| Reading is an essential ability to learn a language. It is the foundation of mastering a language as well as a main tool to obtain information. It is also a central part of carrying out quality education in the teaching of English in high school. In regard to English teaching, high school is a start to train students' reading skills and strategies. So, how to teach reading is of great importance. The English Syllabus for High School that our country has promulgated definitely emphasizes the importance of reading in English teaching. The new curriculum standard (2000) reiterates: High school English teaching should make the students' basic knowledge stronger and develop their four basic language abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing, laying emphasis on the training of their reading ability, so that they can have a solid foundation for the further studies and for the use of English in the future. Scholars at home and abroad have made many researches on English reading teaching and have a lot with many related articles and works published. In the light of all these researches and achievements that have achieved and according to the specific way of inquisition analysis and my several years of English teaching practice in high school , this thesis aims to probe into the problems of high school students' English reading guided by some modern language teaching theories.Although different linguists have defined reading differently, its core meaning is consistent. That is, reading is a complex and active process of psychoanalysis. In this process, the reader sifts the encoded message to concrete information, sorts out and selects what he/she needs, checks it and then reconstructs the information they need. This is a cognitive process of communication between the reader and the writer, in which the reader will refer to his/her own experience and the information in his/her brain. To carry out the communication, the reader should understand what the writer is trying to suggest and explain in the encoded message and make all the language codes meaningful by using some reading skills and strategies. So, the process of reading is actually a process of obtaining information from the encoded language. This is a process of inputting as well as a kind of integrated ability. Different ways of dealing with the encoded language will surely affect the comprehension and reading speed. Through my own teaching experience as well as practical observation and analysis of statistics, I find that most high school students have such problems in their reading as follows: inappropriate methods of reading, low reading speed and inefficient comprehension. These results lie in two main factors: linguistic factors and non-linguistic factors. Linguistic factors include abilities of thinking in English and the abilities of using it, knowledge of English and vocabulary. Non-linguistic factors include reading skills and strategies, affection (interest, motivation, attitudes, beliefs),background knowledge, reading habits and the teachers' way of conducting reading classes.As the old saying goes, to give a man a fish, he can only eat for a short time. If you tell him how to fish, he will benefit by this for an age. When we teach reading in senior school, we hold the objective to develop students' language competence of communication with the writer. We should regard reading as an actual developing process of mastering reading skills and strategies. So, the procedure of reading should be student-determined. In reading classes, the teacher should train students how to read and stimulate them to participate in reading and discussing so as to guide them to an active and effective reading. When necessary, students should be instructed to combine what they read in class with what they have learned outside class, so that they can have enough practice in reading. In a reading class, the training of reading skills and strategies should come first and emphasis should be laid on the analysis and understanding of the context and st... |
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