A Study On Applying Narrow Reading To English Reading Instruction In Junior High School

As required in the New English Curriculum Standard(2011),junior students are expected to reach the fifth level of reading proficiency at the time of graduation,and the scores of reading comprehension accounts for almost one-third of the whole testing paper in Xinjiang Elementary School Proficiency English Test.Therefore,it can be seen that reading occupies an important position in the four basic skills of English learning for students in junior high school.However,the current English reading teaching in junior high school emphasizes more on word-by-word translation and grammar explanation,and less concentrates on cultivating the overall comprehension and perception of passages,thus it gradually makes students lose interest,confidence and autonomy in reading.Consequently,the reading achievement is affected by it.Narrow reading aims to let learners improve their reading proficiency and stimulate their interest in reading by exposing the texts that have the same theme,same genre or various writings by the same author.Based on the input hypothesis and schema theory,this research applies narrow reading to English reading instruction in junior high school with the method of experiment,questionnaire and interview.The thesis mainly deals with the following two research questions by applying experimental contrast:1.Can narrow reading improve English reading comprehension achievement for students in junior high school?2.Can narrow reading have a positive effect on attitude toward English reading for students in junior high school?In the research,two parallel classes,each with 49 students,from No.23 Junior High School in Yining are selected as the research participants,one as the experimental class and the other the control class.At the beginning of experiment,in order to guarantee there is no significant difference on English reading achievement between the two classes,the pre-test is adopted,which is selected from the reading comprehension part of Xinjiang Elementary School Proficiency English Test in 2016.During the experimental instruction,the two classes are taught by the same English teacher.The research regards the unit of new junior English textbook of People's Education Press Go For It(Ninth Grade)as the theme,it is applied narrow reading teaching mode in the experimental class and normal reading teaching mode in the control class.After 12-week experimental instruction,the experimental class and the control class are both given the post-test,which is selected from the reading comprehension part of Xinjiang Elementary School Proficiency English Test in 2018.After the data are collected,the author employs the independent samples T-test and paired samples T-test to examine significant difference with SPSS 19.0 software.The results indicate that,firstly,after the application of narrow reading teaching mode,the two classes have got a significant difference on English reading comprehension achievement.It means that narrow reading can improve English reading comprehension for students in junior high school,specifically reflected in the significant difference on superficial comprehension level which is improved extremely significant and deep comprehension level.Although the mean of English reading comprehension achievement is improved in the control class,it shows no significant difference.There is only a significant difference on superficial comprehension level,but it has not any significant difference on deep comprehension level.Secondly,from the results of questionnaires and interview,it demonstrates that it has a positive attitude toward English reading by applying narrow reading teaching mode,which is specifically reflected in stimulating interest,enhancing confidence and cultivating autonomy in reading for students in junior high school.In conclusion,the results of this research provide some pedagogical implications with junior English reading instruction.On the design of reading instructing contents,teachers should obey interesting and feasible principles to instruct students to read a quantity of authentic materials by selecting the suitable reading materials according to the actual status in classroom.It is beneficial to make students autonomously participate in English reading classroom by cultivating the positivity in reading and improving their reading comprehension ability.