A Research On English Reading Character Of Junior High School Students In Urban And Rural Areas

English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022)emphasizes the importance of developing students’ key competence.English reading teaching,as an important way of developing students’ key competence,has been given a new mission.Professor Wang Qiang’s team proposed a theoretical framework of English reading literacy development goals for Chinese students in 2016.The framework consists of two parts,namely reading ability and reading character,where reading character is about students’ emotions and behaviors in English reading.This framework to a certain extent makes up for the traditional flaw in English reading teaching that emphasizes skills but not emotional motivation,and at the same time fits in with the new 2022 edition of English curriculum standards that aims to achieve the whole-person education of students.This study took the English reading character as the research theme,and used questionnaires and interviews as the research instruments to explore three main questions: 1.What is the current situation of the English reading character of urban and rural junior high school students? 2.What are the differences in English reading character between urban and rural junior high school students? 3.What are the factors that affect the different development of English reading characters of urban and rural junior high school students?This study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research methods.In terms of quantitative research,this study conducted a questionnaire on 582 students from two junior high schools in L city,using SPSS 25.0 to make a descriptive analysis of the questionnaire data,and then using non-parametric tests and frequency statistics to analyze the differences in English reading character between urban and rural junior high school students.In terms of qualitative research,6 teachers and 12 students were randomly selected for interviews in two schools to investigate the factors affecting the different development of English reading character.The results of the study show that the English reading character of urban junior high school students is better than that of rural junior high school students,which is at an advanced level,while rural junior high school students are at an intermediate level.Specifically,urban junior high school students performed poorly only in the amount of reading,and maintained high levels in the five dimensions of the act of reading,frequency of reading,attitude to reading,interest in reading,and self-assessment in reading,while rural junior high school students performed poorly in the six specific dimensions of the amount of reading,the act of reading,frequency of reading,attitude to reading,interest in reading,and self-assessment in reading.Besides,the gap between urban and rural junior high school students’ English reading character was wide,with significant differences in both reading habits and reading experiences.The results of the interviews also revealed that the factors that influence the differences in English reading character between urban and rural junior high school students include two main aspects,namely internal factors of learners and external factors.The internal factors of learners include students’ reading ability,their interest in English reading,and their attitude toward teachers.External factors are mainly from reading materials,teachers,family support,and society.In summary,this study shows that there are significant differences in English reading character between urban and rural junior high school students and numerous factors influencing English reading character that need to be brought to the attention of educators.Therefore,the author makes some feasible suggestions on the four aspects of teachers,schools,families,and society in order to promote the cultivation and development of reading character.