A Study On The Current Situation Of English Reading Instructional Activities Based On Thematic Context In Senior High School

The High School English Curriculum Standard(2017 edition,revised in 2020)put forward the concept of thematic context,which provides support for language learning,and advocates English teaching based on thematic meaning exploration.Language instructional activities centering on thematic contexts facilitate the teaching of thematic exploration.Based on this,this study investigates the overall situation of reading teaching activities implemented by high school English teachers based on thematic context.In this study,questionnaires were administered to 100 high school English teachers in Xi’an,both online and offline,and classroom observations and interviews were conducted with six teachers and four teachers from Q High School in Xi’an,respectively.This study aims to explore the following three research questions:(1)What’s the high school English teachers’ understanding of thematic context?(2)What are the main activities based on thematic context implemented by teachers in high school English reading class?(3)What are the factors influencing the implementation of the reading instructional activities based on thematic context?The conclusions are as follows:(1)Most English teachers do not have a deep understanding of thematic contexts.(2)The current situation of the implementation of reading activities based on thematic context is not optimistic.About the activities to activate thematic meaning,teachers often implement the activity of creating context,but barely guide students to explore the thematic meaning through the title and supplementing background cultural knowledge.About the activities to enrich thematic meaning,the comprehension activities are adopted more than application activities;About the activities to sublimate thematic meaning,which is not taken seriously in general,teachers devalued the significance of inferring and demonstrating activities.(3)The factors that affect teachers’ implementation of reading teaching activities based on thematic contexts are various,such as teachers’ lack of theoretical knowledge about thematic contexts;teachers’ unoptimistic attitudes toward thematic meaning exploration;teachers’ excessive teaching tasks and pressure;teachers’ lack of practical guidance in the design of activities for exploring thematic meanings,etc.Based on the findings of this study,the author proposes the following teaching suggestions: Firstly,teachers should constantly update their teaching ideas to actively learn the theoretical and practical knowledge related to thematic context.Secondly,teachers should fully interpret the discourse to grasp the thematic meaning,so as to design and implement the activities of exploring the thematic meaning based on thematic context.Thirdly,teachers should infiltrate language knowledge learning into reading teaching activities to ensure students’ expression of thematic meaning.Fourthly,teachers should encourage students to rationally express their opinions,emotions and attitudes related to the theme.