinking ability.According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study,children aged 10 to 13 absorbed knowledge through a large amount of reading materials.Teenagers over the age of 13 can read different types of articles on the basis of different needs.Junior High school is a critical stage for conducting extracurricular English reading which is determined by students' physiological and psychological characteristics.Extracurricular English reading is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in middle schools.The present study is based on an experiment of extracurricular English reading guiding students to read the Oxford Bookworms series and the 21 st Century newspapers so as to explore the effects of the experiment from the aspects of students' reading attitudes,reading strategies,reading habits and reading test performance.Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed and the data were collected from different angles such as questionnaires and interviews,reading tests and homework.51 students,enrolled in an intact class of Grade Eight in Experimental Middle School Attached to Yunnan Normal University,completed the present reading situation questionnaire and the supplemental questionnaire.Interviews were then conducted with the expert teacher from university and the middle school teacher of the class and 9 students whose English ability lies at different levels.The reading scores in monthly tests before and after the experiment were collected and analyzed.Findings from the study reveals that students held a positive attitude in extracurricular English reading in general before the experiment,but they did not make a regular plan for reading,and some problems still existed in reading strategies use.They made progress in terms of the following: reading strategies,reading habits and reading proficiency like vocabulary,reading speed and reading comprehension.But there is no significant changes in their English reading tests before and after the experiment.The results of the study provide a guide to conduct extracurricular English reading practice and expend teaching resources in middle school in the future.