Applying "literature Circles" To Junior High School Extracurricular Efl Reading Activities

As an important part of language learning,English reading plays a significant role in students’ overall English proficiency and middle school English reading teaching.Reading Abilities is also one of the essential skills for students.The "Literature Circles" model refers to a reading model in which students form temporary reading groups(i.e.,literature circles)under the guidance of the teacher,creating a learning mode that integrates independent learning and cooperative learning led by the students.The research explored the application of the "Literature Circles" model to the middle school English extracurricular reading guidance through empirical research and aims to provide a reference for junior high school English extracurricular reading guidance.Starting from September 2022 and ending in January 2023,an experiment was conducted for a period of four months,selecting students from two eighth-grade classes at a regular public middle school in Changzhou as the experimental subjects.The purpose of this study is to explore r the following three research questions:(1)Does the application of the "Literature Circles" model in middle school English extracurricular reading help to improve students’ extracurricular reading attitudes? If so,is the effect significant? How is it specifically reflected?(2)Can the application of the "Literature Circles" model in middle school English extracurricular reading improve the reading comprehension Abilities of middle school students? If so,is the effect significant? How is it specifically reflected?(3)Does the "Literature Circles" model have different impacts on the reading comprehension Abilities of students at different levels of English proficiency?The experimental results show that(1)After participating in the extracurricular reading activities using the "Literature Circles" model,students’ attitudes towards English extracurricular reading became more positive in the emotional dimension,cognitive dimension,and behavioral dimension.The degree of improvement was particularly significant in the behavioral and emotional dimensions.(2)After the experiment,the results showed that the experimental class and the control class had significant differences(p<0.05)in the four types of reading comprehension questions,including main idea questions,word meaning inference questions,reasoning questions,and detail comprehension questions.This indicates that there were significant differences in the four reading abilities between the two groups.Therefore,the experimental class showed significant improvements in the four types of reading abilities.(3)The "Literature Circles" model significantly improved the reading abilities of students at different levels,although the effects differed.The improvement in reading abilities was most significant for students at the intermediate level,while the improvement was least significant for students at the lower level。Therefore,teachers should(1)encourage students to read purposefully and independently outside the classroom.(2)shift the traditional role of the teacher to allow students to become the leaders,implementers,and evaluators of reading under the "Literature Circles" model,with the teacher playing a supporting role.(3)give appropriate guidance according to students’ abilities and needs to help students achieve maximum improvement.