A Study On The Application Of Narrow Reading To English Reading-to-Write Teaching In Junior High Schools

Reading-to-write teaching model has become the mainstream of English writing teaching methods nowadays based on the fact that it connects reading and writing closely and promotes students’ output through input.The American linguist,Stephen Krashen,put forward “narrow reading” strategy in 1981,which advocates students to read large amounts of works of the same theme,the same genre or the same author.Because narrow reading stresses the correlation among reading materials,the study on the application of narrow reading to English reading-to-write teaching can help teachers select reading materials appropriately,thereby promoting input quality before writing.The author attempts to connect narrow reading with English writing teaching in junior high schools,adopts a mixed research method of combing quantitative and qualitative methods,selects a total of 60 students of two parallel classes(the experimental class and control class)in Grade Eight as the experiment subjects and conducts a four-month experiment in an ordinary junior high school in Nanchang.The reading-to-write method combined with narrow reading is adopted in the experimental class while the traditional reading-to-write teaching method is employed in the control class.And through the comparison of the results of pretests and post-tests,it can be checked whether the writing performances of students in experimental class are better than those of control class after the experiment.Meanwhile,in order to know the effects of narrow reading on students’ English writing,two questionnaire surveys are carried out separately and respectively before and after the experiment in the experimental class from 4 dimensions,namely,students’ attitude towards English writing,the difficulty they have with English writing,their understanding of the relationship between reading and writing and the writing strategies they master.And finally,to further support the results gained from tests and questionnaires,6 students from experimental class with different learning levels are chosen as interviewees and an interview is conducted on them to know the effects of narrow reading on their writing ability,the effects of narrow reading on their writing attitude as well as their suggestions on future application of narrow reading to English writing teaching.The following conclusions can be drawn from the research results:(1)Narrow reading practice before writing can promote students’ writing ability effectively in junior high schools,mainly in aspects of writing content,vocabulary and textual structures;(2)The application of narrow reading to reading-to-write teaching can ameliorate the attitude of junior high school students towards English writing effectively,more specifically,reflecting in promoting students’ writing interest and confidence,lessening the difficulty they have with English writing,raising their understanding of the relationship between reading and writing and promoting their awareness of writing strategies.When applying narrow reading to reading-to-write teaching,the teachers need to choose multiple,relevant,appropriate,interesting and authentic reading materials,design specific and diversified activities to consolidate what students have learned from reading and conduct competency-based teaching and instruction,thereby making the best use of reading materials,laying a solid foundation for students’ writing and achieving the actual accomplishment of promoting writing through reading.