The Selection Of Reading Materials In Teaching Reading In Senior High School Through Newspapers

The purpose of the thesis is to develop practical approaches to the selection of English newspaper reading materials for senior high school students so as to increase their scores in reading tests as well as to boost their reading comprehension and competence.Through data retrieval, the author finds that courses concerning English newspaper reading and teaching are mainly offered in universities and colleges. Many researchers have concluded the methodology of their teaching. Researches into English newspaper teaching as an aid in teaching reading for students in middle schools are not that common, most of which are to arouse students’ interests in reading. However, in senior high schools, researches into effective material selection are rare. On the basis of questionnaires returned by the students and English teachers in a senior high school, the thesis analyses the students’ current reading situations. Both students and teachers find that the available textbook Oxford English cannot fulfil their needs. The students mostly face such problems as insufficient reading materials as well as lack of required vocabularies to understand the materials. Therefore, in selecting reading materials, teachers should provide the students with proper materials.Characteristics of the two available English newspapers—Shanghai Students’ Post and 21 st Century are discussed in the thesis. The two newspapers are supposed to meet the requirements of the students, teachers, and curriculum guide. But due to the weekly releases, it is hard for the students to finish reading up to more than 100 pieces of articles and reports. The thesis illustrates the approaches in detail, to selecting appropriate reading materials, through which, readers may find it easy to select relevant extensive reading materials for senior high school students.These approaches include applying input hypothesis to selecting materials, deciding the readability and the quantity, applying schema to selecting materials, taking into account students’ cognitive development and English language level, and ensuring that target vocabularies appear frequently in the materials, helping students to acquire them easily.An experimental case with reference to two available English newspapers—Shanghai Students’ Post and 21 st Century is shown in the thesis. 30 students are involved in the 8-month experiment. Statistics of the case prove that theprinciples and approaches introduced are effective in arousing students’ reading interests, acquiring vocabularies with ease, gaining more background knowledge, grasping accurately the structure and main idea of relevant materials, guaranteeing the number of words students read required by the local curriculum, and eventually improving students’ reading speed and comprehension.