A Study On Core-Competency-Oriented English Reading Teaching Design In High School

In 2018,the Ministry of Education officially announced the National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools.It puts forward the concept of English learning activities based on English core competencies.English core competencies are correct values,necessary qualities and core capacities formed in the process of English learning,which mainly include four dimensions: linguistic ability,cultural consciousness,thinking quality and learning ability.Reading teaching plays an important role in senior high school English teaching.This study combines the qualitative research method with the quantitative research method to conduct an experiment for one semester with 98 students in two parallel classes(experimental class and control class)in Senior 2 of Y High School.The students in experimental class are taught by core-competency-oriented English reading teaching design and the students in control class are taught by traditional reading teaching design.The changes in students’ reading scores before and after the experiment are investigated by the pre-test and post-test,and the changes in students’ English core competencies before and after the experiment are investigated from four dimensions,which are linguistic ability,cultural consciousness,thinking quality and learning ability.In order to further support the test and questionnaire results,six students are selected from the experimental class to conduct in-depth interviews about the specific changes in students’ reading literacy after the experiment.Meanwhile,five teachers are interviewed,and ten of their reading classes are observed with their permission.The following two research questions are solved: 1.What is the current status of core-competency-oriented English reading teaching design in senior high school? 2.What effects does core-competency-oriented English reading teaching design have on students’ reading literacy?The results of the study show that some English teachers do not pay enough attention to the cultivation of students’ English core competencies,and they can not combine English core competencies with English reading teaching design well enough to improve students’ reading literacy.Most of the students’ reading achievements are improved.However,in the process of core-competency-oriented English reading teaching,it is found that the students with good English foundations pay more attention to the thematic context,cultural knowledge and discourse structure,thus the development of their reading literacy is improved;for the students with poor English foundations,there is a less effective improvement in their reading literacy.Therefore,English teachers in high school should study English core competencies in depth,combine English reading teaching design with English core competencies,and actively create effective design of teaching activities.