A Study Of English Reading Strategies Of Senior High School Students In The Background Of English Key Competencies

Reading strategies are deliberate actions that readers take voluntarily to develop an understanding of what they read.They aid readers to actively process information,to monitor their comprehension,and to connect what they are reading to their own knowledge and to other information.Reading strategy is more important than ever before in that it is not only crucial to English reading but also more significantly to the development of students’ key competencies as is put forward by the New English Curriculum.Therefore,it is highly necessary to cultivate students’ reading strategies in the English course.However,due to various potential reasons,the English reading strategy has not been given much attention in the English teaching in senior high school.Therefore,it’s extremely necessary to research the present status of students’ English reading strategy in senior high school.For this purpose,this study is devoted to addressing the following two questions by adopting quantitative and qualitative approach based on Schema theory,Discourse Theory: 1)What is the present overall status of senior high school students’ use of English reading strategies in the background of English key competencies? 2)What are the situations of the application of cognitive,metacognitive and socio-affective strategies by senior high school students in English reading? In this study,193 senior high school students and 4 English teachers in senior two from Fu Shan middle schools in Yantai City were invited to be participants.The questionnaire and interviews are used to conduct the research.The findings are as follows: 1)The present status of students’ English reading strategy is not optimistic in the background of English key competencies.Students’ overall English reading strategy is somewhat mediocre.What’s more,the use of metacognitive strategy is relatively low.2)Senior high school students use reading strategies in contextualization,inferring,selective attention,self-monitoring and cooperation more flexibly and effectively.Furthermore,using reading strategies promotes the development of students’ English Key Competencies.According to the findings,the author put forward some implications to cultivating students’ English reading strategy capability.Hopefully,this study could give some useful suggestions to the education of English reading in senior high schools.