An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Literature Circles Reading Model On Junior High School Students’ English Reading Anxiety

In the current junior high school,students’ English reading proficiency is affected by various factors,among which affective factors are often ignored by teachers and students,and anxiety is the key factor that hinders the improvement of reading proficiency.Traditional reading teaching can hardly meet the rising demands of different students.If this goes on for a long time,students will easily lose interest and confidence in reading,and eventually be anxious.For this reason,how to alleviate students’ reading anxiety has become a problem to be solved,and it is imperative to probe into an innovative reading teaching model.The traditional reading teaching tends to be one-way teaching,while Literature Circles reading model is a student-led reading model,which is characterized by the integration of independent reading and cooperative learning.Students choose their reading materials and form Literature Circles.Each student chooses a role and completes the role sheets.Students read independently,share their reading experience through group discussion.Each airs his or her own views.By adopting both quantitative and qualitative methods,this study aims to verify the effects of Literature Circles reading model on junior high school students’ English reading anxiety.Based on the Cooperative Learning Theory and the Affective Filter Hypothesis,this study intends to investigate two questions:(1)What effects does Literature Circles reading model have on junior high school students’ English reading anxiety?(2)What effects does Literature Circles reading model have on the English reading anxiety of students of high,medium and low anxiety levels?The study involves 88 Grade eight students from two parallel classes,and both the EC and the CC have 44 students respectively.Before the experiment,pre-questionnaires are conducted to examine students’ English reading anxiety.Then,a teaching experiment lasting for three months is conducted.During the experiment,Literature Circles reading model is adopted in the EC,while the CC uses the traditional PWP teaching model.At the end of the experiment,the participants’ English reading anxiety level is tested by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.After analyzing the data,the conclusions are as follows:(1)Literature Circles reading model is conducive to alleviating junior high school students’ English reading anxiety in the dimensions of self-perceptions,attitude toward English reading,and unfamiliar cultural understanding,while it shows no significant difference in students’ English reading anxiety in face of unfamiliar words and grammar.(2)Literature Circles reading model can alleviate the English reading anxiety of students of high,medium and low anxiety levels,among which the English reading anxiety of students of high anxiety level decreases the most,followed by students of medium anxiety level,and the change of students of low anxiety level is the least.Additionally,students of high and medium anxiety levels have a significant change in their English reading anxiety in terms of the dimensions of self-perceptions,attitude toward English reading and unfamiliar cultural understanding.However,the change of the dimension of unfamiliar words and grammar is relatively subtle.As for students of low anxiety level,only the overall English reading anxiety changes significantly.To sum up,this study confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of Literature Circles reading model on alleviating junior high school students’ English reading anxiety,which provides theoretical interpretation and practical methods for enhancing students’ positive learning experience.Literature Circles reading model transforms the short reading behavior into the long-term reading habits,reflects the basic principle advocated by the new curriculum standard,and has a good development prospect and generalized value,which provides a good reference for the English reading teaching of junior high schools.