An Empirical Study On The Application Of Sustained Silent Reading To English Reading Teaching In Senior High Schools

This thesis mainly conducts empirical study on the application of sustained silent reading to English reading teaching in senior high schools.It aims to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of sustained silent reading to stimulate high school students' reading motivation and reading ability.The improvement of students' reading ability requires continuous practice to improve their proficiency.English reading proficiency is extremely important for students to obtain information,expand their vocabulary,increase English input and improve their pragmatic ability.At present,there are still many teachers who focus too much on text translation and interpretation in English reading teaching,ignoring the cultivation of individual initiative and creativity.In addition,overemphasis on test-oriented skills in the teaching process is not conducive to the development of students' language ability.In recent years,sustained silent reading,as an effective reading teaching mode,has attracted more and more domestic scholars' attention.Sustained silent reading is different from the previous reading mode,which gradually improves reading ability by cultivating implicit reading habits.Based on social cognition theory,engagement theory,and input hypothesis theory,the thesis intends to study the effects of sustained silent reading on high school students' reading motivation and reading ability.The thesis intends to answer two questions:1)What effects does sustained silent reading have on high school students' English reading motivation?2)What effects does sustained silent reading have on high school students' English reading ability?The subjects of the study are 102 students from two parallel classes in the second grade of a senior high school in Changsha.The two classes were randomly divided into experimental and control classes.These students usually receive the same teaching content and hours,and have a similar level of English.During the experiment,the control class was taught in regular teaching mode,while the experimental class was in sustained silent reading training.The pre-test and post-test used questionnaires and test papers to examine students' reading motivation and reading ability.The experiment has been lasted for four months.The obtained data is analyzed and compared by SPSS26.0.By comparing and analyzing the data,we find the study results are as follows:(1)Sustained silent reading has a positive effect on stimulating high school students' English reading motivation.Students in the experimental class have significantly improved in the three dimensions of motivation factors(reading effectiveness,achievement value,and social factors),but the magnitude of the improvement in the reading effectiveness dimension is relatively less obvious.(2)Sustained silent reading is conducive to improving the English reading ability of high school students.After the four-month experiment,compared with the students in the control class,the students in the experimental class have made a greater progress.In short,sustained silent reading is an extracurricular reading teaching mode that can be continuously implemented without hindering the progress of conventional teaching.It helps students develop good reading habits,discover the charm ofEnglish reading,stimulate English reading motivation,and improve English reading ability.At the same time,teachers should pay attention to the selection of reading materials and provide guidance to students in the process of applying the method of sustained silent reading into teaching.They should also choose texts that meet the reading interests of high school students and provide timely help when students encounter problems during their reading.This thesis is just a tentative practice of applying sustained silent reading to high school English reading teaching.Due to the lack of my own teaching experience,insufficient theoretical knowledge reserves,and other objective conditions,there are limitations in the studying subject's regional comprehensiveness and study time.However,the author still hope that the study will help educators understand sustained silent reading and be familiar with the teaching practice of this reading mode.