| Reading ability is considered one of the most important aspects of language abilities inChinese foreign language teaching of senior high school. Reading strategies can help improvestudents’ reading abilities. One of the objectives in the new syllabus of high school English is toform effective learning strategies. The current investigation explores English reading strategiesemployed by senior high school students. The main purpose is to find out the whole situation ofEnglish reading strategies application in senior high school and the grade differences instrategies application.Since the1970s, people have paid more and more attention to reading strategies research.Lots of achievements are put forward both in theory and practice. These achievements providevaluable reference for strategy training and strategy research. But most of the relevant studiesfocus on university students or other adult learners. So the investigation of senior high schoolstudents’ reading strategies is greatly needed. The research of English reading strategies shouldbe based on related studies of language learning strategies. According to literature review oflearning strategies, O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) classification of learning strategies stands outwith a clear framework, including meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies andsocio-affective strategies. So based on these relevant studies as well as the factual readingpractice of senior high school students, the paper makes some adjustments to O’Malley andChamot’s (1990) strategy framework. The subjects are331students in Jiaonan NO.1Senior HighSchool. The data of investigation is collected through questionnaire, interview and classobservation. Three are three questions.(1) How frequently are English reading strategiesemployed by senior high school students?(2) How frequently are English reading strategiesemployed by different grades?(3) Whether there are significant grade differences in Englishreading strategies application?The results show that senior high school students employ English reading strategies atmedium level. Cognitive strategies are most frequently employed by senior high school studentsamong the three strategy categories. Meta-cognitive strategies are least frequently employed.Socio-affective strategies are employed less frequently than cognitive strategies, but a bit morefrequently than meta-cognitive strategies. The higher the grade, the lower the frequency，amongthe three grades, Grade One’s frequency level is the highest, Grade Three’s frequency level is thelowest on English reading strategies application. There is significant grade difference inmeta-cognitive strategies application and cognitive strategies application. Grade difference insocio-affective strategies application is non-significant. The implications on English reading strategies application: firstly, English reading strategiestraining of students in senior high school should be strengthened. Senior high school teachersshould pay enough attention to students’ strategies training in class as well as out of class, andattach more attention on students’ reading strategies application which can be treated as a regularpart in their reading class. Secondly, students should enhance their awareness of English readingstrategies application, especially meta-cognitive strategies application and put strategies intopractice to form autonomous learning in reading process. Thirdly, according to grade differencesin English reading strategies application, it will be needed to develop specific, workable strategytraining plan. |
