A Case Study On Cultivating Reading Character Of Junior High School Students Through Scaffolded Silent Reading

The Compulsory Education Curriculum Standards for English Subject(2022)put forward teaching suggestions that “guiding students to persist in carrying out extracurricular reading,and focusing on training and developing reading literacy”,which involves carrying out sustained silent reading activities.Furthermore,educators advocate the teaching mode and curriculum system with the aim of cultivating reading literacy.In English teaching,teachers often pay more attention to the ability than to the character,therefore the implementation of the cultivation of reading character remains to be explored.Relevant studies have found that sustained silent reading is one of the effective models to cultivate students’ reading character,but the problem of fake reading caused by sustained silent reading remains to be solved.Therefore,in view of the unfavorable conditions of sustained silent reading,the improved version of that came into being.It is worth exploring the influence of scaffolded silent reading on students’ reading character.Two parallel classes and six students in one municipal key junior high school were chosen as the participants of this study.To explore the current situation of students’ reading character and the effect of scaffolded silent reading on reading character,the following research questions were answered through a mixed method,including the data analyses of questionnaires,semi-structured interviews and students’ assignments:1.What is the status quo of the English reading character of junior high school students?2.Compared with SSR,does Scaffolded Silent Reading better promote the development of students’ reading character? If so,how does it work in terms of reading experience and reading habits?3.Are students at different reading-character levels affected to the same extent? If not,what is the difference and what factors lead to the difference?The findings of the study are as follows:(1)Junior high school students’ English reading character is at a moderate level,which is embodied in the desalination of reading interest,the performance-oriented reading motivation and the lack of reading experience;(2)Through the implementation of scaffolded silent reading,students’ reading character has improved as a whole,which is shown that students have established a positive reading attitude and been willing to read independently in extracurricular time.In addition,students have mastered certain reading strategies and could evaluate and reflect on their reading process;(3)The development speed and focus of students with different reading-character levels in the pre-test were different;(4)Students with high reading character have improved their own thinking ability and creativity through scaffolded silent reading;(5)Students with medium reading character have undergone a gradual development process from the activation of reading interest into the formation of reading habits;(6)Students with lower reading character focused on the cultivation of reading interest and right reading attitude;(7)Students’ attitude and preference as well as teachers’ ability to organize reading activities were two major factors that cause such changes in reading character.Based on the above findings,this study provides suggestions for middle school teachers to effectively cultivate students’ reading character and implement the teaching requirements of the new curriculum standards.