Research On English Reading Instruction With The Theme Of Familiarity In Vocational High School

Reading skill is an important part of language understanding ability formed in language communication activities of learners,and it is also one of the important assessment contents in spring English examination for vocational high school students.English Curriculum Standards for Vocational High Schools(2020)points out that discourse provides language and cultural materials for the development of student’s language ability,and students should understand the meanings and feelings conveyed by different discourses.In addition,the English Curriculum Standards for Vocational High Schools(2020)emphasizes the concept of “theme familiarity” in the language skills requirements of course content module.At the same time,it also points out that teachers should create a context related to the theme and guide students to explore the meaning of the theme in teaching,stimulate students’ interest in learning,and help them construct their knowledge structure.Therefore,it is really important to improve the theme consciousness of vocational high school students and cultivate their comprehensive reading ability.Although reading teaching has been widely valued by teachers and students in English education in vocational high schools.However,with the continuous advancement of curriculum reform,the effect of English reading teaching in vocational high schools aiming at the core literacy of English subject(workplace language communication,perception of thinking differences,cross-cultural understanding,and autonomous learning)is still unsatisfactory.The problems are mainly manifested in the following aspects:(1)Some texts of vocational high school textbooks are boring,and some of the reading texts are old and divorced from the actual life of vocational high school students.Students’ reading interests and motivation of obtaining meaningful information are not high.(2)Teachers pay more attention to the explanation of language knowledge in reading teaching but neglect to train students to understand the main theme of the text.(3)Vocational high school students are weak in theme awareness,and their reading efficiency is not satisfied.They lack the ability to get inferences based on text with familiar theme.To solve the dilemma of English reading teaching in vocational high schools and improve students’ English reading interest and ability,the concept of theme familiarity is integrated into thematic instruction in this study,and the English reading instruction with the theme of familiarity is applied to English teaching practice in vocational high schools.Narrow reading,constructivist learning theory,and zone of proximal development theory are used as the theoretical basis of this study to assist teaching practice.In order to fulfill the requirements of English Curriculum Standards for Vocational High Schools(2020)in terms of ideology,orientation,and core literacy of the subject,this study mainly explores the following questions:(1)Under the background of English Curriculum Standards for Vocational High Schools(2020),do vocational high school students have problems with the low ability of searching specific information,theme judgement,inference,and evaluation? And what are the causes?(2)Is it possible to construct English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity to improve the ability of searching specific information,theme judgement,inference and evaluation of vocational high school students?(3)Can English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity effectively improve the English reading interest and reading ability of vocational high school students?In order to verify the effectiveness of the application of English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high schools,according to the wishes of students,this study chooses two parallel classes of sophomores majoring in business in T City Information Engineering School as the research objects.Class 3 is the experimental class with 51 students,and Class 4 is the control class with 52 students.The experimental class applies the English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity,while the control class applies the traditional PWP teaching mode and controlled the irrelevant variables.In the process of the teaching experiment,questionnaires,tests,and interviews are used as auxiliary research tools to detect the difficulties of English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools,students’ thematic awareness,and the changes in students’ English reading interest and ability.The teaching experiment began on September 5,2022,and ended on December16,2022,including teaching activities,questionnaires,reading ability tests,and interviews.The results are as follows:(1)According to the questionnaire and interview,before the experiment,vocational high school students had low interest in reading,and their scores in searching specific information,theme judgement,inference,and evaluation were obviously low.(2)According to the test,the students’ comprehensive English reading scores in the experimental class are improved significantly after the experiment,and there is a significant difference between them and the control class.(3)The scores of students in the experimental class in searching specific information,theme judgement,inference and evaluation has been significantly improved after the experiment,and there were significant differences from those in the control class.And students in the experimental class have a high degree of recognition of the English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high school.Therefore,the conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Before the experiment,vocational high school students have low interest and ability in English reading.The main reason is that some of the reading texts are old and out of the actual life of high school students.However,the students are not aware of the theme and can not understand the text in depth.(2)This study successfully constructs English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high school to improve students’ interest in reading learning and theme awareness,and practices the core literacy of vocational high school English subjects.(3)English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high school effectively improves students’ ability of searching specific information,theme judgement,inference and evaluation.And it improves the comprehensive English reading ability of vocational high school students.To sum up,according to the guidance of English Curriculum Standards for Vocational High Schools(2020),this study applies English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high school to the practice of English reading teaching,which to some extent solves the dilemma of English reading teaching in vocational high schools.This study improves the effect and efficiency of English reading teaching in vocational high schools,improves students’ English reading interest and ability,and effectively improves students’ thematic awareness and discourse awareness.In addition,this study focuses on solving problems in teaching activities,cultivates students’ thinking quality and values in practice,and improves students’ learning ability.However,due to the influence of research time and the number of subjects,this study does not have enough in-depth research on the effect of English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high schools.In the following research,the researcher should extend the research time as much as possible,increase the research objects and expand the scope of the participants,to explore the influence of English reading teaching mode with the theme of familiarity in vocational high schools.