The Application Of Context In The Teaching Of English Reading

The bottom-up model, the top-down model and the interactive model are influential theories in explaining the essence of the reading process. Some linguists argue that the teaching of English reading can depend on them. But researches indicate that these reading models and the teaching methods based on them are far from inclusive.Since Malinowski put forward the concept of context in 1923, many scholars both at home and abroad have probed into this field, such as Firth, Halliday, He Ziran and Hu Zhuanglin, etc. Although the linguists agree that context is very important in the teaching of English reading, there is much controversy as to the division of context. This thesis tentatively studies the application of context in the teaching of English reading from three aspects, namely, context of linguistics, context of situation and context of culture. In doing so, words and grammar points are not the only focus of English reading any more. Deixis is an important concept in context of linguistics and it plays a crucial role in the cohesion and coherence of a text. It can help students to understand a specific sentence better as well as a text as a whole. Context of situation and context of culture are about the related knowledge outside textbook, which can't be detached from a language. The application of context in the teaching of English reading will improve students'reading skills and English competency.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, is an overview about the current teaching of English reading in China. Chapter two focuses on reading. The bottom-up model, the top-down model and the interactive model are discussed here. Inspired by these reading theories, some linguists have proposed three teaching methods based on these models respectively. Chapter three is the main part of this thesis. The teaching of English reading is studied from the perspective of context, which is further divided into context of linguistics, context of situation and context of culture. The aim of this chapter is to find out how context works in practical teaching. Chapter four is a study. The subjects are put into two groups: the experimental group and the control group. To the former group, context theory is applied; while to the latter, the teacher just focuses on words and grammar points. The study is meant to compare the teaching effects between the two different teaching approaches. The last chapter is the conclusion, making a review of the whole thesis and suggesting some ways to apply context in the teaching of English reading in the future.