Effects Of Reading Strategy Instruction On EFL Middle School Students’ Reading Anxiety And Reading Performance

Reading is one of the major means to language acquisition,and has been playing a vital role in English learning in junior middle school.However,traditional Grammar Translation Method is usually employed in the process of reading teaching.Teachers translate word by word to make students have a good understanding of the English texts.Great importance is attached to reading performance and little to reading anxiety.Previous empirical studies have indicated that anxiety makes a difference to learning performance,and the reduction of students’ reading anxiety contributes to boosting reading performance.In recent years,Reading Strategy Instruction has attracted attention of many scholars at home and abroad.Reading Strategy Instruction underlines that reading strategies are applied to texts so that reading speed and reading performance can be both improved.O’Malley & Chamot proposed the CALLA model in 1980 s.The CALLA model integrates learning strategy training,major teaching content and the development of language skills for the purpose of improving EFL learners’ language proficiency.According to the CALLA model,learning strategy training can be divided into five phases: Preparation,Presentation,Practice,Evaluation and Follow-Up Expansion.The author will apply the CALLA model together with reading strategy training to the English reading instructional experiment.Currently,numerous studies concerning Reading Strategy Instruction mainly focus on college students and senior high school students and fewer studies on junior middle school students.Therefore,the author combines Reading Strategy Instruction based on the CALLA model with English reading teaching,and aims to explore the effects of Reading Strategy Instruction on students’ reading anxiety and reading achievement.Three research questions are discussed in the thesis:(1)What effects does reading strategy instruction have on English reading anxiety among junior middle school students?(2)What effects does reading strategy instruction have on English reading strategy among junior middle school students?(3)What effects does reading strategy instruction have on English reading performance among junior middle school students?The author conducted a 10-week English reading experiment in a rural junior middle school in Ezhou,Hubei to answer these three questions.72 eighth-graders from two parallel classes were randomly chosen to be engaged in the experiment.The experimental class consisted of 36 students,and the control class also comprises 36 students.Moreover,Reading Strategy Instruction based on the CALLA model was adopted in the experimental class,whereas Grammar Translation Method in the control class.Students in two classes were required to fill in Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale and Survey of Reading Strategies,and do reading tests before and after the experiment.Later,a semi-structured interview was also conducted with eight EC students.It can be concluded that Reading Strategy Instruction based on the CALLA model exerts a tremendously positive effect on the reduction of students’ overall reading anxiety and the improvement of their reading self-confidence.And Reading Strategy Instruction assists students in employing reading strategies flexibly,especially in global strategies.In addition,Reading Strategy Instruction is beneficial to enhance students’ reading performance,especially in reading comprehension and task-based comprehension.As a consequence,English teachers can attempt to apply reading strategies to reading teaching in junior middle school so as to activate students’ enthusiasm for reading.