Improving Senior School Students' Reading Ability By Extensive Reading

David Eskey(1986,p.21)states that,"Reading…must be developed,and can only be developed,by means of extensive and continual practice.People learn to read, and to read better,by reading."Nuttal(1982,p.65)says,"An extensive reading program…is the most effective way of improving both vocabulary and reading skills general."At present,numerous studies have suggested that getting students reading extensively is the easiest and most effective way of enhancing their reading skills and the effects of extensive reading are cognitive and affective definitely.Not only does it lead to better abilities of reading,writing and speaking firmly,but it also promotes a positive attitude towards reading,which helps a lot with the students' language proficiency in the long run.However,the previous research on extensive reading are mainly based on the reading materials regarding newspapers and magazines,few researches have been done depending on other reading resources that students select by themselves,such as:Young Adults literature in their mother language,texts simplified from first language originals,magazines,on the Intemet and so on.This paper focuses on boosting senior high school students' reading ability and proficiency by means of extensive reading.It also makes arduous efforts to find out effective and efficient ways to tackle the problems that are fretting senior school students and teachers as well.The subjects are two natural classes—class 20 and class 21 in senior two, Chengjiao Middle schools—a boarding high school of Fuyang City,Anhui Province. Class 20 was an experimental group and class 21 was a controlled one.Both groups have an evening class lasting 45 minutes respectively—during which they can take English reading or other activities concerning English as they like.The experimental group is told to read the amusing materials selected by them that suit their reading levels.They can pick out the resources with the guide of the teacher if necessary. Controlled group are made to read certain reading materials and finish the exercises accompanying the textbook.The instruments are pre-test and post-test of reading speed, comprehension,questionnaire and students' weekly summarizing reports.The data will be processed in SPSS 16.0.Meanwhile,the reading attitude questionnaires are discussed and analyzed as well.The results of the experiment indicate that just by way of extensive reading, students can improve their reading speed and comprehension,enlarge many sight words and motivate their attitudes towards reading,which is the extremely important ability needed by reading.At the same time,some of the students form the habit of reading after class actively.Extensive reading motivates their reading interest and abilities significantly.