The Effects Of Discourse Analysis On English Reading Competency Of Senior High School Students

It is known to all that listening,speaking,reading and writing are the four skills of English study and reading is one of the most important input skills which plays an essential part in improving English ability of the students.English reading teaching in high school is an important way for students to acquire language information and to train language skills.It strengthens comprehensible input and takes a significant position in English teaching of Senior High School.However,currently some English teachers still put too much emphasis on the analysis of words,sentences and grammar instead of cultivating language ability,which leads to low reading ability and efficiency.This thesis tries to apply discourse analysis to the reading teaching in order to cultivate the students' discourse awareness and improve their English reading abilities.The author proposes the following two research questions from the perspectives of discourse analysis and the current high school English reading teaching situation:(1)Do the English reading teaching based on discourse analysis have an effect on students' English ability?(2)Do students' reading habits change after applying discourse analysis to reading teaching?Based on the cohesion theory and text pattern theory,this thesis combines teaching practice to study the effect of discourse analysis on reading ability of Senior High School students.Firstly,it demonstrates theoretically the feasibility and necessity of using discourse analysis as a high school English reading teaching method,and systematically designs the implementation of it from the theoretical level.Then,the two classes in ** High School are selected for empirical research.The experimental class uses this method—the application of discourse analysis to reading teaching to teach and interpret the text,while the controlled class still uses the traditional one.The author compares the pre-test and post-test scores of the twoclasses and the questionnaires before and after the experiment to analyze the different effects.After a whole semester's experiment,the author analyzes the collected data and has the following findings:(1)After one-semester experiment,reading comprehension scores of students in experimental class are obviously higher than those of students in controlled class.Students' reading comprehension ability are improved to some degree.(2)After applying discourse analysis to reading teaching,students' reading habits have been changed.During the reading process,students try to identify different discourse patterns and use cohesive devices to understand which can cultivate reading habits from the perspective of discourse analysis and improve their discourse awareness and reading strategies.To answer two research questions,based on the above conclusion and related theoretical foundations,the thesis puts forward some suggestions on the application of discourse analysis to reading teaching in high school English.It is hoped that these suggestions can enhance teachers' professional ability and to improve the reading ability of students.