A Study On Reading Strategies In The Improvement Of English Reading Fluency In Junior High School

In China, reading plays an important role in English study and takes a large proportion in daily examinations in junior high schools. However, reading fluency, which is a significant indicator of checking reading levels, attracts less attention from researchers and teachers, especially in L2 or FL settings. It has great effects on students’ development of reading ability.Besides English language knowledge, there are other numerous factors influencing the improvement of reading fluency. Reading strategy is one of them. Reading strategies are advocated highly in the English Curriculum Standards(2011). It proposes that students should be able to use reading strategies easily and flexibly to cultivate their own self-learning ability. Therefore, this study focuses on the effects of reading strategy on English reading fluency and how to improve reading fluency by strategy instruction for junior high school students. It attempts to answer the following three research questions:1. What effects do reading strategies have on students’ English reading fluency in junior high school?2. How do teachers improve students’ English reading fluency by reading strategy instruction in junior high school?3. What effects do reading strategies have on English reading study in junior high school?The experiment was conducted in Kaifeng No. 13 Junior High School and lasted for two months. 104 students from two classes in Grade Seven participated in it. At first, both classes were asked to take part in a reading test and a questionnaire to investigate their English levels of reading fluency and strategy use. Then one class was chosen as EC randomly while the other class as CC and the reading strategy instruction based on metacognition was conducted in EC. Next, in order to check their changes and improvement in English reading fluency after two months, another reading test was carried out in both classes. After completing the post-test, students in EC were asked to complete the questionnaire again to find out their changes in reading strategy use after the instruction. Finally, at the end of the experiment, seven students from EC were invited to participate in an interview to gain some feedback.The results of the experiment show that reading strategies have positive effects on English reading fluency and the strategy instruction based on metacognition is an effective way to improve reading fluency for junior high school students. What is more, reading strategies not only make a contribution to promoting students’ English reading fluency, but also help students develop some good reading habits.