A Study On The Application Of Production-oriented Approach To English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

English reading,as one of the means of input,plays an important role in English learning.The improvement of reading competence not only helps students internalize input knowledge,but also assists students in laying a solid foundation for language output.However,influenced by the traditional teaching method,the current situation of English reading teaching is not so optimistic.Teachers focus more on helping students acquire as much vocabulary and grammar knowledge as possible but neglect to cultivate students’ reading competence,which directly leads to English reading teaching in a state of separation between learning and application.Based on the current English teaching situation in China,Wen Qiufang put forward Production-oriented Approach(POA),and some scholars have proved its great contribution to English teaching.However,the current research on Production-oriented Approach focuses more on writing and speaking.The research subjects mainly involve university or senior high school students,but less attention is paid to junior high school students.Therefore,this research will explore the influence of Production-oriented Approach on English reading teaching in junior high school and attempt to discuss the following four questions:(1)What is the current situation of English reading teaching in junior high school?(2)Can POA promote students’ use of reading strategies?(3)Can POA improve students’ reading performance?(4)What is students’ feedback on applying POA to English reading teaching?Two classes with comparable reading levels in Grade 9 of a junior high school in Wuhan,Hubei Province,are selected as research subjects.One class is the control class and the other is the experimental class with 50 students in each class.The control class uses the traditional teaching method,while the experimental class adopts the Production-oriented Approach.Besides,this teaching experiment lasts for four months,and classroom observation,questionnaires,tests,and interviews are chosen as research instruments.Finally,by combining quantitative and qualitative analysis,some collected data are analyzed through SPSS 23.0.Some research results can be concluded as follows.Firstly,the current situation of English reading teaching in junior high school is not so satisfactory.Some teachers lack a correct understanding of English reading teaching and they pay less attention to cultivating students’ independent thinking and selective learning abilities.Secondly,Production-oriented Approach is conducive to promoting students’ use of reading strategies,especially cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies,while it exerts little influence on prompting students’ use of affective strategies.Thirdly,Production-oriented Approach improves students’ reading performance better than the traditional teaching method.Fourthly,students show a positive attitude towards Production-oriented Approach,and they believe that it helps them better realize the importance of English reading.Based on these research results,some feasible teaching suggestions are made for the front-line teachers in junior high school.Firstly,teachers should select some appropriate input materials and design some effective output tasks for different students.Secondly,teachers need to provide timely and effective evaluation of students’ output tasks.Thirdly,teachers need to learn more teaching theories and constantly update teaching methods.