An Investigation Of NSEC(1-5) Pre-reading Section Teaching

In China,reading teaching has always been the core of English teaching in senior high school.As the first step of reading teaching,pre-reading activities play an important role in reading teaching.Effective pre-reading activities can activate or establish students'relevant background knowledge,stimulate students' interest in reading,and promote their subsequent reading comprehension.As a school-based research,this study takes Wuhan No.6 Middle School as an example.Based on Schema Theory and Affective Filter Hypothesis,the study employs the methods of questionnaire,interview and class observation.By investigating 260 senior high school students and six English teachers in Wuhan No.6 Middle School,the author aims to answer the following research questions:(1)What kind of teaching activities are included in the pre-reading section of NSEC(1-5)?(2)What are the attitudes and views of teachers and students towards pre-reading activities?(3)How are the pre-reading activities implemented in real English classroom of senior high school?Through text analysis,it is found that the main forms of activity in the pre-reading section of NSEC(1-5)are predicting the content of the passage and topic discussion.There are basically no other types of activities,which is relatively homogeneous.The main teaching form of topic related activities in the pre-reading section is group discussion.The design of the section focuses on the training of English speaking skills and promotes interactive and cooperative teaching.In this study,it can be seen that pre-reading activities in Wuhan No.6 Middle School have been widely valued.Teachers and students have recognized the necessity of pre-reading activities.Most of the new lessons have pre-reading activities.Teachers have different understandings of the pre-reading activities,and the pre-reading activities used in actual teaching are also different.The results of the questionnaire show that students have more expectations on the diversity and attractiveness of pre-reading activities.Through classroom observation,most teachers deal with the pre-reading section in a flexible way,but the vocabulary pre-teaching methods in the pre-reading activities are still very traditional and mechanical.The practical classroom teaching effect of pre-reading activities needs to be improved.Teachers have not yet fully explored the role of this section in improving students' speaking ability.In practical teaching,more attention is paid to language points than to speaking.Most students' thinking is not so active in the process of the pre-reading activities.They do not actively participate in the pre-reading activities either.The actual teaching effect has not reached the purpose of stimulating students' reading interest and promoting better reading.Based on the results of this study,some corresponding suggestions are put forward for the teaching of English pre-reading activities in senior high schools,aiming to provide some ideas and references for high school English teachers and subsequent researchers.Meanwhile,it is hoped that the findings of the study could enrich the application of the theory of textbook analysis and evaluation to the empirical research on the pre-reading section of NSEC(1-5)textbooks as well as provide suggestions for teachers to take good advantage of the textbook and for textbook writers to revise the textbook better.