A Study of Reading Strategy Training in Senior High School

吳 瑩

（中國礦業大學徐海學院 外語系，江蘇 徐州 221008）

0 Introduction

Learning to read is one of the most crucial learning processes students are involved in at school，and the ability to read profoundly influences academic achievement.Therefore,improving the reading ability of students is one of the primary goals of English classroom teaching.This study aims to examine the usage of English reading strategies in senior high school classroom teaching and what kinds of reading strategies are actually used by senior high school students.

It is expected that the research results of this study can reveal the specific problems exist in the classroom teaching process of English reading,recommend some practical suggestions to solve the problems or improve the current situation,and provide English teachers with more insights into students’reading strategy instruction so as to facilitate Chinese senior high school students’reading comprehension.

Table1 Students’use of reading strategies

1 Literature Review

1.1 Definition and Classification of Reading Strategy

Robin (1975)defined the learning strategies as“the techniques or devices that a learner may use to acquire knowledge”.In her later research,she identified two kinds of learning strategies:those that contribute directly to learning,and those that contribute indirectly to learning.O’Malley et al(1985)identified learning strategies as being“operations or steps used by a learner that will facilitate the acquisition,storage,retrieval or use of information”,which was originally used by Rigney (1978).They identified 26 strategies,which can be divided into three categories:metacognitive (knowing aboutlearning),cognitive(specific to distinct learning activities)and social.Oxford (1990)also used Rigney’sdefinition,described language learning strategiesas“operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition,storage,retrieval or use of information”.However,she classified learning strategies into six groups:memory strategies,cognitive strategies,compensation strategies,metacognitive strategies,affective strategies and social strategies.These six groups in the later studies were further divided into direct strategies and indirect strategies.(Liu,Feng,2010)

From the above,it can be seen that there is no consensus on the definition and classification of language learning strategies in the field of language learning strategy research.But most of researchers have agreed that in order to become a successful reader,student needs to develop the following reading strategies:

1.Specifying a purpose for the reading

2.Planning what to do/what steps to take

3.Previewing the text

4.Predicting the contents of the text

5.Checking predictions

6.Skimming the text for specific information

7.Scanning the text for specific information

8.Distinguishing main ideas from supporting details

9.Posing questions about the text

10.Finding answers to posed questions

11.Connecting text to background knowledge

12.Summarizing information

13.Making inferences

14.Connecting one partofthe textto another

15.Paying attention to the text structure

16.Rereading

17.Guessing the meaning of a new word from context

18.Using discourse markers to see relationships

19.Checking comprehension

20.Identify difficulties

21.Taking steps to repair faulty comprehension 22.Critiquing the author

23.Critiquing the text

24.Judging how well objectives were met

25.Reflecting on what has been learned from the text(Adapted from Grabe and Stoller,2002:83)

Table2 Teachers’instruction of reading strategies

1.2 Research and theories at home and abroad

From the aspect of theoretical attainment of the senior high school teacher,Wang Tianjin （2009）point out that teachers’ lagging teaching ideas and stale teaching methods could influence students’reading abilities.In addition,Lin Suqin （2009） indicates that the lack of theoretical knowledge of teachers themselves is another important reason.

In regards of the actual teaching process,scholar Christianna Alger(2009)statesthatthough reading strategy instruction should be emphasized during reading activities.Sarah Parks Duncan(2010)shows that though teachers have learnt reading strategies,the strategy instruction does not get transferred to their classrooms.

1.3 Theoretical bases

Based on the researches carried out by scholars and teachers,we have a clear and deep understanding of the importance of reading strategy use and training.According to the 25 reading strategies suggested by scholars,I have designed two questionnaires to figure out the problems exist in English reading teaching in senior high school.After the research,I have analyzed the causes of the problems from two aspects—teacher and student.Then,I would listsome pedagogical suggestions in terms of the principles stated by scholars and researchers.

2 Research Design

2.1 Research Questions

1）What kinds of reading strategies are usually used by students when they do the reading after class and the reason why they do not use certain kinds of reading strategies 2）What kinds of reading strategies are usually instructed by the teachers during the reading lessons and why do not they teach certain kinds of reading strategies?

2.2 Participants

110 students and 7 teachers from grade one in a senior high school in Jiangsu province in China.All the participants are studying English as a foreign language and have studied English formally for three years in junior high schools and nearly one year in senior high school.All the teachers have more than four years working experience and have formed a set of stable teaching methods.All the participants were told to do the questionnaires carefully and objectively.

2.3 Research Instruments

The instruments used in the study included two written questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used to elicit senior high school students’actual use of different kinds of reading strategies and their explanations of why they refuse to use some reading strategies after class.The second questionnaire was used to obtain what kinds of reading strategies are taughtby the English teachersduring the reading lessons and the reason why they do not instruct some kinds of reading strategies.

2.4 Data Collection

The questionnaires were done and collected in November 25th,2013.110 pieces of student questionnaire were sent out and 104 were usable responses.7 pieces of teacher questionnaire were sent out and they are all available.The results of the questionnaires are put into the computer,made into excel,and further analyzed.The 25 questions on the questionnaire are classified into three groups—pre-reading,whilereading and post-reading.Every question has two answers—Yes or No.The answer “No”includes another three choices.

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 The Student Questionnaire

Table 1 presents statistics o n students’usage of 25 reading strategies and the reasons why they do not choose some kinds of reading strategies when they do the reading after class.Among the reasons why they refuse to apply some kinds of reading strategies,“I haven’t learnt this strategy” takes up 51%, “I have learnt but I think it is useless”accounts for 36%,while the percentage of“I have learnt but I don’t know how to use it”is only 13%.

3.2 The Teacher Questionnaire and Explanation

From the teacher questionnaire,we can see clearly that all the seven teachers state that they have taught 25 but 7 reading strategies during their reading lessons.None of them chose “Yes” of “Critiquing the text”and only one of them expressed they have taught “Critiquing the author”,“Connecting text to background knowledge” and “Checking prediction”.When referring to the reasons,all of them gave the explanation of“Limitations”,for lacking of time or the requirement of the pedagogic tasks.

3.3 Discussion

3.3.1 The overall reading strategy use of the students

The results of this study showed that,in general,Chinese senior high school students are being moderately active strategy users when reading in English,with the exception of problem-solving strategies such as skimming and scanning,which they used with high frequency.Such findings suggest that Chinese students have the basic tools to reach a high level of reading proficiency in English.

However,the results that the percentage of “Yes” is only 37%and some strategies are only used by less than 5%students tells us that senior high school students in China are not proficient English learners.They are still lack of enough reading strategy knowledge.

3.3.2 Problems of reading strategy instruction

1）Student’s mastery level of reading strategies is relatively low

Through this study,we could find out that though most of the strategies have been taught by the teachers,there are only 37%students actual applying some of these strategies.It can be explained as the students cannot control the reading strategies well or they can only manage to use certain kinds of reading strategies.

2）Students’ attitudes towards reading and reading strategies are not positive enough.

Students pay little attention to pre-reading and post-reading strategies,which indicate that most students are passive receivers rather than positive learners.Their attitudes towards reading are not accurate or correct.

When comparing the teacher questionnaire and student questionnaire,we can see that 51%students owe their not using reading strategy to “I haven’t learnt this strategy”;while only 7 strategies have been chose “No” by the teachers.These,in some degree,suggests that many students have not pay enough attention to the reading strategy instruction or maybe they even do not realize what can be called“reading strategy”.Besides,36%students announced that they reject to apply strategies that have been taught by the teachers simply because they think the strategies are of no help.It may be another evidence to show that students’awareness of the importance of reading strategies are not clear and enough.

3）Teacher’sway ofreading strategy instruction needssome improvements.

The low use of certain kinds of strategies,especially the post-reading strategies like “Critiquing the text/author”,by senior high school students may result from the traditional teaching method practiced in China.In Chinese learning context,the actual aim of teaching English is to prepare the students for the examination.So although some teachers know the importance of teaching reading strategies,they still tend to equip students with strategies that would help students get high score in the exam.In this way,other strategies are often ignored or take a small percentage of class time.Therefore,although senior high school students in China have learned English for at least more than three years,they are still not very competent in English reading.

4 Conclusion

4.1 Major findings

1）The majority of the students cannot master the reading strategies very well.

2）Most of the students do not have positive attitudes towards reading and reading strategies.

3）There are some shortcomings of the teacher’s way of reading strategy instruction.

4.2 Pedagogical Implications

First of all,to help students become strategic readers,teachers should raise students’strategic awareness,allowing them to become more aware of strategy use while reading.Only by combining strategy instruction with the teaching content appropriately can teachers achieve satisfactory teaching results.

Secondly,in strategiestraining,teachersthemselvesshould have enough knowledge about the language reading strategies,help students build a repertoire of reading strategies and then provide various reading materials for students to try out different reading strategies through explicit explanation and modeling.(Wang Qiang,2009).It is important for teachers to combine basic decoding skills training and background knowledge enhancement during direct strategy instruction for students with serious reading problems.

Thirdly,teachers should regard strategy training as an integral part of regular class routine rather than a supplementary activity.Students must be given the opportunity and skills to discuss the text and the use of strategies with their fellow students in small groups so as to check individual students’reading comprehension and strategy use.

Last but not least,teachers should make efforts to enable students become lovers of reading.Teachers should encourage students to read various kinds of reading materials after class rather than ask them to do the reading texts only.

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