Action Research On The Effects Of English Reading Teaching Based On Thematic Meaning On Senior High School Students' Thinking Quality

The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017)(abbreviated as ECSSHS)proposes that the aim for English course is to cultivate students' English key competence,including language ability,cultural awareness,thinking quality and learning ability.Thinking quality,as an aspect neglected in the present English teaching practice for a long time,has been entitled as one of the four main components of the English key competence,which indicates that “the cultivation of students' thinking quality has become a universal requirement for all students in schools rather than a privilege for top students in class”.There are many ways to develop students 'thinking quality in English teaching and learning,English reading teaching is one of them.However,as one of the most important means to cultivate students' thinking quality,English reading teaching in present practice fails to do its mission.This mechanic,fragmented and superficial reading teaching mode puts more weight on knowledge rather than ability and pays more attention to rote learning rather than the development of thinking,which enormously hinders the development of senior high school students' thinking quality in English course.Based on these problems,this research pays more attention to thematic meaning that is proposed in the new curriculum and puts the reading teaching based on thematic meaning into action research with the purpose of exploring whether this kind of reading teaching method can influence senior high school students' thinking quality.Sixty-five Grade-one students who come from a school in Sichuan are involved in this research and it lasts for about 14 weeks in all.During the process of this action research,questionnaire,interview and teaching log are utilized to collect data.And the research attempts to address the following three questions:Question One: Can English reading teaching based on thematic meaning influence senior high school students' thinking quality?Question Two: What's the effect of English reading teaching based on thematic meaning on senior high school students' thinking quality? And its characteristics?Question Three: Are there any significant differences in the impact that the English reading teaching based on thematic meaning exerts on the thinking quality of students of different learning levels?The research yields the following findings: Firstly,the reading teaching based on thematic meaning can improve senior high school students' thinking quality to some extent.Secondly,the reading teaching based on thematic meaning can effectively improve senior high school students' observing and discovering ability,information retrieving and transforming ability,conceptualizing ability,logic thinking ability,critical thinking ability,and creative thinking ability,especially their information retrieving and transforming ability and logic thinking ability.Thirdly,the reading teaching based on thematic meaning can significantly influence and improve the thinking quality of high and intermediate learning level students.However,it shows no significant difference on the thinking quality of low learning level students.