影响中学英语阅读教学的主要因素及对策英语.doc

河北师范大学
高等教育自学考试本科毕业论文

题目：影响中学英语阅读教学的主要因素及对策

专 　 业：英语
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完成日期：年月日

The Main Factors Affecting English Reading Teaching
And Measures

BY

SHEN SUJUAN

Prof. CHEN ZHAO, tutor

Submitted to the B.A .committee in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor of Arts in the English Department of Hebei Normal University

August 2，2013

摘 要

教会学生怎样阅读和提高学生的阅读能力是我们英语教学中最重要的任务之一。但目前的情况并不能如我们所愿。影响阅读教学主要有三个方面的因素： 学生自身因素，学校因素和教师因素。为了把阅读教学搞好，我们需要一个正确的理论指导和艰苦努力的工作。本文主要谈论几种流行的的阅读教学理论，并且阐述了我在阅读教学实践中的几个观点和我所采取的提高学生阅读能力的几个措施。

关键词：阅读教学 影响因素 教学理论 措施

Abstract

Teaching students how to read and improving students’ reading ability are of the most important tasks in our English teaching. But the present situation is far from satisfactory. The main factors influencing reading teaching are: the factor of students, the factor of school and the factor of teachers. To do the job well, we need a right theory and hard work. The article talks about some main popular theories and besides, I show my opinion according to my actual teaching experience. And I also take some specific measures in my teaching.

Key words: reading teaching, influencing factors，teaching theories ， measures

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 1

Chapter I The Main Factors Affecting Reading Teaching………………2
1.The factor of school………………………………………………………2
2.The factor of teachers……………………………………………………2
3.The factor of students……………………………………………………4

Chapter II Some Rules we Should Follow in our Teaching ……………6
1.Reading is an important ability of the four basic abilities----listening, speaking, reading and writing………… 6
2.Good reading needs four conditions……………………………………6
3.Reading is an active course…………………………………………… 6

Chapter III Some Measures to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension Ability………………………………………………………… 8
1.Make students interested in reading………………………………… 8
2.Choose suitable reading materials…………………………………… 8
3.Connect reading teaching with our everyday teaching ……………8
4.Try out different methods to improve reading ability……………8
5.Some reading ways should be introduced to our students…………9
6.Enlarge students’ cultural knowledge……………………………… 9

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 11

Notes…………………………………………………………………………………12

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………… 13

Introduction

People including teachers and students begin to realize that reading comprehension is becoming more and more important in middle school teaching.
First, middle school period is the best time for students to learn a foreign language. As we know, this period lasts as long as six years. The main knowledge of English can be learned during those years. And we can also understand a foreign culture.
And the most important is that English is a window to the wide world for our students. Good habits of reading are very helpful for their future life. As we know, in the modern society, learning is a task that a person must do through his life. Large amount of information and a lot of needed knowledge and techniques are got by reading.
So we must pay much attention to our reading teaching.
But what is the actual situation like? We have to admit that the situation is far from satisfactory and we did a lot of useless work. Much time has been wasted but little achievement has been made. Our students don’t like reading English at all, so they get low marks in the examination. Why? We do work hard, then what is the matter? I think the main reason is that some of our methods are not right or even we have no method at all. Our teaching should be guided by a certain theory. Then what is it? This article aims at analyzing some common views in our teaching and trying to find some good ways to improve the students’ reading ability.
Chapter I The Main Factors Affecting Reading Teaching
1. The factor of school
In some schools, there are no reading lessons at all. Reading is considered to be an independent activity apart from the other three abilities-listening, speaking and writing. In some senior middle schools, especially in the countryside, the hardwares are too poor, there are
not reading rooms and they can’t give students any reading books , but others are different . To improve students’listening, there are many measures, such as English corner, all kinds of oral classes, and so on; to improve their writing, there are open writing lessons. From this we can see, the schools don’t attach importance to the reading lessons. Why do much work about them？But do little work about reading. The conditions of school are very important to the reading teaching. “Reading is also a basic intelligence technical ability. It is made up of a series of behaviors and processes.” ① So the school should change the mind, and pay more attention to the reading lessons.
2. The factor of teachers
In our teaching, the teachers are as guiders. They guide students how to study even how to be men. They are so important, so as teachers we must have right mind. But in fact, some teachers’ mind doesn’t suit the teaching. Especially in our reading teaching:
1). The shortcomings of least teachable theory
Some teachers have a wrong opinion in reading. According to least teachable theory, they think reading is the least teachable factor of the four basic abilities. But in fact, the four basic abilities: listening, reading, speaking and writing are supplying each other and they influence each other. To learn a language, one must do a lot of reading. Just think this question: Chinese is our mother tongue. Everyone around us can speak it fluently, but what about his reading? Many people even don’t have the habit of reading. So they can only speak, but their writing is not very good. I think teachers should be blamed for this situation. Teachers should help students form the good habit of reading because in the future society, our students have to learn much more knowledge after leaving school and reading is a main way to get information. Now that reading is a kind of ability, it can be taught in a certain way and it must be taught well. The change of our mind is very important.
2). The shortcomings of encoding and decoding theory
Some teachers order their students to remember words and phrases as many as possible because they hold the view that if a student can master more words, he will feel reading is very easy. In their opinion, reading is actually a course of understanding each word and sentence one by one. The famous linguist, Christine Nuttall once held this view. “When a writer wants to write an article, he encodes his information and finishes it. When a reader reads an article, he actually decodes the writer’s information. So writing is a process of encoding, and reading is a process of decoding.” ② Many teachers are using this theory to guide their reading teaching. They often say to their students, “Keep remembering more words. The more words you can master, the easier reading comprehension is. And you can get good marks in the exams.” ③But in fact, many students express their difficulty in reading.
Of course, it is very important for our students to master a lot of words and phrases. But it is impossible for them to remember all words in English and in the examinations, it is certain that they will meet some new words that they have never seen before. So knowing every word is not enough for our reading teaching. Because understanding an article means not only understanding words, but also grasping its general idea. In the reading process, there are some other factors affecting our understanding.
According to my actual reading teaching experience, if you want your students’ reading abilities to be improved you should ask your students to do like following:
(1)Help students make a good reading habit.
(2)Before reading, provide some background knowledge, cultural knowledge or something related to reading materials for students.
（3）Analyses sentence structure correctly and know the special meaning according to its textual environment.
(4)Reading is not a passive process but a positive one. So the reader’s knowledge structure is very important.
(5) Wide reading.
From the above explanations, we know that many factors may affect our reading comprehension. But the teachers are influenced by the theories, they don’t pay enough attention to them. So the change of our mind is necessary.
3. The factor of students
In our teaching, the students are as important as teachers. The teachers are guides and the students are objects of teaching. The two parts aren’t apart, they influence each other. So, in the teaching, the students’function shouldn’t be ignored. But some students don’t understand our teaching, and they have wrong mind in studying. For example, some students think that listening is important, so they listen to English tapes, English songs even watch English movies in or after class to improve their listening. Some students think they don’t do well in speaking, they take part in English corner .And some students think they must improve their writing, they try to write articles every day, even make a foreign pen pal. They do so much about them, but few students pay more attention to reading. They don’t think any ways to improve their reading, because they think it’s easy to read, only need to master more words and phrases. But the fact is that? No, we hear some students complain “We know most of the words in the article, but what does the writer wants to tell us on earth?” Why do they have such problems? Knowing more words and phrases is important, but it’s not enough at all. The students don’t know reading skill should be got by everyday practicing. According to Interaction theory, a theory popular in recent years, we know students should pay much attention not only to the basic abilities of reading , for example, understanding the meaning of words, phrases and sentences and knowing how to analyze sentence structures. But also to some reading techniques, such as skimming, scanning and predicting and some background knowledge.
To improve their reading, the following conditions are needed:
1). Wide knowledge.
2). Some knowledge about article structure.
3). Some knowledge about foreign culture.
Reading is a language receptive skill. The more students can read, the more information they will get, and in the future society, our students have to learn much more knowledge after leaving school and reading is a main way to get information. So students should also change their mind and pay more attention to reading.
Chapter II Some Rules we Should Follow in our Teaching
From the above, we know that we have to change our mind and some methods in our past teaching. We have to follow the following rules to guide our teaching.
1. Reading is an important ability of the four basic abilities----listening, speaking, reading and writing
Reading ability plays an important role in the English teaching. So it’s very important to develop students’reading ability. The main purpose of reading teaching is to tell them the right methods of reading、skills of reading and develop students’ reading ability. Only in this way can we make our students learn and use English better in the future.
So we teachers should pay more attention to developing students’ reading ability. Reading is a great way to enlarge vocabulary、language materials and the knowledge of language. Also, the improvement of reading ability is the base of improving English listening 、speaking and writing. Besides students can realize the real significance of learning English and experience the fun learning English. Finally a good reading ability can help our students believe that they are sure to learn English well in the future.
2. Good reading needs four conditions
1)．Large vocabulary.
2)． Good grammar knowledge for analyzing sentence structure.
3). Some effective reading techniques.
4)．Wide knowledge.
In the four conditions, knowing words and knowing how to understand sentence structures are essential to our reading comprehension. So they are important. Adams once said that the most predictor in reading is to know words correctly and quickly. But knowing every word doesn’t mean understanding a text completely.
“Effective reading doesn’t depend on recognizing every element of a sentence.”④
The later two conditions are very useful to our effective reading. But they need training and practice.
3. Reading is an active course
Successful reading is a creative course. (Clark. Silberstei. Wikdewson)
In the process of reading, readers communicate with reading materials, that is to say, they communicate with the writer. And in the process, new ideas, new meaning are also created. Psychology and aesthetics both hold the view that reading activity is a heart dialogue between readers and writers. It is also a spiritual exploration for a reader to find himself.
Chapter III Some Measures to Improve Students’Reading Comprehension Ability
1. Make students interested in reading
First, we should make students know the importance of reading. For senior students, when they have already known that reading is very important in their English study, they will have the desire to read more. This is the first step.
Second, reading is very important for their growing. Our students’ dialectical thought and creative thought are developed quickly. “By reading, they can expand their knowledge, change and form their own views. And they can make their thoughts and feelings to a higher level, and their ways and techniques are becoming higher.”⑤
2. Choose suitable reading materials
We should provide different styles of articles. There are many ways to do it. English newspapers, English journals and we can also get many from the Internet. We should choose different materials according to their different levels. I think that the articles should be a little hard, but not too hard.
3. Connect reading with our everyday teaching
When reading an article, readers are sure to meet some language barriers, such as some new words, sentences structures, and so on. And at the same time, they will also meet some non-language difficulties, or we can say some cultural ones, such as new concepts, the topic of the articles and whether the article is new or not, and so on. And the two factors are often mixed together .So analyzing difficult sentences and words, intensifying and enlarging their language knowledge are necessary and important. And this step should be done in our daily teaching, especially those in our textbooks. And at the same time, teachers should introduce some culturally-loaded words, sentences and literary quotations.
4. Try out different new ways and methods to improve reading ability
Limited reading: That m