A Study On The Current Situation Of Students’ Extracurricular English Reading In Rural Junior High School

Extracurricular English reading is a meaningful way to improve students’ reading ability,enabling them to get in touch with many understandable language materials within their language competence.Moreover,it can enable learners to choose suitable reading materials to have more targeted learning.Compared with urban teaching,the extracurricular reading in rural is facing many issues,such as reading requirements are not precise,and reading materials are single.Thus rural junior high school extracurricular reading is worthy of further attention and reflection.Based on Input Hypothesis theory,Autonomous Learning theory and Schema theory,this study adopts qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze the valid questionnaires of 281 students from two rural junior high schools in Guangxi.Based on the questionnaire survey,six students and four teachers were randomly selected to conduct interviews for in-depth understanding.This paper aims to explore the following two issues:(1)what is the current situation of rural junior high school students’ extracurricular reading?(2)What are the reasons for problems of students’ English extracurricular reading in rural junior high school?The study results reveal that:(1)the current situation of extracurricular reading in rural junior high school is at a medium level,and there is a great space for extracurricular reading to be improved.Most students do not develop a good habit of extracurricular English reading.They all agree that English extracurricular reading plays a significant role in improving their English,so they have positive attitude towards it.However,due to the pressure of study,the reading is confront with many problems,such as less reading time,insufficient reading,single reading materials,lack of reading plan and the evaluation and inspection of teacher need to be strengthened.The survey data shows that poor grammar and the lack of vocabulary are the main obstacles for rural students to read after class.It is mainly manifested in students’ week foundation,and they are not actively memorizing words and confusing with grammar.(2)There are internal and external reasons affecting students’ reading in rural schools.Internal reasons include poor foundation and lack of reading interest,lack of reading time and intrinsic learning motivation.Students did not form a correct attitude of life.In contrast,external reasons are lack of reading atmosphere,teachers’ guidance,and the reading resources.Based on the research result,the author provides some implications for students,teachers and schools.(1)As for students,they are expected to arouse the enthusiasm of extracurricular reading,simulate reading interest and improve intrinsic motivation and self-discipline.(2)As for teachers,they are supposed to lay a good foundation for students,and provide some guidance in reading methods and reading materials.In selecting reading materials,it is suggested to strengthen network resources,such as relevant English websites,audio books,We Chat and QQ platform reading.Moreover,teachers are expected to strengthen the inspection and evaluation of students’ reading to create a good reading atmosphere.(3)As for schools,it is necessary for schools to make clear the teaching task of extracurricular reading and set up a reading lesson every week.The schools are hoped to set up an i Pad classroom to assist in extracurricular reading teaching.Then,schools’ library is expected to comprise various reading materials.Besides,the teachers’ reading experience meetings are supposed to be held from time to time to make progress.There are some deficiencies in the investigation of this study,and it is expected to be improved in future research.