Effects Of Topic And Genre Familiarity On English Reading Comprehension Ability In Senior High School

Reading is an important channel to help readers get information in language learning.Based on the input hypothesis and schema theory,the research focused on the effects of topic familiarity and genre familiarity,aiming to offer insight into English reading in senior high school.The research is conducted in Liuzhou Nationality High School of Guangxi,with 116 students in Grade 1 as subjects,and the questionnaire about topic familiarity and genre familiarity,reading tests and interviews as research tools.The researcher makes use of teaching materials of the High School English Reading(6 + 1)Series for the test material based on different themes.The two-factor variance analysis is used in the research.The two research questions are as follows:(a)Do topic familiarity and genre familiarity have significant effects on high school English reading comprehension?(b)Does there exist any interaction between genre familiarity and topic familiarity? If so,what is it?In the research,SPSS21.0 software is employed for descriptive statistical analysis,two-factor analysis of variance and two simple effect tests.The research result shows that topic familiarity and genre familiarity have significant effects on reading comprehension in reading tests,which are verified in the main effect diagram.The interaction diagram of the two shows that there is a significant interaction effect between the topic familiarity and genre familiarity,which is verified by the simple effect analysis diagram.Based on the research results,the author puts forward some suggestions to improving English reading teaching in senior high schools,such as to strengthen students' background knowledge,to have the input of cross-cultural knowledge,to guide the students to analyze text structures,to choose reading materials according to genre familiarity and topic familiarity and so on.