An Action Research Of Promoting High School Students’ English Learning Through Autonomous English Newspaper Reading

Reading comprehension is an important part in the National Entrance Examination, which has become increasingly demanding in recent years. Only relying on reading of textbooks and examination papers on the students’ part can hardly meet the requirements of National English Curriculum Criterion for High Schools and the National Entrance Examination, Thus, more and more English teachers in secondary schools have begun to use English newspapers as a supplementary reading materials. Although strenuous efforts have been made by some researchers(including teachers) and students,how to improve the English learning of senior students through English newspaper reading is yet to be explored.An action research has been carried out with 110 students from Jiangsu Hua Luogeng High School as participants. The aim of the research is to explore the way that English newspapers are applied to the teaching of reading in senior schools and to verify its effectiveness and feasibility. During the action research, students from the experimental class do 21st Century Teens weely-based extracurricular English reading, while students from the comparison class study English as usual. Through data collection and analysis, the researcher has found:1) Students become more interested and active in English reading.2) Students have a considerably larger vocabulary.3) Students’ reading speed and reading ability are very much enhanced through English newspaper reading 4) English newspaper reading has contributed to the improvement of the senior students’writing abilities, and 5) English newspaper reading has a positive effect on the senior students’ overall English learning achievement.It is hoped that this thesis will offer a teaching method to enhance the English learning of senior students through English newspaper reading and encourage more teachers to apply English newspapers to their own classroom teaching practice.