A Study On The Application Of "Reading Circles" In Junior High School English Reading Teaching

As we all know,as a way of language input,reading exerts a significant influence on students' language learning.Furthermore,reading in English textbooks is the primary reading materials for students who learn English as a foreign language.But at present,students' reading achievement is barely satisfactory,and reading interest is low.It should be put on the agenda to perfect reading teaching to improve students' reading competency meanwhile provide new ideas for teachers' reading teaching.In contrast to the full application of "Reading Circles" abroad,and little attention has been paid to it in our country,especially the usage of it in learning English textbooks in junior high school.After studied Cooperative Learning,Multiple Intelligence Theory,and Reader Response Literary Criticism,the author carried out an experiment in the three-month internship during which the author taught with "Reading Circles" in the Experimental Class,and testifying its effectiveness and feasibility in reading teaching.The research questions are as follows:Question 1: Can "Reading Circles" improve students' reading ability?Question 2: Can the usage of "Reading Circles" have an impact on students' reading motivation,reading attitude,and reading strategy?Question 3: What is the teachers' opinion about utilizing "Reading Circles" in teaching reading?The author selected 86 students,coming from two parallel classes in a junior high school in Jinan,as research subjects.Both of these two classes were taught by the author using the same teaching material—PEP Go For It! Book 5.The difference lay in that the Experimental Class was treated with "Reading Circles" while learning reading passage in the textbook,and the Control Class was taught as usual,such as the PWP teaching method.Before the research,these two classes were tested separately showing no apparent disparity between them,which guaranteed the feasibility of the control experiment;at the end of the experiment,in order to find out if there are any changes in students' reading proficiency,affection,and reading strategy as well as teachers' teaching philosophy,these two classes received the post-tests respectively,andthe author interviewed three teachers.Through the analysis of tests,questionnaires,and interviews,the major findings are as follows:(1)Reading scores of the Experimental Class and Control Class are clearly different,so the use of Reading Circles can be found to improve students' reading ability.(2)The usage of"Reading Circles" can improve students' reading motivation,change their reading attitude,and enrich reading strategies.(3)Teachers were not familiar with "Reading Circles" at first,but after the experiment,they think highly of this activity and would like to try it in their reading teaching.This teaching research brought about some enlightenment: Firstly,the assignment of task and roles need to be done on the basis of the teacher's understanding of individual students;secondly,students should be allowed to finish their task with sufficient time;thirdly,teachers need to adapt to their various roles in "Reading Circles".To conclude,the author hopes the study can bring about some reflection on reading teaching in Junior high school.