A Study On The Influence Of Guided Extracurricular Reading On The Cultivation Of Cross-Cultural Cognition Of Junior Middle School Students

English curriculum standards for compulsory education(2022 edition)points out that English subject core competencies include language ability,cultural awareness,thinking capacity and learning ability.Cultural awareness refers to the understanding of Chinese and foreign cultures and the appreciation of fine culture,and is the cross-cultural cognition,attitude and behavioral choices that students show in the new era.Cross-cultural cognition is one of the important components of cultural awareness,and cultivating students’ cross-cultural cognition is of great significance to the cultivation of students’ cultural awareness.In recent years,researchers have studied cross-cultural cognition from a range of perspectives,but few studies have investigated the cultivation of students’ cross-cultural cognition through extracurricular reading.Guided extracurricular reading is one of extracurricular reading activities.This study attempts to explore the influence of guided extracurricular reading on the cultivation of junior middle school students’ crosscultural cognition.Guided by the input hypothesis,constructivism learning theory and scaffolding theory,this study refers to the theoretical and practical studies on the development of cross-cultural cognition and guided extracurricular reading conducted by experts and scholars at home and abroad.In this research,the author takes two classes in Grade 8 of a junior middle school as the research subjects and adopts the methods of questionnaire survey,experimental research and interview.A three-month experimental study was conducted to explore the effect of guided extracurricular reading on the development of junior middle school students’ cross-cultural cognition.The study addresses two questions:First,what is the effect of guided extracurricular reading on the development of students’ cross-cultural cognition? Second,what is the effect of guided extracurricular reading on students’ interest in learning about cross-cultural knowledge? The study found that 1)guided extracurricular reading was effective in developing students’ cross-cultural cognition by promoting students’ knowledge of English-speaking countries,social values,social conventions,conversational principles,strong connotation words in English culture and speech act;and less effective in developing students’ time view and nonverbal behavior.2)Through guided extracurricular reading,students’ interest in learning crosscultural knowledge has increased.Based on this study,the author puts forwards the following three suggestions for using guided extracurricular reading to develop students’ cross-cultural cognition effectively: First,teachers should select extracurricular reading materials that are close to students’ lives and contain rich cross-cultural knowledge.Second,teachers should provide sufficient guidance in the process of guided extracurricular reading,while taking into account the subjectivity and autonomy of students.Third,teachers should conduct a variety of activities related to cross-cultural knowledge in the process of guided extracurricular reading.