The Application Of Genre-based Approach To English Reading Teaching In Senior High Schools

English reading ability is one of the most essential parts of students' English abilities.The New Criteria for High School English Curriculum puts high demands on students' reading ability,for students need to be able to use the language and culture knowledge to understand the meanings,purposes or attitudes conveyed by different discourses as well as analyze the structure and language features of different types of discourses.Although traditional English reading teaching method has made progress,it seems that it cannot meet these higher requirements.Genre-based approach integrates language,content and context together,showing how to organize language to convey meaning appropriately,which provides a new perspective for English reading teaching.The teaching belief hold by genre-based approach is consistent with what is advocated in New Criteria for High School English Curriculum.Thus,genre-based approach has a great potential to meet the higher requirements of English reading teaching.Nowadays,genre-based approach is mainly applied to college teaching while the applications to English reading teaching in senior high schools are relatively less.Taking the requirements made by New Criteria for High School English Curriculum into account,the author adapted Australian School's teaching-learning cycle,which is used to apply genre-based approach,into preparing to read,deconstruction of the text,linking related texts,and independent construction to design teaching plans.Two parallel classes from Grade Two in a senior high school in Jinan were chosen as experimental subjects.Genre-based approach was applied to the experimental class and traditional English reading teaching method was applied to the control class.The teaching experiment lasted for four months,and questionnaire and test were used as research instruments.Through data analysis of questionnaires and tests,the following conclusions can be drawn.Compared with the traditional English reading teaching method,genre-based approach can better improve students' reading interest and genre awareness,enhance their reading strategies,and increase their reading test scores more efficiently.Under the new teaching requirements,it is suggested that the English teachers in senior high schools should explore to apply genre-based approach to English reading teaching,and this paper can give some practical advice for them.