A Study About Improving English Reading Ability Among Senior High Based On The "Literature Circles"

Reading is one of the most important processes for senior high school students to learn English well.It can not only enhance students' language competence,but also develop their thinking ability through the large amount of materials' input.Besides,according to National English Curriculum Standard,the reading input for senior high students is supposed to reach about 360,000 words by the end of high school.However,the common status quo is that most students cannot touch that level.The main reasons can be concluded as three points,that is,insufficient reading,negative motivation of learning and monotonous forms of feedbacks and assessment.In order to motivate students' English reading interest,change their negative reading attitudes and improve students' reading abilities,the author tried a new reading model,“Literature Circles”,based on the theory foundations of Cooperative Theory,Automatic Theory and Constructivism.“Literature Circle” which was first advocated by Harvey Daniels in 1994 has earned more and more population among middle school students in America.In fact,“Literature Circle” is a reading group,which can combine students' class reading with after-class reading together.In “Literature Circles” students choose same reading materials.First of all,students are required to finish independent reading after class,then group members discuss the material together.Each group member has different role,such as discussion director,resource provider,plot analyst,connector,word-enricher and literary luminary.In the discussion stage,each member will put up with their own opinions or questions which are prepared ahead of time,share the highlighted parts and discuss the questions together.After all discussion activities are finished,group member can exchange with other groups.Then they select new English reading books and formulate new reading groups.This study was aimed to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of English proficiency based on the “Literature Circles” after-class on senior high students who take English as a foreign language.82 senior high students in Longquan Middle School took part in this experiment which were divided into Experiment Class and Control Class.Data includes tests,questionnaires and classroom observations.Analysis of the tests showed that the English level in Experimental Class is evidently higher than Control Class after the experiment;the questionnaires showed that most students in Experimental Class have a preference to “Literature Circles” compared with the traditional reading model;classroom observations showed that students' sense of autonomy of reading and cooperation in group work increased in Experimental Class,and they can express their own opinions confidently on stage.The analysis of the survey results proved the effectiveness of the “Literature Circles” on English class reading for senior high students.Besides,the results indicated that there are several factors rather than a single one which are influencing on the effectiveness of this new reading model.