Consciousness Raising In English Reading Teaching In Senior High School

This study oil consciousness raising in English reading teaching in Senior HighSchool was carried out in Xuzhou No.l Middle School, After a specific discussion ofthe properties of consciousness raising approach, the author assumingly thought thatgiven the present level of the students, it might be logical to adopt the consciousnessraising approach in English teaching in Senior High School50students were randomly chosen from the initial grade——Senior One.Through the study, one aim was to find out what difference would be made to thestudents if they were brought to the consciousness of reading strategies and relatedmatters. Another aim was to investigate what effect the course itself could have onthe students in the process of self-reading. With the consciousness of both readingstrategies and the process of self-reading, would they be inspired and get improvedin their academic performance later?The data were collected during a roughly-4-month course when the studentswere still in the transitional period from junior students to senior ones, when theywere not aware of the differences between what they experienced in junior schoolsand what they would undergo in senior schools. Also, they were not conscious ofthe differences between reading and doing reading exercises. At the beginning of thenew phase of their school days, they were usually perplexed and confused.The course offered consciousness raising possibilities to the students in theform of teacher-guided section, students’ awareness section, questionnaires, tests andinterviews. These5main activities constructed the main source of the study.One finding of the study showed that certain students changed their notionabout the reading process and about their way of reading comprehension. Anotherdifference happened in their academic performance——they improved a lot in theirgrades. What was more refreshing was that the students changed the way theyperceived themselves as language learners. Some of them tended to get quicklyaccustomed to the new environment，and thus got more confidence in themselves. This study gave evidence that if students subjectively accepted and acquired theconsciousness raising approach, it would be beneficial in their way of readingcomprehension. Future studies will be focused on how to stimulate every student tospontaneously apply the method, especially those who showed less participation.