A Survey of English Reading Outside Class

Peng Yuan

【Abstract】The aims of middle school English teaching are to cultivate students to acquire reading competence，which enable them to gain the information.Reading is the required method to collect information and material.This paper reports a survey on reading outside class among senior school students，by the way of questionnaires and interview，including the interests，focus，assignment of reading time，selection of reading materials，reading motives and other aspects..

【Key words】after-class English reading； senior high students； motivation

selection of reading materials

Chapter1.Introduction

Reading outside class provides learners more opportunities to contact with the second language，by increasing “understandable input”.Normally the second language input met during the learning is planned and limited，most of which is unnatural language made up by human beings.Nevertheless，reading after class is different from learning from text books，without elaborate arrangement of certain grammar points requiring being mastered by readers.

Further reading after class for senior high school students plays an important role in consolidating and reviewing reading strategies，which directly helps a lot to improve reading competence.If learners want to put those skills or strategies into practice，they will turn to large amount of reading after class.

Chapter 2.Survey of English Reading Outside Class

Students receiving the questionnaire and interview are from Class 8 and 9 in Grade 1 in Chizhou NO.1 Middle School.The method used is questionnaire，which is composed of two parts in Chinese.The first part is to know the general situation of those subjects，including gender，age，and the interest of English.The second is the investigation of the situation of reading outside class，including the allotment of time for after-class reading，the way they choose reading materials，the motivation of reading，the opinion about the function of reading，current difficulties in reading and the strategies applied in personal reading.Some students are invited to make a face-to-face talk.This part is just the process for the cognition of their own English study； the most skillful strategy they believe themselves to be good at； in what aspects they hope to improve； what kind of competence they will use frequently in the future.

Chapter 3.Suggestions on Reading Outside Class for Senior High Students

3.1 On Redressing Motivation

As is shown in previous investigation，the comprehensive level of readers with the integrative motivation is above those with the instrumental motivation.Therefore，the integrative motivation should be cultivated.

1）Teachers role in leading.Although reading outside class is not under direct control of teachers，yet teachers instructions have an important effect on students reading activities.Teachers in class should help students build a clear awareness of the scientific and reasonable motivation，so that it will lead them to go on with after-class reading individually.

2）Students self-cultivation.During the process from human beings to social beings，students should be well aware of what matters in their future.The competence of using English is becoming more and more important.So both the instrumental and integrative motivation should be improved.

3.2 On Choosing Reading Materials

1）Teachers role.The psychological study shows human beings are especially interested in people and things around themselves.Teachers can select English materials about their cities，provinces，or countries for middle school students so that it will achieve a good effect.Teachers need to enlarge the students background information about reading materials，which helps them understand them easily.

2）Students role.They should learn to collect materials for reading from every aspect as many as they can，such as newspaper，magazines，books，or through the Internet.As well，students need to cultivate self-assessment of reading material.

3）Publishers role.In order to provide a better environment for senior students reading，publishers should re-edit and recompose the current reading materials to satisfy the basic needs of middle school students.Some principles should be followed：a.Authentic，referring to material designed by native speakers，or with the purpose of providing what information？ b.Interesting，meaning the topic or the content should be fun and attractive，so that readers interest can be aroused and the reading activity motivated.

Chapter4.Conclusion

Nowadays，in China，foreign language learning has been a significant and complicated system.Reading competence is becoming more and more important.It is necessary to study the status quo of students after-class reading.Based on the previous study made by scholars in China and abroad，this paper just analyzes the situation of reading outside class from two typical aspects：motivation of reading and selection of materials.Through the questionnaire and interview，we can get a general idea of the current situation existing among middle school students.

According to this study，the majority have already realized the importance of reading outside class.The main problems exist in the reading motivation and the selecting of reading materials.Students should form a correct concept of reading motivation and a clear self-cognition.

Although foreign language learning is a typical student-oriented task，yet teachers and the society should pay much more attention to those problems.Teachers are expected to play the important role of leading students to the right direction.Meanwhile the society should be responsible for creating a good environment for foreign language learners，by standardizing the compilation of reading materials and diversifying the contents of reading materials.

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