An Investigation Into English Extracurricular Reading In Junior High School

Listening,speaking,reading and writing are the four basic skills in the English language learning.English reading plays a more important role in second language acquisition.According to the Input Hypothesis proposed by the language educators Krashen,comprehensible input is quite necessary for an English learner's ideal language output.For many years,English teaching in junior high school in our country has been affected by various factors.And the English teachers have put too much time and energy into the vocabulary,the grammar and the analysis of texts in classroom teaching.Besides,most of the students tend to neglect or even do not have time to do English extracurricular reading due to overloaded homework.The study is done to investigate the current situation of the English extracurricular reading(EER)in junior high school so as to work out the problems and its causes as well as some suggestive solutions based on the research.The methods of literature review,questionnaire,interview and observation are mainly adopted in this study.The object of this study is Luoyang Second Foreign Language School.The questionnaire has been finished by 300 students from the seventh to the ninth grade,and 285 valid questionnaires are collected.In addition,6 English teachers were interviewed and 6 English teachers' English reading courses were observed.The current situation of EER,the existing problems and its causes in junior high school are the main contents of the investigation,and it includes students' and teachers' attitudes towards EER,students' interest,reading materials,reading time,reading methods and so forth in EER.Through the investigation,this study finds out that in Luoyang Second Foreign Language School,both teachers and students attach importance to EER,and each student is equipped with a particular English extracurricular reading material Good English.In addition,English teachers give students guidance in EER every week.The quality of reading teaching is generally good.However,meanwhile,there are still some existing problems in EER in junior high school.For instance,the content and form of EER are relatively simple.Only 35% of the reading materials are not required by school,and the rest 65% of reading materials are read in the same time,same classroom and same form.The main reason for the problems is that the junior high school students have high academic pressure and lack of reading time,students have low interest in EER and so on.Based on the data analysis results,the study puts forward several corresponding suggestions as well.The English teachers are suggested to pay more attention to EER guidance,expand reading materials for students,combine English reading in and out of class,make efforts to arouse students' reading interest and help them form good reading habits so as to improve English extracurricular reading ability effectively.