The Application Of The Natural Approach To English Reading Teaching In Middle School

Reading is an essential part of English teaching and learning in middle schools of China.It is a primary channel for students to get information and a major source of exposure to related English literature and culture.Thus,improving students' English reading ability is one of the important tasks in middle school English teaching and learning.In English reading classes,enough comprehensible input and lower affective anxiety are required to make students master the language efficiently.However,many students in middle schools could not get adequate English reading input and are not interested in English reading because of the disadvantages of traditional English reading teaching methods that emphasize language forms and grammar rules.The Natural Approach put forward by Krashen and Terrell in 1983 stresses the communicative function of the English language.It focuses on the meaningful message exchanging,rather than sentence patterns and grammar rules.It regards second language learning as an unconscious process that develops students' language proficiency in a natural way.It is similar to the process where children master their mother language.Many scholars and researchers studied the Natural Approach at home and abroad.Some teachers have applied the Natural Approach to English teaching,but few of them apply it to English reading teaching in middle schools.Thus,this situation provides the author with the opportunity of using this approach in middle school English reading teaching.The present research is based on the five hypotheses of the Natural Approach(Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis,Natural Order Hypothesis,Monitor Hypothesis,Input Hypothesis and Affective Filter Hypothesis).The teaching procedures and activities are designed to contribute to language acquisition.It requests teachers to create a natural and pleasant language learning environment.At the same time,students receive adequate comprehensible English language input,the difficulty degree of which is a little higher than their present second language competence.In addition,learners' affective stress,such as lack of confidence and excessive anxiety,is reduced to let them acquire the second language naturally.The present thesis deals with the following three questions:1.What should teachers do to apply the Natural Approach to the English reading in the middle school?2.How can the Input Hypothesis of the Natural Approach be used to improve students' English reading ability by getting comprehensive input?3.How can the Affective Filter Hypothesis of the Natural Approach be used to improve students' English reading ability by reducing their affective stress?To find the answers for the above-mentioned three research questions,an experiment is carried out at Shaoling No.2 Middle School of Luohe City from September 2018 to January 2019.Two classes,totally 102 students,are chosen as the participants for the educational experiment.At first,a questionnaire is carried out to know the preliminary situations of the students' English reading in middle school.The content of the questionnaire is related to the five hypotheses of the Natural Approach,students' reading habits and their mental state in reading.And then,the teaching experiment is conducted in the two classes(EC and CC).Ahead of the experiment,a pre-test is given and the marks of the reading part are taken as the pre-test data.The test results show that there is not obvious difference between CC and EC,which means that the two classes have the same English reading ability.In the experimental class,the Natural Approach is applied to the reading teaching.In the controlled class,only traditional method is used,usually explaining sentence structures and memorizing new words by repeating them.After the experiment,a post-test is conducted and the marks of reading part are stored as the post-test data.The test result shows that the students' reading ability in EC have been improved significantly.Finally,some students are chosen as the interviewees to complete an interview.The purpose of the interview is to get the students' view and attitude towards the Natural Approach.The thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter one includes the background,the research significance,research questions,research methods and the structure of present thesis.Chapter two presents the previous research on the Natural Approach at home and abroad as well as its development and application.Chapter three is the theoretical framework which specifies the theory of the Natural Approach,including its definition and theoretical bases.Chapter four is the design of the educational experiment,which is regarded as the most important part.Chapter five presents the data analysis.The results of the questionnaires,the pre-test,the post-test and the interview are specified and analyzed in this chapter.Chapter six is the conclusion of the whole research.The Natural Approach stresses comprehensive input and situation teaching.Teachers create a pleasant environment,which can make students acquire the second language naturally without emotional strain.The results of present experimental research make it clear that the students in the EC have better performance and higher interest in reading than those of the CC,which indicates that the Natural Approach adopted in this research can improve students' reading ability and it is feasible to apply it to English reading teaching in the middle school.