An Empirical Study On Effect Of Memetics On Teaching Of English Reading In Senior High School

In the College Entrance Examination of China, the largest proportion of English testscores is English reading comprehension. However, the level of senior high schoolstudents’ English reading comprehension is not up to new curriculum standards. How toimprove reading comprehension and how to improve the teaching of reading has becomea very prominent problem and many teachers also explore solutions to this problem.Memetic theory is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution based on Darwin’sevolution theory. A meme is a unit of cultural transmission, like gene, also obeys the ruleof selection “the survival of the fittest”. In this process memes are copied through theimitation among vectors and only the strong memes can be remembered by people. Thisinfectivity of memes produces a very close connection between memes and the process ofsecond language learners’ acquisition. There are four steps in memes’ transmission:assimilation, retention, expression and transmission. These four processes are combinedwith Second Language Acquisition, forming a kind of method of reading teaching.Memetic theory was applied to the study which explored the effective teachingmethod of English reading in high school. In order to explore effective teaching ofEnglish reading, the author made the theoretical analysis and empirical research, andhoped to give more reference and inspiration to English teachers in high schools,meanwhile the author hoped it could improve the English reading ability of high schoolstudents.This study which applied the theory of memetics to the teaching of English readinglasted for4months in Ganzhou High School. If the hypothesis did exist, it would improvethe efficiency of high school students’ English reading ability. The research questionswere put forward as follows:1. Are there memes in English reading teaching?2. If so, can memes experience the full process of growth in the teaching of Englishreading?3. Can this kind of teaching method based on the theory of memetics improve students’ reading ability?In order to answer the questions,98students of Grade Two in Ganzhou High Schoolin Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province took part in the experiment. There were49students inthe experimental group and49students in the control group. The two classes attended thepre-test to prove that their English reading levels were the same. Then a four-monthpractice teaching would be carried out in the experimental class, while in the control classthe traditional method would be used. After the experiment, post-test would be conductedto prove the proficiency of English reading teaching under the guidance of Memetics.The results of the study showed that English reading teaching based on memetictheory to some degrees played a positive role in improving the students’ reading ability. Itimproved the English reading comprehension ability of senior high school students. At thesame time, the author put forward some suggestions on how to effectively use thisteaching method based on memetic theory to guide English reading teaching. The authoralso outlined the limitations of this study, and proposed the corresponding reflection aboutit.