A Study Of Senior High School Learners’ Extracurricular English Reading Attitudes And Behavior

As one of the receptive skills of English,English reading is critical to the formation of language ability.Language ability,moreover,as one of the English subject core competencies,is the basis for forming the other three English subject core competencies,namely cultural awareness,thinking capacity,and learning ability.However,most Chinese senior high school students do English reading only in the classroom,read mostly textbook contents,and focus on improving their reading skills.It might be difficult for students to meet the reading amount and frequency required by the curriculum standards,and they lack the practice of using the reading skills learned in class to read for comprehension.Thus,to change this situation,one possible remedy is to follow the General Senior High School Curriculum Standards’ requirement and increase students’ extracurricular English reading.In addition,reading as an aspect of English learning is influenced by psychological factors.Specifically,students’ extracurricular English reading attitudes have a significant impact on extracurricular English reading behavior.Hence,this study explored the students’ extracurricular English reading attitudes and behavior in senior high school and their relationship.The following four research questions were discussed:(1)What are the senior high school students’ attitudes towards extracurricular English reading?(2)What are the relationships among cognitive,affective and conative components of reading attitudes?(3)What is senior high school students’extracurricular English reading behavior like?(4)What is the relationship between reading attitudes and reading behavior?Based on the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior and the comprehensible input hypothesis,355 senior high school students of Grade Ten from a fourstar senior high school in a south Chinese city were randomly selected as participants in this study.Data related to students’ extracurricular English reading attitudes and behavior were collected through two instruments:a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews.The obtained data were subjected to analysis by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0.This study is expected to enrich the research on extracurricular English reading attitudes in China and investigate the relationship between reading attitudes and behavior to provide useful suggestions for students and English teachers.The main findings are presented as follows:Firstly,senior high school students in the study generally have positive extracurricular English reading attitudes.The cognitive component is more positive than the conative component,whereas the affective component is negative.Secondly,the affective component of extracurricular English reading attitudes is not influenced by the cognitive component.And the conative component is influenced positively by the cognitive component in combination with the affective component.Thirdly,the reading behavior of senior high school students in this study is generally favorable,with the use of reading strategies in pre-,during-,and post-reading stages all being favorable.However,the reading frequency and amount are low.Lastly,there is a reciprocal relationship between extracurricular English reading attitudes and behavior.Moreover,the cognitive,affective,and conative components of extracurricular English reading attitudes each can directly affect extracurricular English reading behavior.The cognitive and affective components can also combine to indirectly influence behavior by affecting the conative component.This study provides empirical evidence for the effect of extracurricular English reading attitudes on reading behavior.Furthermore,some pedagogical suggestions are given to maintain senior high school students’ positive attitudes toward extracurricular English reading and promote their extracurricular English reading behavior,thus ultimately to develop their English reading literacy.