The Power Of YAL Reading Materials In Fostering Senior High Students' Intrinsic Motivation In English Reading

Reading plays an important role among the four basic language skills in English learning. And reading motivation, especially intrinsic reading motivation is the key factor influencing reading proficiency. Young Adult Literature (YAL) fits the physiological and psychological needs of young adults, and its subject matter concerns topics that students care about, so it should be quite effective as a material to stimulate students'intrinsic reading motivation. But up to now, there are few empirical researches in this aspect at home.Considering that the newly published English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School is more demanding on learners'reading amount and reading ability and the fact that students lack the interest in reading universally, the authoress of this thesis carried out a 5-month experiment in Haidian Experimental High School. The subjects involved in the study were 80 students of Grade Two, divided into one experimental group (EG) and one control group (CG). The experimental group read Young Adult Literature and received the reading strategies training every week while the control group took normal English classes.The results of the present study indicate that Young Adult Literature has positive effect on the cultivation of Chinese senior high students'intrinsic English reading motivation, and intrinsic reading motivation can raise students'reading proficiency effectively. Based on the results, the authoress suggests that Young Adult Literature should become part of the supplemental reading material and gradually be introduced into English class.