The Application Of Context Theory To English Reading Teaching In Vocational School

English reading plays an important role in English language learning. By reading English, students can get a lot of knowledge and information, while the teacher can check whether students really master English learning ability or not. However, at present, for vocational school students, their reading competences have a large portion of gaps compared with demanding standard. The main reason is that most of the English teachers in vocational school still lay emphasis on the explanation of words, sentences translation and the analysis of grammar. It is time-consuming and inefficient in China’s vocational schools. Hence, it is very urgent for all English teachers to find an effective reading teaching method to make up the disadvantages in the traditional teaching mode.In the 1920 s, anthropologist Malinowski was the first to propose the Context Theory. After that, more and more linguists have also probed into this field. Based on the research of linguistics; this thesis applies context theory to the English reading teaching in vocational school. To test the effectiveness of this teaching model, three research questions need to be testified:1. Does reading teaching under the guidance of context theory effectively develop students’ reading strategies?2. Does reading teaching under the guidance of context theory improve students’ reading scores?3. What attitudes do students in experimental group hold toward the context-based reading teaching?In order to explore the feasibility and validity of context theory in vocational school students’ reading teaching, the author conducts context theory reading teaching experiment which lasts for four months. The subjects are the students from two classes in Yingkou Vocational School. The two classes are randomly assigned as experimental class and control class. And students in experimental class receive context theory reading teaching and students in control class receive traditional grammar translation method. The research method is the combination of qualitative method and quantitative method. Data collection includes questionnaires, pre-test, post-test and interviews. The analysis of questionnaires is to compare the using of reading strategies between the experimental class and control class. The analysis of pre-test and post-test is to compare the reading test scores between the two classes. The analysis of interview is to know about the students’ attitude towards the context-based reading teaching.The experiment proves that, both 60 students in the experimental class and the controlled class have made progress in the test. However, the students in experimental class get score higher than those in control class. The results from pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires suggest that reading teaching under the guidance of context theory effectively develop students’ reading strategies. The interview proves that context–based instruction can increase students’ reading enthusiasm. Therefore, the application of context theory to English reading teaching in vocational school is both feasible and beneficial. Lastly, it is hoped the results of this research can provide the English teachers in vocational school with some feasible reference in English reading teaching so as to improve students’ reading ability effectively.