Discourse Reading Teaching In College Reading Class: An Action Research

People heavily rely on reading to gain information and expand knowledge. Therefore, training students to be efficient English readers is one of the major tasks of college English teaching. A lot of relevant reading theories provide abundant supports for English reading teaching in college. However, traditional teaching approach over-emphasizes language point but gives little attention to the coherence and consistency of discourse. As a result, students feel intimidated by the frequent encountering of new words and the difficulty of sentence structures.This study is conducted on the basis of the theoretical framework of discourse analysis as well as that of action research. It aims to improve students discourse awareness and discuss how to improve discourse reading teaching approach by carrying out an action research and applying theories of discourse analysis to the practice of college English reading teaching. The action research is carried out according to the following steps:1) planning;2) implementation;3) evaluation; and4) reflection. And the research participants can be divided into two groups:the teacher-researcher and the two classes’non-English majors in Nanjing Engineering College she taught during the second year of her post graduate study.By comparing data before and after the action research, major findings can be summarized as follows:1) Before the action research, the students’discourse awareness is extremely poor, most students have very bad reading habits such as reading word by word.2) After the action research, the overall frequency of discourse strategy use has been largely improved, which indicates students’discourse awareness can be improved by the application of discourse reading teaching approach. However, there are still many problems in using the strategies when students read independently.3) The amount of the teacher’s instruction and input influences students’ achievements. Besides, based on her constant practice and reflection, the teacher-researcher offers some teaching suggestions for discourse reading teaching model which include1) Providing background knowledge to activate students’ mind; 2) teaching text structure and reading skills;3) dealing with words properly;4) organizing activities to practice students’ability of speaking and writing. Furthermore, through the reflection of her own professional growth, the author also explores the implication of this research to teacher education:Besides subject education, theoretical studies and teaching skills training, importance should also be attached to action research ability training in carrying out pedagogical education so as to cultivate research-oriented teachers.