An Experimental Study On English Critical Reading In Senior High School

For EFL senior high school students,reading is one of the most efficient ways to enhance their English language input and improve their English comprehension.However,the conventional English teaching approach is still applied in current high school classes in which main ideas,language points and grammar are mainly analyzed and explained.The vast majority of teachers especially those elderly teachers aren’t serious about lesson preparation,and they repeat their teaching models for years without innovation,so students are not as active as imagined in English classes.Most students just passively accept what teachers instill into them and immerse themselves in copying notes on the blackboard and on the screen,which leads to the loss of students’ interest and confidence in English learning.The deficiency of English listening and speaking context makes English teaching far away from satisfaction.Therefore,the method of teaching English reading in senior high school really needs changes to develop students’ passion in learning English,involve them in English reading classes and boost their critical thinking,which is the focus of English critical reading.Conducting English critical reading teaching in China can not only promote students’ reading skills,but also conform to the requirement of the New Curriculum Standard which expects students to obtain,understand and deal with information in English in order to accelerate students’comprehensive language ability.Based on schema theory,discourse analysis theory and critical discourse analysis theory,this paper was conducted by combining document analysis method,questionnaire survey and experimental research method,aiming at figuring out whether CRT(Critical Reading Teaching)can increase students’ awareness of the use of critical reading strategies,facilitate students’ critical thinking ability and critical reading skills and stimulate students’ interest in English learning.The subject for the study is selected from two parallel classes of Class 1 and Class 2 Gradel of Ninghua Senior High School in Fujian Province and the experiment lasts three and a half months.The control class adopts traditional English reading teaching mode,and the experimental class adopts the critical reading teaching mode in which every critical reading strategy is explained and practiced and questionnaires and reading comprehension tests are applied and the data are analyzed through SPSS.Test results show that:1)CRT is conducive to improving students’ awareness of the use of critical reading strategies;2)CRT can develop students’ critical thinking ability and critical reading skills,especially that of analyzing and reasoning;3)CRT can inspire students’devotion in English learning.Above all,the author believes that it is necessary and feasible to carry out English critical reading in senior high school,which can provide theoretical and practical significance for CRT.