The Influence Of Textbook Illustrations And Colors On Junior High School Students' English Reading

This study is related to discuss the influence on reading by analyzing the illustrations and color in "English textbook ofYilin version for junior middle school"through the method of investigations and experiments. The research was divided into three parts: the first part aimed to investigate the attitude of students and teachers to cartoon illustrations and real people photo illustrations as well as effects of two illustrations on attention and recognition of students, through investigating 468 students who studied in a junior school (Grade 7,Grade 8,Grade 9) and 55 teachers who didn’t use " English textbook of Yilin version for junior middle school" in Henan Province . The second part was implemented by 136 primary students who were selected from a secondary school in Henan Province. The English textbook of Yilin version in the text as the experimental material, the type of illustrations for descriptive illustrations, examined the design between subjects of 2 * 2 whether background illustration and cognitive method on the impact of reading, and students student how process the background illustration. In the third part, 80 students from a secondary school of Changzhou City were selected as subjects. The experimental material was eight English words which were never learned by subjects as experimental material,using the single factor experiment design between two levels of the subjects, and studying the effect of color for the students to read and memorize words.The results showed: (1) Compared to the real characters photo illustrations,students like cartoon illustrations; but also that cartoon illustrations was suit for pupils to learn; students and teachers both believed that cartoon illustrations would distract students to learn text content; Teachers’ evaluation of students’ cognitive on cartoon illustrations and real people photo illustration, there were the differences for different grades and different teacher age.(2)The background illustrations in the total scores of reading (F(1.132) = 9.57, p<0.01,η2=0.11) and reading comprehension scores (F(1.132)=18.85,p< 0.001, η2= 0.13) on the main effect were significant. Cognitive style in the total scores of reading (F(1.132)=15.50,p<0.01,η2=0.07) and reading memory performance (F(1.132)=22.09,p<0.001,η2=0.14)on the main effect were very significant.The interaction between background illustrations and cognitive style on the total scores of reading, reading comprehension achievements was significant.(3) The recognition results of single color words group was better than that of multi-color words group (t=2.09,p<0.05); The average time of first reading for multi-color words was more than that of single color words, results was edge significantly.The main conclusions are: (1) The setup of illustrations in the textbooks should consider the students’ age characteristic, and cartoon illustrations are not suitable for Ninth graders. (2) Descriptive illustrations are not suitable for as a background pictures in the teaching material. (3) The effect of cognitive methods is able to influence the students’ reading. When learning with descriptive illustrations, students’who is field independent style learning effect is better. (4) The color will influence the students’ reading and memory; the presence of many colors in the words is not conducive to students’ learning.