The Application Of Synonym Substitution Strategies From The Perspective Of Authentication Theory To Senior High School English Reading Teaching

Since the New English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017)(short for New Curriculum Standard)was published,English reading comprehension has played a very significant part in all kinds of English examinations in senior high school.Thus,how to improve learners' reading comprehension competence has become a concerning issue among English teachers and researchers.This thesis focuses on learning strategies and learning process,hoping that learners' reading competence can be enhanced with synonym substitution strategies.Under the perspective of authentication theory put forward by American educator Leo van Lier,this study aims at applying synonym substitution strategies to reading comprehension teaching,paying attention to learners' learning processes,knowledge internalization and reading competence so that learners' learning processes can be authentic.This thesis also hopes to help students analyze passage structure.Furthermore,learners' English discourse awareness will be improved.There are three research questions to be discussed in this study.(1)How do synonym substitution strategies facilitate learners' authentication in their learning process?(2)What kind of impact do synonym substitution strategies have on learners' reading ability?(3)How do synonym substitution strategies affect learners' discourse awareness when English reading is involved?In this study,102 freshmen in two classes from Xiong Yue Senior High School in Yingkou city were the participants.One was taken as the experimental class and the other was the control class.Both classes had 51 students,respectively.Before the teaching experiment,all of students in the two classes had a pre-test.Students in the experimental class needed to fill the pre-questionnaires.After that,the experiment was conducted for about 17 teaching weeks.During this period,the unique difference between EC and CC was teaching method.After the teaching experiment,all of students in EC and CC had post-test.According to data analysis with SPSS 23.0,both classes made progress.What's more,students in EC make greater progress than that of counterparts in CC.In addition,when students in EC filled post-questionnaire and had an interview,they also held positive attitude towards synonym substitution strategies.There are three major findings:Firstly,synonym substitution strategies can make learners' learning process authenticate.By using synonym substitution strategies to seek synonyms,learners can proactively understand passage meaning with existing knowledge,build knowledge system and internalize the new knowledge.Secondly,synonym substitution strategies have a positive impact on learners' reading competence.According to the experiment results,after the teaching experiment,students in EC get the higher grades than those of the counterparts in CC.Thirdly,synonym substitution strategies can improve learners' discourse awareness.Based on questionnaires and the interview,learners are capable of summarizing discourse and paragraph types,guessing new words and summarizing passage's main idea by means of discourse with synonym substitution strategies.Briefly,synonym substitution strategies have a positive impact on learners' reading comprehension ability and the authentication of learning process.According to results of data analysis,the corresponding pedagogical implications are given for teaching and learning activities.The author proposes that learners should analyze discourse with suitable learning strategies in order to internalize knowledge so that learning process can be authenticated.Some limitations of this study as well as suggestions for the further research are also mentioned in the thesis.