A Survey On Students' Use Of English Reading Strategies In Secondary Vocational Schools

English reading is an important approach to acquire language input for the Chinese learners and also an important skill of English.It is well known that good reading strategies will help to make reading more fluently and quickly.So,it's necessary to make a survey on reading strategies of the Chinese students.From 1980 s,domestic scholars began to show concerns about learning strategies,but their research subjects mainly cover graduate students,post-graduate students and high school students,only a few researches are about vocational school students,especially secondary vocational school students.This study tries to explore the situation of the students' use of English reading strategies in Nanbo Vocational & Technical School by questionnaire and interview.Specific questions are addressed to1)What's the general situation of the reading strategies of the secondary vocational school students?2)What difference exists in the use of the reading strategies among the students of the three majors?3)What are the causes for the difference in the students' use of reading strategies?With the use of the descriptive analysis,ANOVA and LSD,the research results show that 1)The students' use of reading strategies is at medium level.There is no significant difference among these three categories of strategies.But the use of cognitive strategies(M=3.331)is a little higher than that of affective/social strategies(M=3.125),and the use of meta-cognitive strategies is the lowest.2)The strategies use of BE students is the best.There exists significant difference between students of BE and IT majors,and between students of BE and Auto majors.However,there is no great difference between students of IT and Auto majors.In the threedifferent dimensions,there is significant difference between students of BE and Auto.Between the students of IT and BE,significant difference only exists in meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies.There is no significant difference between students of IT and Auto in the three dimensions.3)Students majoring in Business English are more interested in English reading,have a better foundation,and have a higher understanding and application of English reading strategies than the other two majors.International Trade major is more closely related to English than Automation major and involves more English knowledge.Automation students have the weakest English foundation,lack interest in English,and seldom use reading strategies.Based on the results,responding suggestions are put forward for both English teachers and students.Firstly,English teachers should pay great attention to the training of reading methods and strategies and adjust their teaching methods according to the characteristics of the different major students.Secondly,the students should understand the importance of reading strategies and develop good reading habits and strategies.