An Investigation On English Reading Strategy In Senior High School Based On Students’ Thinking Quality

According to The New English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017),the key competences of English subjects mainly include language ability,cultural awareness,thinking quality and learning ability.Thinking quality is listed as one of key competences,which highlights that English subject attaches importance to intelligence development.Senior high school English reading class is an important content of senior high school English teaching,and it is a vital carrier to pay attention to students’ thinking and students’ thinking quality.This study investigates students’ thinking quality and the application of reading strategies in English reading,mainly aiming at acquainting the characteristics and existing problems of senior high school students’ use of reading strategies in the process of reading,and further exploring the implicatioins of improving teachers’ teaching of reading strategies based on the current situation of students’ thinking quality.This research takes the sophomore students of Zhangjiakou No.1 Senior High School as the research object,and carries on the investigation and research,and collects the relevant data mainly through the questionnaire of 196 students,the interview of 8 teachers and the classroom observation.This research mainly solves the following three questions:1.What is the current situation of thinking quality in English reading of senior high school students?2.What is the current situation of senior high school students’ use of English reading strategies?3.Does thinking quality affect students’ use of English reading strategies?The questionnaire of this study,"Questionnaire on Thinking Quality in English Reading of Senior High School Students",is derived from the thesis "The Influence of English Literature Reading in Senior High School on Academic Achievement and Thinking Development" by Xu Xiaobang and Huang Yuanzhen(2013).According to Anderson’s(2004)list of English reading strategies,the questionnaire "English Reading Strategies Questionnaire for Senior High School Students" is made,and this questionnaire is adjusted and improved.The classroom observation table is formulated by combining the above two questionnaires.The results show that the most students’ thinking quality is at middle-level;Students’awareness and performance in using reading strategies are at the middle-upper level in senior high school.The differences about the performance of students’ using reading strategies are not obvious between honors classes and regular classes,but the gender differences are obvious;Among the three dimensions of English reading strategies,the frequency of using compensatory strategies is the highest,followed by cognitive reading strategies,and the frequency of using metacognitive reading strategies is the lowest;Among the 33 reading strategies,8 reading strategies are frequently used,24 reading strategies are used at medium-level and 1 reading strategy is used at low-level;Students’ thinking quality has a certain influence on the use of reading strategies,and the relationship between the two is significant.In general,the higher scores the thinking quality,the more frequently students use reading strategies.Based on this conclusion,this study puts forward some pedagogical implications for senior high school English reading teaching,with the aim of improving the ability of use English reading strategies and the reading ability.First,teachers use visual tools and guide students to use visual tools in English reading to help transfer,integrate and expand knowledge,memorize and internalize knowledge.Second,in the English reading teaching,teachers could create questions in the context of the theme,guide students to analyze,evaluate information in a spiral form from the shallow to the deep,and inspire students to think independently so that students can express their own views creatively and strengthen the reading ability.The third is to introduce efficient reading strategies to students and lead students to apply.Teachers could help students master reading strategies and communicate with classmates by using thinking aloud,and help students verify their reading strategies and improve their reading ability.