An Action Research Aiming To Develop The Senior Students' Ability Of English Controlled Reading

Reading is one of the efficient ways of acquiring information and knowledge. As for those learners who use English as their foreign language, English reading is not only the end of English learning, but also the means of it. For this reason, English reading is one of the most important competences which the English learners should have, especially for the Senior Grade III students, because reading comprehension in NMET (National Matriculation English Test) papers takes up 40 points in 150 points, about 27% of total score. Students'reading abilities directly have an important effect on their total scores.However, from teaching practice, we find although a great deal has been done in this aspect and students have done a great many reading exercises, their reading comprehension results are discouraging. Students'lack of the skills of controlled reading is one of the main reasons. Controlled reading is different from general reading in nature, for controlled reading is a kind of reading that is to be accomplished in a designated period of time. Foreign language test reading belongs to this type.This paper is about an action research on how to develop senior middle school students'ability of controlled reading. It is composed of five parts. Part I describes the rationale of research, introducing the students'main problems in reading. That is, they suffer from low reading speed and low rates of accuracy, over half of them cannot efficiently finish reading comprehension in the controlled time.Part II sets up the theoretical framework for the present study. According to the relevance theory put forward by Sperber and Wilson, the essence of the relevance theory is the principle of economy. Human communication usually follows this principle of economy. Reading activity is not exceptional. That's to say, people should pay attention to the information correlated with reading purpose while reading. Schema theory is a theoretical mode that explains how our background knowledge works in the process of understanding. The paper not only describes in detail its basic ideas and classification, but also its great effect on reading.Part III addresses the characteristics of controlled reading, importance of developing students'controlled reading and advantages of the"question-based reading"model.In part IV, the author finds out the students'problem in controlled reading through interview, questionnaire and pre-test, that is: limited vocabulary, habitual reading model and lack of training in controlled reading, which results in their low reading speed and low rates of accuracy.Then the author makes a twelve-week plan in detail and carries out the action research on controlled reading that is based on the"question-based reading"model. During the action research, the author collects data from many ways: interview, questionnaire, teacher's log, pre and post-test and so on. Before experiment, the author makes a detailed arrangement for subjects, materials and time. After experiment, the author evaluates the whole process of action research. Based on data obtained from action research, Part V concludes that"question-based reading"model is suitable for senior students who take reading tests. Through this action research, the author not only promotes her teaching awareness, builds up her understanding of teaching, but also improves her combination between teaching theory and teaching practice, turns her into a researcher.