A Study On The Effectiveness Of "Literature Circles" Mode In English Reading Teaching In Rural Senior High Schools

Reading teaching is an important part in senior high school English teaching,which can be reflected in the compilation of high school English textbooks currently in use.Under the background of examination-oriented education,the utilitarianism of teaching makes English teachers count too much on textbooks and conduct intensive reading for students,ignoring the guidance of extensive reading.However,the new English Curriculum Standard puts forward clear requirements for students' extracurricular reading activities.But for rural senior students,the amount of their extracurricular reading can't meet the requirements of the Curriculum Standard owing to various reasons.Whereas the main reasons are that most students haven't formed good reading habits since a young age and their reading interests are low,so their reading attitudes tend to be negative.In order to stimulate students' motivation to learn English,change their negative reading attitudes and improve their reading ability,this study introduces “Literature Circles” mode,which is also called “Reading Circles” based on Reader Response Theory,Constructivism Theory and Humanistic Learning Theory,and explores its effectiveness in English reading teaching in rural senior high schools.Therefore,this study tries to answer the following three questions:(1)What changes of students' English reading attitudes occur after applying “Literature Circles” mode?(2)How does “Literature Circles” mode influence students' English reading ability compared with the traditional reading mode?(3)What are students' receptions of “Literature Circles” mode?In this study,students from two parallel classes of grade one in Xin'an Senior High School in Anqing City were the subjects.In order to meet the research needs,students in the controlled class took English Weekly as the reading material with the traditional reading mode while students in the experimental class adopted “Literature Circles” mode to read the bookworm series.Both classes were given the same reading teaching periods to ensure the scientificity of the research.In the one-semester experiment,the author conducted a questionnaire survey,a pre-test and a post-test for the two classes respectively.Besides,an interview was conducted only in the experimental class after the experiment.The results show that this mode can effectively change students' English reading attitudes and is superior to the traditional reading mode in improving students' English reading comprehension ability.The results from the interview show that students hold positive attitudes towards this reading mode.The results of this study confirm the effectiveness of applying “Literature Circles” mode in English reading teaching in rural senior high schools.The author hopes that more teachers will attach great importance to the instruction of extracurricular reading and extend the implementation of this reading mode in order to enhance the quality of English reading teaching in rural senior high schools.