A Study On Improving Senior Middle School Students’ English Reading Ability By Timed Reading Practice

Modern science and technology are developing fast all over the world. Many people say:"If you don’t know English, driving or computers, you are out of date." So, it is very important to learn English in modern society. Reading is the first step of learning new words, grammar, and writing. So English reading is of vital importance to English learners. Therefore to improve students’reading ability is one of the important goals of English teaching. Reading ability consists of reading speed and the accuracy of reading comprehension. This study has discovered that some teachers and students pay little attention to reading speed even during Senior Middle School. Many students have not reached standard reading speed. The reason is not only because of their low reading ability, but also because of the poor time concept and the lack of time management. Under the guidance of related reading theories and for the purpose of improving students’ reading speed and reading accuracy, the author conducts a reading training. The author selects two classes of No5Senior Middle School in Hubei Province as the experimental objects. The author tries timed reading strategy in the experimental class to enforce the concept of time so as to improve students’ reading ability. The author introduces reading strategies first, corrects students’improper reading habits. In order to check the results of the experiment, the author makes a questionnaire to investigate students’reading status. The questionnaire involves interest in reading, reading strategies, reading habits and reading speed. According to the feedback, teaching will be improved in the next phase. The survey indicates that timed reading strategy helps students in the experimental class improve their reading ability, so the author continues the four-month-training. Before and after the experiment, students in the experimental class and comparative class are to participate in the reading test. The data of the test and the results of the experiment will be further analyzed. The results show that the series of reading methods and strategies directed at improving students’reading speed can promote the development of students’ reading ability. Timed reading strategy in the experimental class has not only improved their reading speed and reading comprehension, but also stimulated students’interest in reading, expanded their knowledge and cultivated good reading habits. In one word, timed reading is a teaching method which is worth trying.The thesis consists of6chapters:Chapter One gives us a brief introduction of the thesis. It tells us the background and significance of this paper.Chapter Two is concerned about literature review. Chapter Three is about methods of timed reading.Chapter Four highlights research methodology of the author. In this chapter, the author described the purpose, hypothesis, subjects, procedure and results of the experiment.Chapter Five is about implications and suggestions.Chapter Six is about implications and conclusions.