A Study On English Reading Teaching Strategies Based On The Thematic Context In Junior High School

Thematic context is an important concept that is explicitly proposed in the National English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017).It covers three parts: man and self,man and society,and man and nature,which provides a meaningful context for language learning.Language learning activities based on a specific thematic context enable students to better explore the thematic meaning.However,currently,in the English reading class in junior high school,many teachers still focus on language points,do not fully understand the relationship between thematic context and language teaching,thus having limited exploration on thematic meaning of the text,which become tough problems in English reading class.This study firstly investigates the current situation of junior high schools English teachers' understanding and exploration of the thematic context in reading class,then selects three National Excellent English Classes in Junior High School(Reading Classes)for a comprehensive study.Through systematic observation,transcription,and analysis of videos,this paper analyzes the reading teaching strategies based on the thematic context employed by excellent teachers,then summarizes related teaching strategies according to the core research questions,in order to provide useful suggestions for teachers in their daily teaching.This study mainly discusses the following questions:(1)What's English teachers' understanding and exploration of the thematic context in junior high school English reading class?(2)What reading teaching strategies do excellent teachers implement based on the thematic context in junior high school English class?(3)How do excellent teachers implement these reading teaching strategies in junior high school English class?The major findings of the research can be summarized as follows.First of all,although English teachers realize the significance of thematic context,their understanding and exploration of it in reading class are far from enough.Secondly,from a micro perspective,the teaching strategies they usually use are rich,such as creating the context or organizing effective discussions,and follow a main line from introducing thematic meaning to reviewing,deepening,internalizing and transferring knowledge according to the thematic meaning.Thirdly,when excellent teachers specifically implement these strategies,all their teaching designs are closely linked with the thematic meaing and play different roles in exploring thematic meaning.Finally,from a macro perspective,excellent teachers focus on the second stage which leads students to explore thematic meaning from surface to deep.They employ various teaching strategies to promote students' understanding of thematic meaning and make sufficient preparations for sublimating the thematic meaning.In the end,the pedagogical implications are proposed as follows.To begin with,with the increasing emphasis on the thematic context,how to implement reading teaching strategies based on it should receive more attention and it's necessary to provide more training for teachers to improve their reading instruction.Secondly,when designing reading teaching strategies based on the thematic context,teachers should regard the in-depth understanding of thematic meaning as a premise and establish an appropriate correlation between the selected strategies and exploring the thematic meaning.Thirdly,in the process of strategies implementation,teachers should give full consideration to adopting strategies conducive to exploring thematic meaning,then effectively extract the key information in text,actively use various resources in life.Fourthly,teachers should follow students' cognitive process and adopt rich teaching strategies to lead students to internalize the thematic meaning and then externalize it in the thematic context.