A Study Of English Reading Literacy Of Junior High School Students In Urban And Rural Areas

Cultivating students’ core competence of the English subject is one of the major measurements to deepen the reformation of the compulsory education in English curriculum.Reading is a vital way to develop the core competence and promote all-round development of students.English reading literacy consists of reading ability and reading character,which is closely related to the cultivation of students’ core competence of the English subject.The proposal of Theoretical Framework of Developing English Reading Literacy for Chinese Primary and Secondary School Students promotes the English reading literacy research process in China.The author intends to utilize this survey to have a better understanding of the overall situation of the English reading literacy of urban and rural junior high school students,and to investigate factors affecting English reading literacy in depth,aiming at arousing the attention of teachers and students to the cultivation of English reading literacy,and provides reference suggestions for teachers’ teaching and students’ learning.Basing on the constructivism theory and the input hypothesis,this study adopts questionnaire,test and interview as research instruments.The study attempts to explore three major questions :（1）What is the overall situation of the English reading literacy of urban and rural junior high school students?（2）Are there differences in English reading literacy between urban and rural junior high school students? If there are differences,what are they?（3）What are the factors that affect the English reading literacy of urban and rural junior high school students?This study applies qualitative research and quantitative research,and conducts both questionnaire and test on 343 students from two junior high schools in X city.SPSS 26.0 is used to carry out descriptive analysis of questionnaire and test.Independent Sample T-test and Non-parametric Test are employed to analyze whether there is a significant difference in English reading literacy between urban and rural schools.There are 10 teachers and 6 students randomly selected to be interviewed for further analysis.The study shows that the overall situation of English reading literacy is at a medium level,among which the overall reading ability is at a low level（according to the standard of X city for grades of scores）and the overall situation of reading character is at a medium level（basing on the five grades of Likert-Scale）.Among the six sub-dimensions of reading character,the results of the amount of reading,frequency of reading and self-evaluation in reading are relatively not optimistic.Additionally,the results of attitude to reading are relatively optimistic.In terms of differences,there are significant urban-rural differences in reading ability,reading character and reading character’s sub-dimension reading habits.Nevertheless,there is no significant difference in junior high school students’ reading experience.Basing on the interview and the questionnaire,it is concluded that the main factors affecting English reading literacy are the choice of English reading materials,students’ engagement in English reading,use of English reading strategies and family support.In conclusion,this survey indicates that there are significant differences in English reading literacy between urban and rural school junior high students,and there are many affecting factors which need to be focused.Therefore,according to the results of the study,the suggestions are put forward for teachers,families and students in order to develop students’ English reading literacy.