Research On Integrating Curriculum Ideological And Political Education Into English Reading Instruction In Senior High School

Building strong moral character is the fundamental task of China’s education,and curriculum ideological and political education is an important medium and concrete practice to implement this fundamental task.The English Curriculum Standard for General Senior High Schools(2017 edition,revised in 2020)states that “the implementation of the English curriculum for general high schools should take moral education as the soul,help students learn,understand and appreciate excellent Chinese and foreign cultures,strengthen cultural confidence,expand international vision,enhance international understanding,and form a right world view,outlook on life and values”.Therefore,teachers integrate curriculum ideological and political education into English instruction in senior high school,combined with the teaching of the actual situation,which is conducive to enabling students to be able to learn in the process of subtle inculcation of ideological and political education.This will enable students to achieve progress in cultural knowledge and personal ideology and morality,to promote the development of a right outlook on life,values and worldview,to help students to form innovative and critical thinking,and then to achieve the ultimate goal of cultivating people in discipline teaching.Reading instruction is an important part of English teaching which has a shaping effect on students’ thinking quality,cultural awareness,and values.This study aims to explore the situation of senior high school English reading instruction integrated into curriculum ideological and political education and focuses on the following two research questions:(1)How can curriculum ideological and political education be integrated into the instruction of English reading?(2)What challenges do teachers face when curriculum ideological and political education is integrated into English reading instruction?This study was conducted in two senior high schools in one provincial capital city in East China,with classroom observations of 13 collected English reading lessons and interviews with four English teachers to explore the ways of integration used by teachers and the challenges faced in integrating curriculum ideological and political education into English reading instruction from the teachers’ perspective.The following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis: first,through classroom observations,six ways of integration used by teachers in integrating curriculum ideological and political education were summarized.Namely,using multimedia teaching method,asking open-ended questions,using the role-play method,understanding the author’s view,experiencing the characters’ emotions,and post-reading writing activities;Second,from the findings of the interviews,there are challenges from two aspects in the process of integrating curriculum ideological and political,namely,teachers and society.From the perspective of teachers,some teachers have insufficient awareness of curriculum ideological and political education,and insufficient integration of curriculum ideological and political education in regular classes.From the aspect of society,the challenge is contradictions in the background of exam-oriented education.Finally,this study proposes the following teaching implications.From the teachers’ side,teachers should improve their own ideological and political awareness and ability,purposefully create teaching situations for students and give them emotional resonance;teachers should change their teaching methods,combining implicit and explicit to cultivate students’ critical thinking skills;teachers can design ideological and political teaching objectives,and dig deeper into thinking and political elements on the basis of teaching materials.From the school side,the school should actively train and improve teachers’ thinking and politics ability,and carry out relevant teaching and research activities;regularly carry out demonstration courses on thinking and politics in English courses,and set up teaching and research teams on thinking and politics in English courses.From the social side,the education department should strengthen the support and investment in the construction of the English curriculum ideological and political education in schools.This study is helpful in promoting the construction and development of curriculum ideological and political education into English reading instruction in senior high schools.At the same time,it provides practical references for senior high school English teachers to integrate curriculum ideological and political education into English reading instruction,and makes the concept of“discipline education” settle down in English teaching.