A Study On Non-English Majors’ Use Of Reading Strategies In A Chinese University

As one of the most important language abilities, English reading ability is given the first priority in College English Teaching. Hence, the study on reading strategies has drawn great attention from many linguistic researchers. Generally speaking,reading strategies refer to strategies used in the process of reading, which includes a wide range of mental and cognitive activities. According to researches, reading strategies play an important role in the study of English. Reading Strategies can not only help students strengthen their reading comprehension abilities, but also beneficial to their overall reading abilities in the long run. Nevertheless, the studies on reading strategies are still at the initial stage, and the studies on the reading strategies used by non-English major students in local universities are even fewer.Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a study in this area.Based on the previous researches on the use of reading strategies, this study aimed to probe into the use of reading strategies by non-English major students in a local university. 113 non-English major students from Jiangxi Normal University were chosen as the study subjects. A reading test, interview and a questionnaire were used as tools to investigate reading strategies used by the non-English major students.This study attempted to explore the general tendency of non-English major students’ use of reading strategies and distinguish the differences in reading strategies used by high achievers and low achievers. Meanwhile, it also examined whether there were any differences in the use of reading strategies between male and female students and testified whether there was any correlation between students’ use of reading strategies and their reading proficiency.The results of this study revealed that the reading strategies were widely used by non-English major sophomore students, and it is at the medium level. Morespecifically, students have a higher frequency of using cognitive strategies. Moreover,there were significant differences between high proficiency and low proficiency students in their use of cognitive strategies. However, there were no significant differences in the overall use of the reading strategies between the male and female learners. The results also show that there were significant correlations between the use of reading strategy and reading proficiency.On the basis of these researches, some pedagogical implications for English teaching and learning were offered. First, in order to improve students’ use of reading strategies, teachers should make themselves familiar with the ways on how to use reading strategies. Secondly, teachers should break away from the traditional thinking mode and work out different ways to cultivate students’ abilities of applying reading strategies. Thirdly, teachers should help students get more knowledge about strategies that rarely used and widen the students’ choice about reading strategies use through practical reading task. Fourthly, teachers should employ specific teaching strategies that aim to promote the students’ awareness and acquisition of meta-cognitive strategies. Finally, teachers should make more efforts to develop specific training plans for students with different levels of language proficiency.