Research Of The Impact Of English Graded Reading On Junior Middle School Students’ English Reading Motivation

Many scholars observe students’ existing English reading motivation and find out that students’ English reading motivation affects their English reading efficacy.However,little research regards English reading motivation as a dependent variable and investigate how it is affected.English Graded Reading(EGR)is a reading method for English learners in China to read English books according to their English level and their interests,aiming to promote students’ English ability and long-term development.Graded reading has developed for nearly thirty years in English speaking countries.With the popularity of EGR in Chinese junior middle school,the investigation of how EGR affects students’ English reading motivation will deepen teachers and students’recognition of how to implement EGR,improve students’reading motivation,and strengthen students’ reading literacy effectively.This thesis tries to look into the effect of EGR to junior middle school students’English reading motivation.The participants are 54 students from Grade1,Hubei Province Shuiguohu No.2 Middle School.Under the guidance of the English teacher,54 students of this class began the study of EGR from scratch when they just entered junior middle school.They completed the pre-test questionnaire about their English reading motivation before EGR and the post-test questionnaire after three-month EGR learning.The researchers also conducted intensive interviews with the English teachers and four students in this class,which aims to understand better about how EGR affects students’ English reading motivation.In summary,data from the questionnaires and interviews aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the basic situations of junior school students’English reading motivation before and after EGR?(2)To what extent does EGR influence students’ reading motivation?(3)What are the main factors of EGR influencing students’ reading motivation?Based on the analysis of the data from questionnaires and interviews,these findings are presented as follows.Firstly,before they began EGR,students’ reading motivation is relatively low.After three-month EGR learning,students show to have higher English reading motivation.Secondly,EGR leads to the promotion of students’ English reading motivation obviously.After three months of EGR,students’ English reading motivation enhanced significantly.Analyzed in detail,students’ English reading motivation is multifaceted with significant enhancement in students’ reading efficacy and ability as well as social purpose for reading.But there is no significant change in reading aim.Finally,there are three main reasons that EGR affects students’ reading motivation.First,the most important factor is that students’ reading ability matches reading difficulty of those reading materials which are provided by EGR.The coordination prompts students’ sense of achievement,further increasing their English reading motivation.Second,students are trained to form a sustained reading habit while doing EGR,which subtly increases students’ English reading motivation.Third,the teacher’s various auxiliary activities provide guidance and feedback as a scaffold.These auxiliary activities can remove students’ reading barriers,which can also contribute to the enhancement of students’ English reading motivation.The study indicates that teachers should measure students’ reading level properly in time.The reading materials which teachers recommend should follow students’level and suit to them.By learning and using EGR,students can keep high reading motivation and form good reading habit.At the same time,appropriate auxiliary measures can effectively improve the efficiency of EGR.Meanwhile,practical suggestions for future research,and limitations of this study were also provided.