An Empirical Study On Influence Of Relevance Theory Guided Reading Teaching Approach On Reading Comprehension Proficiency Of Higher Vocational Students

Relevance Theory (RT), firstly proposed by Sperber and Wilson, regards human communication as an ostensive-inferential process, in which cognitive context is emphasized and optimal relevance is searched for to ensure that communication proceeds smoothly. From the perspective of RT, the process of reading can be illustrated as an inference-making process, a cognitive context-choosing process and an optimal relevance-seeking process. There have been some relevant researches on applying RT to reading teaching in the past years, but most of the previous researches were made taking senior high school students or undergraduates as subjects, and few studies have been made on the influence of reading teaching under the guidance of RT on the reading comprehension proficiency of higher vocational students. Therefore, the author has made an empirical study on the influence of relevance theory guided reading teaching approach on the reading comprehension proficiency of higher vocational students. That is also the purpose of the research. The research questions are as follows:1. Can relevance theory guided reading teaching approach enhance higher vocational students’use of cognitive reading strategies?2. Can relevance theory guided reading teaching approach enhance higher vocational students’reading comprehension proficiency?3. In terms of the influence of relevance theory guided reading teaching approach on higher vocational students’reading comprehension proficiency, is there any difference in its influence on different literary forms (narration, exposition and argumentation)?The subjects in this research are 90 freshmen from two natural classes in Fuyang Vocational and Technical College. All of them took a pilot test before the experiment, and the result showed that students’reading comprehension proficiency in the two classes is almost equal. Then, one class was chosen randomly as Experimental Class (EC) and the other one Control Class (CC). Relevance theory guided reading teaching approach was employed in EC while students in CC still learn reading under the guidance of traditional reading teaching method. Students both in EC and CC were required to complete two questionnaires (the same content) and two reading comprehension tests (pre-test and post-test) at the beginning and at the end of the 10-week experiment respectively.10 students in EC were also interviewed at the end of the experiment. The author collected and analyzed the data using the Independent Samples and Paired Samples T-Tests of SPSS 19.0. The major findings in the research are as follows:1. Compared with traditional reading teaching method, relevance theory guided reading teaching approach can enhance higher vocational students’use of cognitive reading strategies.2. Compared with traditional reading teaching method, relevance theory guided reading teaching approach can enhance higher vocational students’reading comprehension proficiency.3. In terms of three different literary forms, the students’reading comprehension proficiency of narration and argumentation has improved greatly under the relevance theory guided reading teaching model, while there is no significant improvement in exposition.The research is of both theoretical and practical significance. In theory, this research studies English reading from the perspective of RT and proposes a new reading teaching approach-relevance theory guided reading teaching approach-in English reading class. In practice, The research plays a positive part in English reading teaching reform in higher vocational colleges. Relevance theory guided reading teaching approach helps teachers raise students’interest and confidence in reading and helps to cultivate their autonomous learning ability. The verification of the effectiveness of RT on English reading teaching urges the author to make further studies on applying RT to other aspects of English teaching.