A Study On The Effects Of "Question Chain" Teaching Mode On Junior Students’ Reading Ability

The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 edition)makes it clear that reading always runs through the cultivation process of English language skills and language abilities,and plays an important role in promoting students’ core competencies of English discipline.Abundant studies also showed that reading can not only improve reading ability itself,but also have positive effects on listening,speaking and writing abilities(Stanovich,2000).“Question chain” teaching mode is,based on students’ cognitive level and combined with teaching objectives,to design a series of moderately difficult and interlinked questions in the teaching process and to help students establish a diversified learning thinking to the greatest extent,with the purpose of promoting the development of students’ thinking quality.Therefore,the use of “question chain” teaching mode in reading teaching can promote the development of students’ reading ability and thinking quality,and then cultivate students’ core competencies of English discipline.This thesis is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Theory and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Theory,referring to the dimensions of reading ability proposed by Wang Qiang and Chen Zehang(2016).It aims to explore the effects of “question chain” teaching mode on junior students’ reading ability.The study selected 96 students from two parallel classes of junior middle school in Chengdu and 8students from the experimental class as the research participants,and carried out a four-month teaching experiment in the experimental class by using “question chain”teaching mode.The following three questions are to be solved: First,what is the status quo of junior students’ English reading ability? Second,what are the effects of“question chain” teaching mode on junior students’ English reading ability? Third,what are the effects of “question chain” teaching mode on the three aspects of reading comprehension embodied in junior students’ English reading ability?The questionnaire,test and interview are used to collect data and then analyze in the study in order to answer those research questions.The results show that: first,the status quo of junior students’ reading ability is not ideal.The status quo of reading ability is in a state of unsatisfactory to general level,and students’ language knowledge,reading comprehension and cultural awareness are not solid enough.Second,“question chain” teaching mode has positive effects on the development of students’ reading ability.Students’ language knowledge,reading comprehension and cultural awareness have been improved to a certain extent,among which the effects on students’ reading comprehension is relatively significant.Third,“question chain” teaching mode has improved the three aspects of students’ reading comprehension,and has positive effects on the ability of grasping key information in information extraction,the ability of inferring and judgement in strategy application,and the critical thinking way in multiple thinking.Based on the above research results,some teaching implications can be drawn as follows.Teachers should do a good job in discourse analysis,combine the teaching practice and specific teaching objectives,integrate the resources of the text in a diversified way,and then design a set of logical and hierarchical teaching “question chains” that conforms to the development level of students.What’s more,in addition to focusing on the cultivation of reading comprehension,the cultivation of language knowledge and cultural awareness also needs teachers’ attention.Teachers should guide students to think actively,let students continuously acquire knowledge in the process of problem solving,improve their thinking mode,and then promote students’ comprehensive development.In short,the use of “question chain” teaching mode in reading teaching can promote students’ deep understanding of the text,thus effectively improve students’ reading ability and promote the cultivation of core competencies.