A Study Of English Reading Strategies By Junior High School Students

Reading is an important part of English teaching in junior high school. It is an important means of English learning. Therefore, researchers have paid a lot of attention to the research of reading. With the development of the reading modes and reading strategy theories, scholars have made great achievements in the study of reading strategies. They find that the effective use of reading strategies may improve students'reading abilities. However, studies of reading strategies by junior high school students are not enough. It is necessary to study how Chinese junior high school students use reading strategies, which may benefit both students and teachers in their learning and teaching.The subjects in this study are 97 students from two classes of Grade 8 in a junior high school. A questionnaire survey of 59 English reading strategies is made among the 97 students. The month exam, mid-term exam and final term exam marks are collected to stand for the English levels of the students. SPSS software is used to analyze the data. It is founded that 12 strategies are often used, that 5 strategies are seldom used, and that the other 40 strategies are sometimes used. The 59 strategies are divided into four groups: cognitive strategies, met cognitive strategies, social strategies and affective strategies. The most frequently used reading strategies by these student are social strategies, met cognitive strategies, affective strategies and cognitive strategies.The results of the research show that students tend to use social strategies, met cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and affective strategies in their reading practice. The reading strategies used by the students are correlated to their reading abilities and English levels. Therefore, the abilities of using reading strategies should be given special attention to in the junior high school reading teaching to improve their reading abilities.