An Action Research On Extracurricular English Reading In Improving Senior High School Students' English Reading Scores

Reading has always been regarded as one of the most important abilities in English learning and one of the most important ways to learn English,but the current situation of reading among senior high school students,especially those in remote areas like the school the author work in,is worrying.If we want to to improve students' English reading scores and even their English reading ability,it is far from enough to rely only on reading in class.Therefore,it is very important to apply extracurricular reading teaching to reading teaching.Besides,extracurricular English reading is an important part of English learning,especially reading learning.The new English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School Students also puts forward clearer requirements for students to do extracurricular English reading and more suggestions on extracurricular English reading teaching.In the light of theories of autonomous learning theory,constructivism theory,second language acquisition theory and meta-cognitive theory,this paper focuses on the extracurricular English reading teaching in senior high school.It also refers to the researches on extracurricular English reading by domestic and foreign experts and scholars.It takes two key classes of the same level taught by the author as the research objects.Using literature research,questionnaire survey method,experimental method and interview method,the author want to look for a more effective way to improve the senior high school students' English reading ability so as the English reading scores.That is to say,this paper is an action research on the effect of extracurricular English reading in improving senior high school students' English reading scores.According to the investigation and interview,most of the students want to improve their reading ability and reading scores,but they generally have problems in vocabulary,skill and comprehension,and they also lack interest and confidence in English reading.Therefore,there is an urgent need for the students to carry out English reading training.However,according to the results of literature research,the percentage of teaching experiments is relatively small.The extracurricular English reading used in theexperiments can be basically summarized into two types,which are instructional extracurricular English reading and autonomous extracurricular English reading.The three main questions of this research are 1)whether the two extracurricular reading activities can improve students' reading performance;2)which extracurricular English reading activity can more effectively improve students' English reading scores;3)what changes will happen to students' attitudes towards extracurricular English reading.The author conducted an experiment for this research.This experiment is carried out in two key classes in Grade two which were taught by the author.The results of the experiment show that the two extracurricular reading modes can improve students' reading performance.And the experimental class which adopted instructional extracurricular English reading mode make more progress in English reading scores,and the students in the experimental class are more likely to use proper reading skills while reading.And the result of questionnaire and interview show that most of the students have changed attitudes towards extracurricular English reading.Now they are able to do planned extracurricular English reading actively,and they begin to hold a positive attitude towards extracurricular English reading.Based on the research in this paper,the author believes that teachers' instruction is very important in the future extracurricular English reading teaching in senior high school,but students' subjectivity and autonomy should also be taken into account,so that students' reading ability,reading scores and reading interest can be maximally improved.