高中英语阅读教学研究.doc

高中英语阅读教学研究A Study of the Teaching of English Reading in Middle SchoolAbstract: Nowadays，English is a very popular Language which has been learned by a lot of people in the world, especially in China. English as an important foreign language in China is learned by the people who range from children to the old. Many Chinese people try their best to learn English，but the results dont always make them satisfied. We all know that there are four language skills in learning English ：listening，speaking，reading and writing. Among the four language skills, more and more people begin to realize that reading is an efficient way in developing students sense of language, yet reading is still the weak part in English teaching in middle school. This research paper mainly analyses students existing problems and bad habits in reading. Then the author gives some constructive suggestions based on the schema theory of how to lead students to be active in reading classes. Key words: reading ； reading teaching ；Schema theory摘要: 如今英语作为一门很流行的语言被世界上人们广泛地学习。在中国很多人都在尽其所能地学习英语, 但是结果并不令人满意。我们都知道在英语学习中有四个语言技能：听、说、读、写。 在这四个技能中, 尽管越来越多的人都意识到了阅读是一个提高学习者英语学习能力的有效方法, 但我们也应该看到在中学英语教学中阅读教学仍是一个薄弱的环节。该论文将从高中英语阅读中学生的阅读习惯及存在的问题出发进行研究, 在图式理论指导下, 为高中英语阅读教学提出一些建设性的建议，引导学生如何积极参与到阅读课堂中进而使学生的阅读技能和阅读水平得以发展和提高。关键词：阅读； 中学阅读教学； 图式理论ContentsI. Introduction.1A. The background of the research.1B. The purposes of the research.1II. Literature Review.1 A. The definition of reading1 B. The models of reading 2III. Theoretical Basis of the Research.3 A. Definition of schema theory3B. Types of schema theory.4C. Significance of schema theory applying in reading teaching.5IV. Analyzing the Research.5 A. An Introduction on the investigation subjects.5B. Data getting from the investigation.5C. Analysis on the data.5D. The existing problems in reading teaching in middle school.7V. Suggestions Based on Schema Theory of Reading Teaching.8 A. Build students new schemata.8B. Enhance students vocabulary.9C. Focus on reading strategies.9D. Form good reading habits.10E. Encourage students to do some extensive reading.10VI. Conclusion11Works Cited.12I. Introduction A. The background of the researchEnglish is learned widely in the world. In China some people try their best to learn English，but the results always make them disappointed. As we all know, there are four language skills in learning English ：listening，speaking，reading and writing. Among the four language skills，which one is the important one ? A Chinese scholar ever inferred that Carrell described “For many students ,reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language or a foreign language ”(戴201). In a way, we learn English mainly through reading. English reading provides the most efficient and the most important channel of linguistic input through which students can improve their linguistic competence.B. The purposes of the research Although more and more people realize that reading is an efficient way in developing students sense of language, we should also realize that reading is still the weak part in teaching English in middle school. Some students face a lot of difficulties in reading. The study mainly analyses the existing problems and bad habits of students in reading. Then the author gives some constructive suggestions based on the schema theory of how to teach reading in middle school. II. Literature Review A. The definition of reading.Reading is regarded as one of the major goals in EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching and learning, and it is also an essential way to acquire a foreign language. As what Day and Bamford defined the meaning of reading “Reading is the construction of meaning from a printed or written message”(Wang 180). In other words，reading comprehension involves extracting the relevant information from the text and connecting the information with ones own knowledge to arrive at an understanding. By analyzing the meaning of reading，Wang Qiang(181)proposed “ Reading is a silent and individual activity since the writers intention is for the text to be read rather than heard”.According to Francoise Grellet，we know the meaning of reading as this: “Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible”(戴 202). It means that reading is the process in which the readers combine the information from a given text with their own background knowledge to make out the meaning of the written language.Lei Haiyan (142) described that reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words，sentences and connected text. So from this we see that the background knowledge，vocabulary and grammar of the reader have the important function to help the reader understand the written text. B. The models of readingThree models are often adopted by researchers to explain the process of reading: bottom-up reading model, top-down reading model and interactive reading model. Different researchers have different views about the three models of reading.1. Bottom-up model of reading A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text. It means that reading comprehension begins by processing the smallest linguistic unit (phoneme), and working towards larger units (syllable, words, phrases, sentences). And proceeds from part to whole, so it is also known as: part to whole model.The bottom-up model regards reading as a process of transforming the surface structure of a text into its deep structure. So in the bottom-up model, the reader is expected to begin with the written text, and construct meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then process the text in a series of discrete stages. The views about bottom-up reading model:According to the bottom-up reading model, the readers need to identify letters features, link these features to recognize letters, combine letters to recognize spelling patterns, link spelling patterns to recognize words, and then proceed to sentences, paragraph and text-level processing.According to Xu Jinfang (98), we can see that through the bottom-up reading model，the reader analyzes small chunks of text and gradually adds them to the text chunks until the text becomes meaningful.2. Top- down model of reading A top-down reading model is a reading model that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text, such as prior knowledge and experience. It means that the reader who already has some ideas about the meaning of the text, and proceeds from whole to part. It is also known as“ whole to part model”. In a word, in the top-down view of reading, the readers participation as well as the readers prior experience or background knowledge, that is the schematic knowledge , plays an important role in the process of reading. Here are some of the views of some researchers about the top-down reading model: A top-down reading model is a reading model that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text, it means that reading is driven by meaning (戴203). From Wang Qiang (185), we know that under the top-down model in teaching reading the teacher should teach the background knowledge first so that students equipped with such knowledge will be able to guess meaning from the printed page.3. Interactive model of reading Today some theory views reading as an interactive process. It means that the brain receives visual information and at the same time, interprets or reconstructs the meaning. The process does not only involve the printed page but also the readers knowledge of the language. It also means in the process of reading; all factors interact with each other and compensate each other. So a good reader not only should have good language skills, but also should have relevant knowledge about the topic.The researchers views about the interactive reading model:The interactive reading model recognizes the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes simultaneously throughout the reading processes(戴 207).Interactive model of reading assumes that skills at all levels are interactively available to process and interpret the text (Xu 101). According to Shu Baimin (166), we learn that interactive model of reading assumes that reading is an interactive, socio-cognitive process, involving a text, a reader and a social context within which the activity of reading takes places.III. Theoretical Basis of the ResearchA. Definition of schema theory The concept of schema was originally proposed by Barlett, a follower of Gesatt psychology. The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as schema theory, which has as one of its fundamental tenets that text, either spoken or written, does not by itself carry meaning (Long 220).According to schema theory, comprehending a text is an interactive process between the readers background knowledge and the text. Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to ones own knowledge. Schema theory can help us to focus on the prior knowledge and experience, or mental schema. B. Types of schema theory From Liu Anping we can see that the schema theory can be divided into three major types of schemata: linguistic schema, content schema and format schema (刘安平49), which are closely related to the effect of reading . 1. Linguistic schema The linguistic schema refers to the readers language knowledge, such as phonetic, vocabulary and grammar. As we all know, the reading material is composed by some abstract linguistic signs, so when we read something, we should use our own language knowledge to identify the abstract linguistic signs. From this we can learn that if we do not have the relevant linguistic schema, we can not identify the words, phrases and sentences. Generally speaking, a native reader has no difficulty in reading a text largely because of his proficiency in vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar. 2. Content schema The content schema refers to the background knowledge of the content areas of the text, of the topic a text talks about. It contains conceptual knowledge of information about what usually happens within a certain topic. Content schema is largely culture-specific. Therefore cultural schema is usually categorized as content schema. It is important to be sensitive to cultural differences, particularly, of the target culture. The cultural background of the text plays an important role in the process of reading.3. Format schema The format schema is also called the textual schema, which refers to the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written texts. It includes knowledge of different text types and genres, and also includes the acknowledgement of different texts which use different organization, language structure, and so on. With the help of the formal schema, the readers can easily find the important information of the text and predict the texts organization and cohesion, which will result in improved comprehension. C. The significance of schema theory applying in reading teaching The schema and the schema theory is a hot issue in the recent 20 years reading research. It is an effective way to improve students reading ability by utilizing schema theory in English teaching practice. If students who are short for their experiences and do not have relevant schemata, they will have some difficulties in the process of understanding the materials which they are reading. Here are some views of some scholars about the significances of utilizing schema theory in English reading teaching The teacher should apply the schema theory to the process of reading teaching. In this way, the students will get some background knowledge and their vision will be broadened. Whats more important, this way can enrich the schema in their brains(吴 40).In the course of the reading, the reader can use the schema theory to control students attention and guide them to notice which is the important part of the reading material (梁176).In the course of the pre-reading, the teacher should adopt the schema theory to help students to stimulate their own schema and use their own knowledge to predict and suppose the text (祁22).IV. The Analyzing of the Research A. An introduction of the investigation subjectsIn order to know the current situation of reading in middle school, the researcher did fifty copies of questionnaires for the middle school students. In order to ensure the date veracity, those students are chosen stochastically. The difference between boys and girls in learning English is taken into consideration. The researcher chose 25 boys and 25 girls to inquiry. B. Data getting from the investigationThrough analyzing the fifty copies of questionnaires, the researcher designed ten questions, question1, 6, 9 have two items for students to choose, and the others have three items. The researcher gets the data from the investigation as the following:choicesitemsABC138%62%224%36%40%348%22%30%424%30%46%520%32%48%668%32%760%18%22%840%38%22%926%74%1044%24%32%C. Analysis of the dataThrough analyzing the questionnaires, the research find two main phenomena of the reading in middle school :( 1) Students think reading is uninteresting; (2) Students feel reading is difficult for them. And the researcher also find some existing problems in English reading in middle school: (1) There are some bad habits of reading; (2) The limitations of vocabulary and background knowledge are two main barriers for students in the process of reading. 1. Reading is uninteresting Through the question1 of the questionnaires, when asked “Do you think English reading is interesting?”, only38% students choose “yes”, and 62% choose “no”, they think reading is boring, because they think English is uninteresting, in question 2, when asked “Do you always choose some reading material to read after class”, only 24% students choose they can initiatively choose some reading materials for reading after class. 36% students sometimes choose some reading materials to read after class. 40% students never read anything except for the reading materials in their textbooks. Therefore, we can