An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Question Chain On English Critical Reading Ability Of Junior High School Students

Reading is an important part of junior high school students’ English learning and critical reading ability is also an essential ability for junior high school students.As an effective scaffold for improving students’ thinking in English reading,questions are expected to promote students’ critical reading ability.However,in the teaching of English reading in junior high schools,students’ English critical reading ability has not been fully cultivated as questions in reading class are not suitable enough to promote students’ thinking.Moreover,according to The National English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017)(the NECS),students should be encouraged to think critically from the teaching of English reading.Question chain in English reading is composed of a series of interrelated,hierarchical,and logical questions closely related to the theme of the reading texts.Therefore,in the teaching of English reading,it is of great necessity to employ effective question chain in order to improve junior high school students’ critical reading ability.Based on the SOLO(Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome)taxonomy and Critical Discourse Analysis,this study aims to apply question chain to the teaching of English reading in junior high schools and explore the effects of question chain on junior high school students’ English critical reading ability.To be specific,two research questions are to be discussed as follows:(1)What effects does question chain have on junior high school students’ English critical reading ability?(2)How does question chain influence the English critical reading ability of junior high school students at different English proficiency levels?The study is an experimental study and it lasts for 12 weeks.The research participants are two parallel classes in Grade 8 from a junior high school in Baiyun,Guangzhou and there are 31 students in the CG and the EG respectively.Conventional teaching method is used in the teaching of English reading in the CG,while question chain is adopted in that of the EG.The research tools involved in this study are questionnaires,test papers,and interviews.The major findings of this study are concluded below:(1)The application of question chain to the teaching of English reading in junior high schools can improve students’ overall English critical reading ability and the dimensions of structure analysis level,rhetoric analysis level,and holistic evaluation level.(2)Question chain has different effects on the English critical reading ability of junior high school students at different English proficiency levels.Specifically,question chain can improve high and middle students’ overall English critical reading ability,the dimensions of structure analysis level,rhetoric analysis level and holistic evaluation level.However,except for structure analysis level,students at low level are not influenced greatly by question chain in their overall or other dimensions of English critical reading ability.To sum up,the application of question chain to the teaching of English reading in junior high schools is conducive to cultivating junior high school students’ English critical reading ability.Therefore,it is of great necessity for teachers to carry out question chain in the teaching of English reading so that students’ English critical reading ability will be improved in the long run.