A Study On The Application Of Content-based Instruction To The Teaching Of English Reading For Senior High School

Reading,as an important part of language learning,plays an important role in testing students' abilities of comprehension and analysis.With the implementation of the new curriculum reform and college entrance examination reform,reading plays an increasingly important role in senior high school English teaching.However,the current teaching of English reading in senior high schools tends to inculcate language knowledge,and the reading materials in textbooks are not fully utilized,which leads to low learning attitudes of learners and the difficulty in improving students' reading achievements(Yan Hui,2014).Content-based Instruction emphasizes that the curriculum content is the core,and it should be set around themes or subject contents.The curriculum arrangement and activities are based on students' language ability,cognitive level and emotional preference(Stryker & Leaver,1997).Instead of mechanically learning language knowledge,students' language ability is cultivated in the process of learning related content,so as to acquire the target language(Duppy,2000).It helps to improve the current senior high school English reading teaching problems.Therefore,based on Constructivism Theory,Comprehensive Input Hypothesis and Output Hypothesis,this thesis studied the influence of Content-based Instruction on senior high school students' English reading achievements and English reading attitudes.This study selected 106 students from two natural classes in senior one of the No.3 senior high school in Yining,Xinjiang as research subjects.Before the experiment,their reading comprehension achievements of the entrance examination paper were used as the pre-test data.And all of 106 students were investigated with the English reading attitude questionnaire.The experimental class mainly adopted the English reading teaching under the guidance of Content-based Instruction,while the control class continued the previous English reading teaching which was different from Content-based Instruction.After the experiment,their reading comprehension achievements of the final examination paper were taken as the post-test data.Meanwhile,all of 106 students were investigated with the English reading attitude questionnaire again.In order to further supplement and verify the results of the questionnaire,the author interviewed 10 students in the experimental class.Finally,all the data were analyzed and discussed.The results showed as follow:(1)The English reading teaching under the guidance of Content-based Instruction can improve senior high school students' English reading achievements.After adopting Content-based Instruction,the English reading mean of the experimental class students was higher than the control class students,and there was an obvious significant difference between the experimental class and the control class in English reading achievements.(2)The English reading teaching under the guidance of Content-based Instruction can influence senior high school students' attitudes towards English reading.After adopting Content-based Instruction,the means of English reading attitudes of the experimental class students were higher than the control class students in all three dimensions,especially in the dimensions of Enjoyment and Utilitarian.And there were obvious significant difference in the three dimensions between the experimental class and the control class in English reading attitudes.Based on the above research results,this study proposed the following teaching implications:(1)English reading teaching should pay attention to the way of helping students' construct their knowledge systems.And the content of English reading teaching should based on students' language levels,cognitive levels and emotional preferences.(2)In the process of learning knowledge related to reading content,various forms of language output activities play positive roles in promoting students' understanding of reading contents and helping students master language knowledge.