英語(yǔ)閱讀興趣培養(yǎng)與閱讀能力 英語(yǔ)專業(yè)畢業(yè)論文

Students Reading Interest & Their Reading Ability 2004春英語(yǔ)本科 Li San1. Introduction I have been teaching the students who are in their second year of a junior middle school. In my teaching Ive found there are some problems. Now Ill finish my study in Gansu TV University . I hope I can solve the problems that have troubled me for some time through the action research so that I can apply my knowledge and theory into practice which I learned from Gansu TV University. The purpose of learning a language is usually for communication, and communication involves all four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Most of information we have got is from reading, but our students have much difficulty in reading .so how to improve the reading ability of the students (especially Junior Middle School students) is a troublesome problem for teachers. I have taken some measures to deal with the problem, from increasing students interest in English study to teaching them how to remember more words, from reading for gist, from reading to locate specific information, from inferring writers attitude. And now they have achieved remarkable success with my instruction and my help together with their own diligence. 2. Problem identification As we all know, the purpose of learning a knowledge is usually for communication. Communication involves all four skills :speaking ,listening, reading and writing ,When a person is in front of you ,of course ,you communicate by speaking ,listening to his response and replying appropriately ,then you may get information from each other. However we get information mainly through reading because anyone cant always stand in front of you. But how to express your own ideas or understand others thoughts correctly ,its a big problem for students, especially for Junior School students ,because if they want to fight a beautiful fight in their English exam ,they must pass a sever test -winning a high score ,but some of them have to admit that there is a long distance between their aims and their present reading situation. 2.1 Problem analysis For the students reading situation, it is hard to say. Some students are afraid to read because they have too many new words which they dont know. Second, some students recognise every word but still fail to grasp its meaning. They have not adequate knowledge of grammar. They cant find the whole stand of a sentence but alone. Some students own few reading strategies. Some students dont have a mount of background knowledge, so they cant understand the whole passage. Worst of all, some students dont have automatic decoding skill (i.e. quick recognition of vocabulary and grammar).They often mix up the different meanings of a word. 2.1.1 Analytic method I was led to a series of questions through thorough thinking. Why so many of my students usually had problems in their reading but they did not do the same thing, and still a few others read quite well? Why is it the case? Is it whether they think English is important? Do they all like English? Did they practice reading English very hard after class? Just did their English teacher in school give them formal instructions and enough time to practice? And is the time they took for learning English long enough to avoid such problems? If all answers to the questions above are positive, that probably means my teaching activities were poorly designed and the problem was actually caused by myself, not by my students. 2.1.2 Questionnaire survey I made a pilot investigation in order to know clearly the situation. For this reason, I designed a questionnaire (See Appendix 1) to find out the true causes of the problem. Which are not easily observed. I intended to get more detailed and more exact opinions from all students in Class 4 and Class 5 through the questionnaire. And I tried to make it as scientific and effective as possible. At first I asked twelve students who were at different English levels to try out the questionnaire. Then I modified some of the items involving attitude, motivation and self-concepts. After that I distributed the questionnaire to my students and gave them ten minuets to fill it out. One hundred and twenty students returned their questionnaires. The return rate is about 100%. When all these data was collected, I made some statistical evaluation. Table I . Survey Result on English Teaching 1. English reading is a. Very difficult 52 b. A little difficult 48 c. Easy 15 d. Very easy 5 2. Im eager to a. read English article well 120 3. Have you tried reading in English actively a. Yes 62 b. No 40 c. Want to try but didnt yet 18 Its easy to discover that the students are eager to read English very well. The vital point is how to improve their reading skill. This should be analyzed further. 2.1.3 Brainstorming activation When I was engaged in the problem analysis, I often consulted my thesis supervisor Mr. Zhang and frequently talked to my colleagues Wang, Wu and Xie about all the problems I encountered. They gave me a lot of instruction and suggestions so that I considered the problem more completely and thoroughly. 2.1.4 Cause analysis Under this situation, I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them partially by the data gained above and partially by my observation. Why did some of my students often make various mistakes in reading? In order to know this issue more clearly, I designed cause exploration as follows. A: The teachers side Is it because the teaching conducting is poorly designed? Is it because of the poor model of the teacher? So the students reading situation is necessary to be changed, but the situation is just like a disease, it has its deep root. At first, it is heavily influenced by the old teaching pattern -the Grammar Translation method. We spend too much time on grammar point being taught by that lesson in this way. Its a language teaching method based on the study of texts in the target language, which have to be explained and studied in the mother tongue and then translated. The students taught by that method maybe only pay attention to the sentences logically and theoretical yet they dare not chuck away the important information. Its too slow and a waste of time in reading. B. The students side Some students have pool vocabulary. Some students do not know the importance of the usage of their own practice. Most students have too poor background knowledge about English culture. C. The class size There are more than 50 students in my two of classes. It is really difficult to control them in such a large class. In class, I have not enough time to provide the students to practice reading. On the other hand there are few opportunity for a face-to-face guiding between my students and I, of all the causes, I believe that the teacher is mainly responsible for the failure. I made a questionnaire among the students so as to know what they think about the problem. But how to put the solution of the problem into daily teaching; how to raise the students interest in English study .how to develop students inferential ability, it is very important and necessary. As a Junior School English teacher ,I have taken some measures ,which include three main steps. The results. Through the problem analysis, I came to know why some of my students cant read well. The results indicated that three reasons . They are here as follows: 1. Lack of basic and necessary language. 2. Lack of interest 3. Lack of reading practice. Finishing all cause analysis, I made up my mind to solve the above problems. 2.2. Project objective In order to make the students confident, the best way and the first way is to promote their ability of reading in English and extend their mount of English words. My project objective is that students can employing different reading strategies to suit different reading purposes . 2.3. Project hypothesis It is hypothesized that students can understand and do effective exercises. This method benefits the cultivation of students reading ability in English, which is the purpose of language learning. The students will never be puzzled in reading. If their interests are aroused, they will have confidence to engage in various reading practices. 2.4. Project rationale 2.4.1. The role of reading At the early stage of the language learning it offers a way out in case the students cannot get the message after fast reading. As we know, misunderstanding or poor understanding may lead to breakdowns in reading. so I have taken many measures to improve their ability. The first step is to run the basic skills, such as basic vocabulary elementary knowledge. Its necessary to encourage students to remember words and their interrelation morphologies ,as many as possible and a number of words which the students can remember or master by teaching them the knowledge about affix .As we all know ,each word is like each brick ,it is the most basic material for putting up a high building the more ,the better. However, even if we have mastered too many words, but we dont know the right meaning of the sentences .We should have adequate knowledge of grammar. The second step, I work hard at fostering the interest in English study, As the saying goes: “Interest is the best teacher ”. If we improve the students interest in English, they will learn English in active way. to listen, to speak, to read, even to write .In class ,if teachers can speak English as much as possible ,at first ,it will wake up students curiosity ,it will bring unexpected result to the whole teaching , it will exert an imperceptible influence to the students thinking and maybe he or she will think “can I speak English as well as my teacher ?”,then the strong curiosity can provoke students ,helping them to attempt to speak out his /her own idea in English bravely .The teachers speaking English in class can construct an atmosphere of speaking English, and students bathed or buried in the atmosphere may say what they want to say, even though in broken English. If the teacher tells the students to get more background knowledge about the article before they read it, they will probably understand it more easily .So we can lead the students to take active part in discussion. In real life, the language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) are combined , So, in the classroom ,teachers have to set up situations, in which students can recreate these real life activities. The third step, I give the students more reading articles to do after class. If they meet sentences in English more frequently, I think they will be strongly impressed on their memories , and then they will help them to avoid mixing the meanings in reading. Of course different purposes need different reading strategies. Finally, we should aware of efficient reading skills. 2.4.2 The role of students I expect all my students to feel that reading is interesting and useful and enjoy my lessons. I also want them to realize that they can read well by themselves with full of confidence. 2.4.3 The role of the teacher We teachers should take advantage of the traditional way and also create more excellent ways to meet the requirement of “Teaching and Learning summary”. 3. Reading work design At first, I think basic language is the most important for a learner, it is just like building bricks. In my project both input and output are enhanced. I decide to improve my teaching, giving my students some review lessons to review the basic vocabulary and sentence structures. At the same time, I ask them to make sentences with them. Nothing should be spoken before it has been heard. In my project, I decide to improve my teaching method in several ways. I would first help the students understand the whole listening materials with their ears and imitate sentence by sentence outside class. After the barriers of the hearing are removed, the successful communication can be carried out. Then in some suitable areas, they can turn their remarks to words written on the paper. Encourage students to read English materials as more as possible .Because wide reading offer students more chance to meet English, especially to read more funny, interesting materials will give students great help, such as some interesting English fictions, English stories full of humor, English jokes, English letters, English E-mails and popular science materials with proper difficulty, reports about entertainment, they will increase the students interest in English. In reading process, Ill try my best to help my students increase their reading speed and jog their memory, then form efficient methods of reading so that the students reading skill will be developed. I designed four activities to be tried out in four weeks so as to test the hypothesis. Timetable of the project design Grade 8 in junior school Week 1 Unit topic： School trips Objectives：To locate specific information Practice Activity :Correct the mistakes in the statements Time (Minutes):45 Week 2 Unit topic：People we admire Objectives: To increase reading speed and efficiency Practice Activity: Scan and extract the relevant information to fill in the chart Time (Minutes):45 Week 3 Unit topic: Life goals Objectives: To jog memory Practice Activity: Scan and line the main information to fill in the table Time (Minutes):45 Week 4 Unit topic: Chores Objectives: To form efficient methods of reading Practice Activity: Make notes to fill in the chart Time (minutes):45 At the same time, I made measures to make up for students lacks in basic knowledge. I have made the same steps with my weekly activities. Week 1 Activity 1 All the above is mainly what I think about how to improve the students reading interest and ability, but “Pure gold proves its worth in a blazing fire ”, no matter how good the ideas are they must prove their worth in practice. Facing the real students, the true writing situation, I conducted exercises with live ammunition to my students: from basic and necessary language, from confidence due to psychological barrier, from reading practice ,I tried my best to train my students reading ability. The first step, I gave my students an important task-to remember words as many as possible. Teach how to guess the meaning of a new word according to the knowledge about affix and how to compare the different meanings of a word according to the structure. Guide students to practice how to get the general idea of an article and how to locate specific information. Of course to increase the students interest is necessary to use in each activity. After learning some skills I give them a task to practise. This activity is based on Unit 8 , Grade 8 Students Book A Go for it. Purpose: To learn how to talk about events in the past, simple past of regular and irregular verbs . Instructions: The students learn more reading skills to get the details. Procedure: First increase their interest with asking them to talk about their school trip. After all the students know the purpose and how to do it, then I ask the students to read as quickly as possible to get the gist. Next tell them read again more carefully and line the activities that they did on the trip .Finally ask them to correct the sentences in the chart and check the answers with the whole class. Week 2 Activity 2: This activity is based on Unit 9 , Grade 8 Students Book A Go for it. Purpose: To learn how to talk about famous people, passive voice and adverbial clauses with when. Instructions: To increase students reading speed and efficiency .The students should learn more reading skills to get the gist and details. Procedure: First talk about some famous people in order to increase their interest. Then ask them to scan and extract the relevant information to fill in the chart. They should work in pairs so that they can finish it very soon. Week 3 Activity 3 : This activity is based on Unit10 , Grade 8 Students Book A Go for it. Purpose: To learn how to talk about future intentions. Be able to use “be going to”. Instructions: Students are able to jog their memory . Procedure: First lead the students to talk about what they are going to be in order to prepare for the reading .Then tell students what to read for and teach them how to do it. Finally ask them to write down the activity phrases and give them another reading article to read after class. Week 4 Activity 4: This activity is based on Unit 11 , Grade 8 Students Book A Go for it Purpose: To learn how to make polite requests and ask for permission. Instructions: The students should form efficient methods of reading. Procedure: To tell Ss to gather the expressions of chores what will be used in practice. Tell them to pay more attention to the use of “do” and “make”. Then fill in the blanks with do and make. Ask them to discuss what they like to do or hate to do and give reasons. Next read another article. Get the students to line the activities and divide them into three kinds. 4. Project implementation 4.1 Principle of implementation The principles of the project implementation are given as follows: 1. Understanding precedence over expressing Only when students understand all they have learned they can express themselves and express properly. 2. Collective activity precedence over individual activity In order to encourage every student to take their pens, it is necessary to let students practice collectively first and then ask them to practice individually, especially for the topics they are not familiar with. 3. Speaking precedence over reading. 4.2 Process of implementation It took four weeks for me to carry out my project design. The following are my project implement: Week 1 Activity 1: Date :Thursday ,December 9 8:30-9:15 am. Class 147 Step1: Revision .Check the homework . Step2: Pre-reading. SB. Page 49 T: In this unit, we talk about events in the past. For example our school trip. Did you have a school trip? Where did you go? How did you go there? What did you do there? Was it interesting or boring? Why? Now tell your partners about your school trip as much as possible. S: Work in small groups to talk about their trips. T: Who can tell us your trip? S1: Last Sunday, we went to the Laojun Mount. We went there on foot.We had a picnic there. We saw a temple on the top of the mount. There was only one monk in it. The monk told us not to cook meat or fish etc because we must fast in the temple and we cant eat meat. We still had a great time. T: Very good. But now well learn a new article. At first please turn your books to Page 49.Activity 3a.Look at the picture. Its so strange. Whats it? Yeah its an octopus. Do you know where it lives? Yes, in the sea. What place else? Oh good in an aquarium. From this picture, where can you precast they went? Step 3: While-reading First ask Ss to skim the article, encourage Ss to speak out the main idea. Then tell them to scan for details: Did they enjoy themselves? Where did they go and what did they see there? How did they come back? You should read through the passage and get the details. Step 4: Post-reading Ask Ss to note the new words and expressions. Ask Ss to correct the statements below. And check with the whole class. Tell Ss to retell the story in pairs in order to jog their memory. Homework 1.Remember following words and expressions: had a great time , went , visited , watched a movie / a dolphin show , saw , bought lots of gifts , took the bus , at the end , cleaned the bus. That sounds interesting/boring. 2.Read the passage on Page 51.You should find out the activities in the text and write them in the chart. You may give your opinion for the yard sail if