A Study of English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schoo.doc

1、A Study of English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schoo Classrooms 高中英节咨阅读谋堂教学减开究 作者 :白琳 指导教师 :刘永兵教授 学科专业 :外国语言学及应用语言学 研究方向 :英语课堂研究 学位类型 :学历硕士 东北师范大学学位评定委员会 2010年 6月 abstract Reading is an essential skill for people to get information in this information explosion era, and for many, reading is the

2、most important skill to master. Reading ability is now one of the most important measures in evaluating ones language proficiency. With the globalization of business and information, L2 reading has received more interest than ever before. In college entrance exam in China, reading tests take 70 out

3、of 150, which nearly accounts for half of the total score. Thus how to improve the efficiency of reading classes is becoming the common concern of both in-service teachers as well as language researchers. The study explores into real classroom practices in reading in senior high school of China. Vie

4、ws of teachers and students, obtained via interviews and questionnaires are also considered in analyzing reading classes. The study aims to present flaws of current reading instruction, under the discussion of reading theories and reading instruction strategies, so as to offer pedagogical implicatio

5、n for L2 teaching. The data analysis of the classroom observation shows that reading classes do share common features, which further reveals the problems of the current English reading instruction as follows: 1 .overemphasis on activating bottom level processing skills; 2. lack of attention to activ

6、ating prior background knowledge; 3.improper ways of vocabulary teaching; 4. little instruction on reading strategy; 5. simplified methods of increasing reading rate; 6. no activities of verifying strategy;7. no awareness of evaluating progress. Data from interviews and questionnaires reveal two con

7、tradictions in the reading practice, namely the contrast between students needs and teachers instruction; and the incompatibility between teachers beliefs and instruction in reading classroom observation; senior high school; problems; contradiction 摘要 在这个信息爆炸的时代，阅读已成为人们获取信息的最重要的基本技能之一，阅读 能力也日渐成为衡量语言

8、水平的重要标准。随着信息和商业的全球化趋势，第二外语阅 读逐渐开始被重视。在高考英语考试中，阅读更是以 o 分的分量几乎占据总分 Iso分 的一半。因此如何提高英语阅读课堂教学质量也引起了广大一线教师和语言研究者的重 视。 本文通过对课堂观察、问卷及采访收集数据的讨论，广泛听取师生的心声，旨在以 阅读理论和阅读教授策略理论的框架下，探讨现行高中阅读课堂的利弊，并为二语教学 提出参考意见。 通过课堂观察数据的分析得知，高中英语课堂存在典型特征，并揭示了如下的教学 问题 :1.过分注重低层次的技能 ;2.对激发背景知识重视不足 ;3.教授阅读词汇方法 有待改进 ;4.阅读策略教授很少 ;s.促进学

9、生阅读效率的方法过于单一 ;6.缺少对学 生阅读策略使用的纠正 ;7.对学生阅读进步缺乏衡量意识。同时，访谈和问卷所获信 息也揭示了目前阅读教学中存在的两大矛盾 :其一是学生需求与教师授课的不一致 ;其 二是教师对二语阅读所持观念和课堂教授与阅读理论及教法理论的不协调。此外，通过 对教师采访搜集的资料，不仅有利于更好解 读课堂观察的数据，而且有利于进一步了解 教师课堂活动安排的动机，对待某些阅读教授策略的看法及教授过程中面临的挑战和困 难。通过对学生问卷调查，也广泛征求了他们对现行阅读教授的感受和意见，发现学生 普遍的阅读障碍，因此为提出更加切实可行的教学建议提供了帮助。希望本文的研究 发现可

10、以让广大英语教师受益。 第二外语阅读 ;课堂观察 ;高中 ;问题 ;矛盾 Chapter One Introduction This study is mainly concerned with reading instruction in senior high school. It begins with the background and the significance of this study. The research questions and the outline of the whole thesis will also be given in this chapter

11、. 1.1 the background and the Significance of the Study Reading is far more complex and sophisticated to define since reading is a process which involves interaction of cognitive, psychological, social, cultural factors and so on (Anderson, 1999). Thus researchers observation and analysis of reading

12、always takes a certain perspective. Goodman (1975) once gives a tentative definition of reading: reading is a receptive language process. It is a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning which the reader constructs.

13、 In the ESL/EFL reading class, however, one great challenge is that even when students can read in their second language, much of their reading is not fluent (Anderson, 1999). Wang (2008) points out the current problems in the teaching procedure- curriculum design, teaching methods, and the goal of

14、teaching. He argues that English education in high school does not ensure enough reading quantity and reading time for students. Reading is always treated as a session of exercise in each unit; some teachers regard the reading class as “intensive reading class“, which means detailed explanation of n

15、ew words and expressions, grammatical points, sentence structure, in a sentence by sentence way. Other teachers, however, consider the reading class as “extracurricular assignment“, presenting idiomatic expressions and checking the answer. Anyway, the especially selected passages with splendid conte

16、nt of the reading text are presented as a pile of grammatical and vocabulary puzzles, which bore the students without helping them to be proficient readers (Wang, 2008). Wang is one of the many in-service teachers who share their valuable opinions on the problems of teaching English reading in China

17、, and the challenges they face in the classroom. Teachers voices allow us to hear from ESL/EFL reading teachers about real problems in the teaching process. However, personal views based on ones own experiences are far from being scientific to be generally accepted. Since the 1970s, there have been

18、L2 learning theorists and instructional researchers offering teaching strategies in ESL/EFL reading. Thus the author believes that the integration of theory and practice will provide more trustworthy insights in teaching ESL/EFL reading. Therefore, the incorporation of empirical study of classroom o

19、bservation and theoretical guidance in reading instruction is worth studying and it is significant in the following aspects. First, theoretically it will further the research of L2 reading theories gained from real classroom observation. Though L2 reading has gained wide interests from researchers,

20、while L2 reading instruction, based on both empirical and theoretical framework has not been fully researched, and this study may give scholars and researchers some insights on L2 readingteaching. Hopefully, the success of this study may encourage or stimulate further studies in this area. Second, p

21、edagogically this study may provide EFL teachers insight into L2 reading, and to help them reflect on the current situation of L2 reading instruction in China. Learners will benefit as well if the study is widely acknowledged by in-service teachers and make improvement in teaching L2 reading. Also t

22、he findings of this research might promote their ability of self-learning, so that reading efficiency are achieved both in class and after class. In a word, it is beneficial to both teachers and learners. 1.2 the purpose o the Research This study aims to expand current L2 reading research into real

23、classroom teaching within well-defined theoretical and pedagogical frameworks on reading, so as to facilitate L2 reading instruction. Detailed description of L2 reading processes are incorporated under the assumption that understanding the complexities of L2 reading may enable language teachers to i

24、dentify such difficulties that L2 readers might encounter, thus help their instruction. Besides, to fairly judge current reading instruction in senior high school, voices from teachers and students are heard, rather than solely relying on theoretical and pedagogical frameworks. Thus drawbacks will b

25、e revealed more objectively. In order to achieve this goal, the following three questions should be answered foremost. 1 .What problems do the common teaching procedures of reading classes in senior high schools reveal of current L2 reading instruction? 2. What are in-service teachers voices? What d

26、o students feel about the reading classes they are receiving? 3 .What pedagogical implication can be gained through discussions above? 1.3 Organization o thehesis The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is a brief introduction where the background and the significance of this topic a

27、re stated. Also, the author makes clear the purpose of this research bringing forward the research questions and provides the general outline of the thesis in this chapter. In the second chapter, the author first reviews research on reading, reading model and reading instruction strategy, then intro

28、duces the current L2 reading research in China. Chapter three mainly concerns the research methodology of this study. It gives detailed information on the recorded classes and the interviewed teachers and students. Data collection is also presented in chapter three. In chapter four there is the disc

29、ussion of the result, case examples of the problems revealed, and its pedagogical implication. In the last chapter, besides a brief conclusion of the whole research, the positive effects and the limitations of this empirical study are revealed and future research suggestions are put forward. Chapter

30、 Two Literature Review As the author has mentioned in the introduction part, reading is one of the most fundamental element of foreign language teaching and learning. First the general history of reading research is introduced, followed by the focus on reading model development; then through differe

31、ntiating L1 and L2 reading, the study transit to L2 reading research. The author introduces L2 reading research by restructuring L2 research under the categorization of the six strategies in teaching L2 reading proposed by Anderson (1999). At the end of this chapter, current reading research in Chin

32、a is discussed, through which the urgent need of this paper is shown. 2.1 History of Reading Research Reading Research is just a little more than a hundred years old while serious efforts at building models of the reading process have a history of a little more than thirty years (Samuels the associa

33、tion of words to the sernahtrc representations, possibly the idehttficatroh of basic syntactic structures within the portion of text currently heihg read, and with the generation ofthepropositrohal units(Segalowitz et al., 1991:15). As is shown, the lower level processing skills can be summarized in

34、 four aspects: orthographic, grapheme-phoneme, semantic and syntactic aspects. Thus the four aspects are adopted for evaluating teachers vocabulary instruction later on. 2.2.2 Top-down Model In contrast to bottom-up models, Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (1991) point out features of the higher level

35、 of “top-down model“ as Cohcehedpirnaily with ihtegatroh of textual ihfornatroh and includes esolvihg anrhiguities 二劝 text,/)欢 7ng words with them co-y 号食呱 rote,岁 atrhg popositrohc 扩unitssentences geheatrhg and updatrhg a schema二 epesehtatroh of the text as a whole, and ihtegatrhg textual ihfornatro

36、h with pio knowledge(Segalowitz et al., 1991:30). Obviously the top-down model includes more knowledge on textual knowledge about linking words, propositions, whole structure and prior background knowledge. The “top- down“ revolution has resulted in major improvement in both our understanding of wha

37、t good and may not so good readers do, but top-down models do have some limitations as Eskey (1988) points out in Holding。 the Bottom. l Iteactive lppoach to the Iaguage Problems of Second Iaguage deadens: The top-down revolution tends to emphasize higher- level skills as the prediction of meaning b

38、y means of context clues or certain background knowledge at the expense of such lower-level skills as rapid and accurate identification of lexical and grammatical forms. He further criticizes that the top- down model they promote is an accurate model of the skillful, fluent reader, for whom percepti

39、on and decoding have become automatic, but for the less proficient, developing reader- like most second language readers- this model does not provide a true picture of the problems such readers must surmount 2.2.3 interactive Approach to teading Theory The trend of interactive model becomes more pop

40、ular when Rumelhart (1977) published Towards a Iteactz二 tllodel以 Reading, from which Stanovichs interactive compensatory model develops. Also Parry (1983) provides a useful summary: The deadens starts with the peceptroh o 乙 graphic cues, but 二、。 these*ecoghized。 farnilia schemata deivedBorn both lin

41、guistic knowledge and knowledge of the world二 .geheal* hrou护 /into play. The proportion ofgraphicthat must heperceived varies with individual texts and with individual readers-accordihg to the dculty of the forrne and the knowledge, and confiden“二 thatknowledge, ofthe latter (Parry,1983 :45. Parry n

42、otices that efficient reading involves both graphic cues, schemata about linguistic knowledge, word knowledge, as well as the knowledge and confidence in the reading text, all of which may differ among individual readers, thus resulting in different reading proficiency levels. Grabe (1991) points ou

43、t that overemphasis on top-down models of reading in L2 have resulted in a reconsideration of the importance of lower-level processes in reading (e.g., letter, feature, word, and syntactic processing). Stanovich, (1986), Eskey (1988), and Segalowitz (1991) have all stressed the importance of automat

44、ic lower-level processing in second language contexts. This interactive model seems to strike a better balance among the various subprocesses of reading, positing a constant interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the m

45、eaning of the text. Thispaper will adopt the interactive approach in evaluating data collected from classroom observation. 2.3 Differentiating L1 and L2 reading It is true that most of our current views of second language reading are shaped by research on first language reading, because L1 research

46、has a longer history, student populations of L1 are much more stable, cognitive psychology has seen L1 comprehension research as a major domain of their field, and considerable cognitive psychology and educational grant funding is available for L1 (Grabe, 1991). ESL reading researchers and practitio

47、ners are trying to understand what fluent L1 readers do, then decide how best to move ESL students in that developmental direction. The learning process or learning model might be universal for all kinds of readers, but here a distinction needs to be made between L1 and L2 reading. Thus the discussi

48、on on L2 classroom may have a more clarified theoretical basis to stand on. Grabe (1991) points out three differences that distinguish L2 reading from L1 reading L2 acquisition and training- background differences, language processing differences, and social context differences. L1 learners have alr

49、eady learned 5,000 to 7,000 words before the formal reading instruction in schools begin (Singer, 1981). L1 learners have better intuitive sense of language grammar, while L2 readers do not. This does not mean that L2 learners are losing the advantages. Koda (2005) gives another distinction between the two: unlike beginning L1 readers, L2 readers can resort to their prior literacy experience; beginning L1 readers have already acquired a basic linguistic foundation by the time they re