A Study Of Senior High Schoolstudents’ English Reading Problems Andcorresponding Countermeasures

English reading is a process of perceiving,comprehending and communicating with the world in English.Meanwhile,through English reading,we can obtain knowledge,enhance understanding,promote thoughts and eventually prompt self-development.With the coming of information era,English reading competence has played a more significant and urgent role in cross-cultural communication and information acquisition.In consideration of the importance of English reading,New English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017)has made specific requirements on weekly English reading quality.In addition,with the reform of college entrance examination,the article genres of reading materials in English reading comprehension are diversified,which leads to the increasing difficulty of this part.Thus,English reading comprehension is still labeled as the “hard-hit area” of the English paper in college Entrance examination.Under such circumstance,the cultivation of students’ English reading competence is of vital significance in senior high schools.However,at present,many English teachers invest a lot of time and energy into the explanation of grammar and analysis of contexts,and attempt to help students gain higher reading comprehension scores by ways of employing excessive practice and exams on them,but such teaching strategy couldn’t better cope with students’ reading problems fundamentally.Instead,it imposes more burden and pressure on students.Therefore,it is valuable and vital to explore the current situation of students’ English reading in senior high schools,figure out the main reading problems,and offer suggestions on the basis of the study to help solve students’ reading obstacle,improve their reading competence and optimize English reading teaching.With the purpose of assuring students of their reading problems,this thesis carried out a study on one of the key senior high schools in Kunming by means of questionnaire and interview from the angles of two major factors influencing students’ reading proficiency,including language related factor and non-language related factor.During the investigation,the author randomly chose 224 students and 3 English teachers from three different senior high grades of this school as research subjects and adopted SPSS 24.0 and EXCEL 2003 to analyze the data collected from questionnaire and interview.Based on the data analysis,this thesis attempts to study the following research questions: 1)What are the main problems relevant to English reading for senior high school students in Kunming? 2)Is there any direct correlation between students’ reading problems and English achievement? 3)What measures would be taken to help solve these problems in English teaching in senior high schools so as to improve the quality of English reading teachings as well as students’ reading efficiency and proficiency.Based on the investigation,the study finds out that students’ reading problems stem from both language factors and non-language factors,most of which are listed as follows: 1)Lack of vocabulary.It is regarded as the most difficult part impeding students’ English reading and students couldn’t expand width of their vocabulary by simply memorizing words.More surprisingly,most of them aren’t equipped with better words memorization skills.2)Insufficient background knowledge.With a diverse discourse patterns and enhanced difficulty of English reading comprehension in the college entrance examination,students who are short of relevant background knowledge definitely couldn’t get the correct understanding of the reading passages.3)Low reading motivation.Influenced by students’ own academic basic and teachers’ English reading teaching,majority of students would lose confidence in learning English and even give up English reading.4)Improper use of reading strategies.On one hand,some students don’t acquire a good knowledge of reading strategies,while on the other hand,some simply don’t know when and how to apply strategies to English reading.5)Boring and under-developed English reading teaching.A lot of teachers put emphasis on grammar explanation and vocabulary learning,without meeting the needs of students to improve their comprehensive competence and accomplishment.According to the findings of this study,a few conclusions are drawn as follows: 1)The current situation of students’ English reading is under satisfaction and students’ English reading competence needs to be improved.2)Students’ reading problems have direct and profound effect on students’ English achievements.3)English reading problems still exists far and wide,including being lack of large vocabulary,poor-equipped syntax,low reading motivation,insufficient relevant cultural background knowledge,shortage of literature genres and improper use of reading strategies.However,if teachers help students take appropriate measures,such reading difficulties can be better coped with.4)Unaccepted and outdated methods and ways of English reading teaching are also considered as one of the important factors bringing out students’ reading problems.5)English reading classes aren’t developed with times and often arranged abiding by the requirement of college entrance examination instead of meeting students’ needs.Is it possible for English teachers to arrange classes as what colleges do? For instance,English reading classes in senior high schools could be divided into extensive reading classes.Based on the study above,with an attempt to solve students’ reading problems resulting from language factors,the author puts up the following suggestions: 1)Enlarge vocabulary through various ways.2)Enhance grammatical practice to improve students’ sensibility and comprehension of different sentence patterns.3)Enrich the knowledge of article genres.As far as the non-language factors are concerned,the author mentions some advice listed below: 1)Expand cultural background knowledge.2)Stimulate students’ reading interest in line with their learning habits and characteristics.3)Train students how to apply reading strategies in the process of English reading.In addition,the author also makes suggestions for English reading teaching and future research.