A Discourse Approach To Senior High-School Classroom Reading Teaching

The two main purposes of High-school English teaching are as follows: one is to win the national college entrance examinations, and another is to fulfill their future life and serve their future career as well, in the long term. The two purposes aren't contradictory to each other. What they have in common is that English, as a tool, can be used to communicate in daily life, i.e., both express themselves and understand others. Over the past years, both language teaching theorists and teachers have done much research, making great achievements, though still far from enough. Much remains to be done, namely too more emphasis is placed on vocabulary and grammar rather than on discourse analyses. We, therefore, need to adjust our teaching strategies, according to the new English course standard. We should first admit the importance of vocabulary and grammar; however, we can't afford to ignore the discourse containing them. The profound meaning between the lines is based on further discourse analyses, which throws light upon discourse teaching. The aim of the essay is to discuss classroom teaching strategies in reading, so as to improve its efficiency in practice. The research is conducted through the following aspects: analyses of the present situations of high-school reading teaching; understanding of the new English course standard; analyses of the difficulties in students' reading; discussing teaching strategies, and constructing a classroom discourse approach to senior high-school English language teaching, from pre-reading, lead-in, discourse analyses, consolidation to extension in detail.