A Study On The Application Of Theme-based Instruction In Senior High School English Reading Teaching

Reading plays an important role in senior high school English learning.However,the current teaching situation of English reading is not optimistic.Most of teachers still adopt the teacher-centered English reading teaching method.Teachers pay more attention to the explanation of language knowledge point and neglect the understanding of reading content.In this paper,theme-based instruction is applied to the senior high school English reading teaching.The language teaching revolves around the theme and pays equal attention to content learning and language knowledge learning to improve students' English reading comprehension.Theme-based instruction is a concrete model of the content-based instruction,its theoretical foundations include Krashen's input hypothesis theory,intake theory,and Piaget's constructivism theory.Input hypothesis theory emphasizes comprehensive input,that is,“i+1”,proposes that teachers should provide students with comprehensive teaching materials.Intake theory advocates that intake is the result of the students' internalization and information processing;only the language knowledge absorbed by the students can promote language acquisition.Constructivism theory considers learners should actively construct knowledge rather than passively accept knowledge,and teacher is the teaching organizer rather than knowledge-indoctrinators.Constructivism stresses that learning is based on the authentic environment,teaching should be close to students' life,and the interaction between teachers and students should also be authentic.The study applies theme-based instruction to senior high school English reading teaching,which tries to answer the following three questions:(1)What effects does theme-based instruction have on students' English reading strategies in senior high school?(2)What is the impact of theme-based instruction on students' English reading achievements in senior high school?(3)What effects does theme-based instruction have on senior high school students' autonomous learning in English reading learning?This study conducts a 16-week teaching experiment on 100 students from two parallel classes in the first grade of a senior high school in Haicheng.50 students are in the control class and 50 students are in the experiment class.Before the experiment,the English proficiency of the two classes is ensured to be equal.The control class still adopts the traditional English reading teaching mode,and the experimental class adopts the theme-based instruction.Questionnaires,pre-test,post-test and interview are the research instruments.The data is analyzed by SPSS 20.0 software,including the analysis of independent sample T-testand paired sample T-test.The study shows that theme-based instruction has positive effects on senior high school students' English reading.There are significant differences in the use of English reading strategies,English reading achievements and English reading learning autonomy.The experiment class performs much better in using English reading strategies than the control class.Students improve their English reading achievements and they show great English reading learning autonomy in the experiment class.Therefore,theme-based instruction can be extensively implemented to senior high school English reading teaching.