An Application Of Information Gap Principle To English Reading Teaching In Senior High School

The goal of English teaching is considered to enable learners to gain communicative competence, that is, to use English appropriately and effectively in communication. Among the basic skills in English, reading is the main way of acquiring information and exchange information. However, the current situation of reading teaching do not meet the requirement. In high school of China, most English teachers are still following the traditional grammar-translation teaching method and paying great attention to the linguistic forms instead of language points. The traditional reading teaching approach makes lots of students lose their interest in English learning. The current situation of reading teaching has shown that those traditional teaching approaches lack of efficiency and credibility. Numerous researchers have done the studies on how to improve English reading teaching effectively, but few of them applied the "Information-gap" principle.In this research, "Information-gap" principle is the theoretical foundation. The subjects are 116 students and 6 English teachers who come from grade two of Xiong Yue Senior High School. The research method is the combination of qualitative research method and quantitative research method. Also, the questionnaires, the pre-test, the post-test and the face-to-face interview are adopted. The present research will center around the following three questions: 1) In English reading teaching, compared with the traditional teaching approach, is the teaching approach based on "Information-gap" principle superior to the traditional approaches? 2) In English reading teaching, can the "Information-gap" principle teaching approach raise students’ learning interests and improve their reading abilities in senior high school ? 3) In practical reading comprehension teaching, how to apply the "Information-gap" principle in high school?In the process of proving the above hypothesis, two types of studies were employed. They are investigation research and experimental research. The two parallel classes which from Xiong Yue Senior High School are chosen to be the research subjects. One of the class was chosen as the experimental class, which was taught with the "Information-gap" principle teaching approach, while the other one was chosen as the control group, which was taught with the traditional approach. The result of the three-months experiment between the two classes are as follow: Compared with the control group, the experimental group’s English reading abilities and English learning interests are improved greatly. The results of the research shows that according to the current situations of English reading teaching which are based on the traditional English teaching approach in senior school, it is quite necessary to incorporate the "Information-gap" principle teaching methods in reading classes. On one hand, the incorporate of "Information-gap" principle is more effective than the mere traditional English teaching approach in improving students’ reading ability and communicative competence; on the other hand, it can also arouse the students’ learning interest and motivation.In addition, we inquire into how to apply the "Information-gap" principle to English reading teaching in high schools actively. The research is an attempt which is supposed to provide a effective teaching method to solve the current situation of reading teaching. This teaching method will raise the learner’s interest and cultivate their reading abilities. Also, the author hope to provide a reference for further researches.