A Study On The Effects Of Extracurricular Reading Teaching On Middle School English Teachers’ Professional Development

English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2020)clearly states,it’s not enough to improve students’ reading abilities simply through learning texts in textbooks.Students should be guided to read extracurricular reading materials according to their specific conditions.Extracurricular reading teaching is a kind of teachers’ practical teaching activity and is one of the basic pathways of teachers’ professional development.Therefore,this study attempts to explore the effects of extracurricular reading teaching on middle school English teachers’ professional development from the perspective of constructivism learning theory.This study mainly explores the following three questions:(1)What is the current situation of extracurricular reading teaching in middle schools?(2)Does extracurricular reading teaching have impact on middle school English teachers’ professional development? If so,what are the specific factors?This study adopts both questionnaire quantitative and semi-structured qualitative research methods.72 middle school English teachers are selected for the questionnaire.And,it uses SPSS 22.0 to conduct descriptive analysis and One-Way ANOVA.In addition,five middle school English teachers are interviewed,and the interview data are analyzed through thematic analysis.The results show that(1)Middle school English teachers support extracurricular reading teaching and the selections of extracurricular reading teaching materials are various,mainly classic novels and newspapers.And,there are three main problems in the process of extracurricular reading teaching,the imbalance between the extracurricular reading teaching time and the regular teaching time,the selections of extracurricular reading materials and the different learning competence of students.(2)Extracurricular reading teaching has a positive impact on middle school English teachers’ professional development.The specific factors include the increase of scientific and humanistic knowledge,the increase of pedagogical content knowledge,the improvement of teaching practical ability,the improvement of reflective ability,the improvement of research ability,and the increase of cooperative learning and self-development awareness.Through the research,the researcher gets the following implications: Firstly,teachers should form extracurricular reading habits and extensively read,setting an example for their students.Secondly,teachers should increase pedagogical content knowledge,and enhance teaching efficiency.Thirdly,teachers should improve reflective skills and cultivate a sense of lifelong learning to enhance their own professional development.Finally,schools should support extracurricular reading teaching and establish a complete extracurricular reading teaching system.And,schools should provide a variety of pathways to promote teachers’ professional development.