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An Experimental Study On Enhancing Senior High School Students’ Use Of Critical Reading Strategies Through Literature Circles

Posted on:2022-03-22Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:H H LiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2505306500953619Subject:Master of Education
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In the three dimensions of thinking quality put forward in the newly-revised Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017),it is critical thinking that determines whether students have potential for sustainable development.Therefore,enhancing students’ use of critical reading strategies which are conducive to cultivating students’ critical thinking is essential for English reading instruction.Literature Circles,which combines reading and discussion with extracurricular literary works through cooperative learning,establishes a platform for students to read critically.Designed to integrate Literature Circles into English reading instruction,the study explores the following three questions:(1)What effects does Literature Circles have on enhancing students’ use of critical reading strategies?(2)Which types of critical reading strategies are enhanced significantly?(3)What are the correlations between students’ use of critical reading strategies and their English reading achievements?Based on Constructivist Learning Theory and Reader Response Theory,the study adopts experimental method and questionnaires to integrate Literature Circles into extracurricular reading,aiming to enhance senior high school students’ use of critical reading strategies and improve their English reading achievements.Chosen as participants for the study,94 students from two parallel classes of Senior Two in a senior high school in Zhuang Lang County were randomly divided into EC(Experimental Class)and CC(Control Class).Before the experiment,a questionnaire was distributed to the two classes to investigate their use of critical reading strategies.Additionally,the two classes were tested for their reading achievements through the same English reading paper and the test results were analyzed accordingly through SPSS 23.0.The independent samples t-tests of each dimension of critical reading strategies and pre-test scores indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between EC and CC.During the procedure,students in EC voluntarily chose their favorite literary works and actively employed critical reading strategies involving predicting,analyzing,making inference,questioning,summarizing and evaluating under the guidance of role sheets provided by Daniels(1994).In addition,students in EC made presentations of what they had read based on their role sheets.Meanwhile,traditional reading approach focusing on vocabulary,grammar and translation was adopted for CC.After the experiment,post-test reading paper and post-experiment questionnaire were conducted on EC and CC,with the data collected and analyzed with SPSS 23.0.The conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Literature Circles has effective effects on enhancing students’ use of critical reading strategies on the whole.(2)Among the five critical reading strategies,predicting,summarizing and evaluating have been significantly enhanced while strategies involving analyzing,making inference and questioning have not been significantly enhanced.(3)There are positive correlations between students’ use of critical reading strategies and their reading achievements.In other words,students using these critical reading strategies frequently tend to get higher English reading scores.Finally,the implications and suggestions for further research are pointed out at the end of the thesis.
Keywords/Search Tags:Literature Circles, Critical Reading Strategies, senior high school students’ extracurricular reading
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