How to improve the high school students of English reading ability(正文)

How to improve the high school students of English reading ability(正文) How to Improve English Reading Ability of the Middle School Students Nanxi Wangjia Middle School Huang Taobin 1(Abstract: As we know, English as a second language has many countries have accepted, now English also as a global language. : Grellet have noted that English learning is "in order to have fun, in order to obtain information". Visible, learning English well is not only learn grammar, vocabulary, more important is through reading, gain new knowledge, improve our cognitive level, enhance the ability to analyze and solve problems. And the junior middle school English reading teaching in this misunderstanding: reading materials is to learn the language knowledge carrier, while ignoring the training students' English reading ability. English reading ability is one of basic skills, is an important skill. Today's students and English speaking people the opportunity to exchange, but they understand sentences in a mess. Therefore, how to improve your reading ability growing concern, improve student's reading ability is also important. But in most cases, the fact proved, a lot of people don't know how to study, their reading habits, and reading approach, reading speed problems. Therefore how widely, efficient enhancing students' reading ability has become our high school English teacher's responsibility. This article will tell I believe some reading skills, reading methods, reading habits and reading strategy to help students improve their reading ability. 2(Keywords: reading ability, Reading habits, Reading approach, Reading methods 3.Introduction: English teaching of the important goal is to improve students' English culture quality, including enhancing students' English reading ability is the most important of English teaching of the purpose of junior middle school English curriculum standards mentioned: to cultivate students' listening, speaking, reading and writing. Visible in English teaching of English reading is important one annulus. Traditional reading teaching, not only improve student's reading ability, but also make students more and no learning interest and confidence. This article is mainly discuss how to develop students' reading habits, reading methods, the reading speed and so on some 1 reading ability, enhance students' English reading interest, improve our English comprehensive cultural quality. 4(Problem: Nowadays, with the rapid development of our social economy, the opportunity to communicate with the world more and more widely use English, is a human being has a basic conditions. How fast read all kinds of product English description, English newspapers, English magazine, become more and more important. So improve students' English reading ability, make its rapid access to information, understand its content, appear extremely important. 5( Project objective Through the study, students will develop a good English reading habits, master correct English reading methods and to improve its English reading speed, improving students' all-rounded English language ability. 6( Project hypothesis The hypothesis in English reading teaching in class, to their taught the basic English vocabulary and grammar as well as knowledge, teach some correct English reading methods, and let the student through reading some English articles, let its develop good reading habits and to improve its English reading speed, so as to improve the students' English reading ability and English language proficiency. 7. Project rationale 7.1 the drawbacks of the traditional English reading teaching Traditional English reading teaching is generally the following steps: first, teachers teach the new words and useful phrases and then try to read the text again spend a certain amount of time to translation, and finally to solve problems with students after class. Such teaching, students passively accept knowledge, not only their reading ability not improved, but they also become lazy, or even lose their interest for learning English. 7.2. Improve the students' reading comprehension ability of teaching Reading is an important skill in English study, its purpose is to enlarge students' vocabulary, to familiarize students with the cultural background of the English, raises the student meticulous observation ability and their logical thinking. More important is through reading teaching, students will develop a good English reading habits, master correct English reading methods and to 2 improve its English reading speed, so as to improve the students' English language proficiency (including oral English ability and English writing ability). To improve the students' reading ability depends on teachers and students both common efforts. I think that should notice the following respects: first, enrich the students' English basic knowledge, The second church students' correct English reading methods; The third choice of appropriate reading material, let its develop good reading habits: 4 through extensive reading, to improve the students' reading speed, Finally let students insist to do a lot of practice. 7.3、初中英语课程 8.Project design My this period studied 2010 October 8-2011 on January 15, nearly 12 weeks .I designed to test this article 6 activities mentioned hypothesis. These activities are described as follows: The first stage work: October 8 - October 12 students to teach the correct method to learn English The second phase: On October 13 - October 19 elaborate 10 pieces of English reading materials October 20-26 October training students, let its develop good reading habits On October 27 - November 3 for the next stage work, the analysis The third stage work: On November 4 - November 10th again preparing for 10 pieces of English reading materials On November 11 - November 17 training students, to improve the students' reading speed On November 18-26 November in the third phase, the analysis work The fourth phase: Nov. 27 - December 3 guide students to read magazine, newspaper, extra-curricular training Dec. 4 - December 10th continue training, and comprehensive measuring and testing above phase. 3 The fifth stage work On December 11-17 December continue training, and analyzed correct On December 18-24 December continue training, and reference related theory basis Sixth stage work Dec. 25-26 December continue training, and forms the draft On December 27-31 December proofreading, forming papers are draft and submit 9.Project implementation 9.1. Improving Comprehension Ability Comprehension ability is very important, only you understand paper meaning then you can improve you reading abilty.This is a basic skill. Some methods can help students to improve comprehension. 9.1.1Building up vocabulary One with a small vocabulary will find it very difficult in reading comprehension. Some students say they just can’t remember so many words. How to solve this problem? First, learn about word formation. Students can enlarge their vocabulary by using the rules of word formation, such as prefix, suffix, conversion, and so on. For example, when you know the word ―courage‖, ―encourage, discourage, courageous‖ will not be new to you. Second, collect the new words students often meet in reading. This doesn’t mean encouraging them to consult the dictionary whenever they meet a new word in reading. The appropriate way is to try to guess the word’s meaning from context clues, from the words around it, and then students will gradually know the clear meaning of the word after meeting it often. And now, if students look it up in the dictionary, students will have a good memory of it. Third, learn a certain number of new words by heart every day. Young students have good memories. It is possible for them to memorize some words every day without much difficulty. Students can ask their teacher to choose some words for them. This is very helpful. When students meet these words in their reading, their will feel easy, ―Aha, I’ve known their meanings.‖ They will feel confident and more interested in reading. 9.1.2. Enriching and enlarging background knowledge 4 Enriching and enlarging the background knowledge are the keys to understanding the text. As one knows, students all have experiences of reading something which does not contain any new words or new structures, but they still find it difficult to understand its meaning. The reason is that reading comprehension is constituted by words structure, but they have difficult background comprehension. In other words, when students read, maybe they know each of word or structure. But they don’t know what the sentence means because of lack of background knowledge. In order to know the abstruse meaning, they should have the aid of the word meaning as well as background knowledge and inference. Every English article must cover the social-cultural knowledge. Maybe the knowledge is about politics, history, values, belief, religion, moralities, geography, thoughts pattern, habit and custom, outlook on life, etc. If students don’t understand the background knowledge they certainly come across lots of barriers in reading process. ―Knowing a language is to know the grammar, vocabulary and discourse patterns and the culture rules of use that together determines how it is appropriate to use the language in a particular context‖. (Zhang 2003:66) Learners should realize that culture is very important in language learning. As we know, reading and writing English material are often concerned with western culture. The lack of learners’ cultural background knowledge often hinders their comprehension in reading. For example, people mean pornographic by the word ―Huang‖ in Chinese, but in English, ―blue‖ is taken instead of ―yellow‖. If learners don’t know, they will not understand what ―blue film‖ or ―blue video tapes‖ mean though the words seem to be quite easy. This illustrates that word connotation is the result of culture impact on language. More attention should be paid to culture background in leaning idioms and literature works; otherwise, people have no mean to understand the implication of words and passages correctly. There are some approaches to develop students’ cultural awareness in English reading. Firstly, teachers should seek cultural information concerned in textbooks and other study materials then sort out and present them to learners at a proper time and under proper situation. Secondly, let students read some books about English and American culture under teachers’ guide. Thirdly, let students have discussions about the differences between Chinese and English culture, make them know the importance of culture in English reading, analyze mistakes made by students, and then correct them one by one. Last, but not the least, people should correctly handle the contradictions between language teaching and cultural teaching. 9.1.3. Mastering the correct methods 5 Reading is a very complicated cognitive process, including identifying the sentence, for reading ability is determined by the intelligent activity. It is consistent with sensitizing, inferring and judging. If students can recognize the topic sentence，make prediction and inference in reading ,then students can seize the central ideas , That is to say, students can fully understand the text including recognizing the patterns of organization used by writers to express their ideas such as sequential order of events, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, simple listing and related idea. 1) Identifying the topic sentence Topic sentences and central ideas are thoughts of the text. Every paragraph has a topic sentence .It is used to sum up the central idea. Topic sentence is the main part of the paragraph .So seizing the topic sentence means to seize the central idea. Students should match topic sentences with the paragraphs they come from. In addition, topic sentence is often placed at the beginning of the paragraph, the rest are expansion parts. For example: In rock music there is a distinct and almost overwhelming beat .No single beat is characteristic of the music today. But each story has an easily recognizable rhythm. As you listen to a song your foot usually starts to pick up the beat. Before long, your entire body seems to be moving with it. Your head pounds with the beat, and there is no room for thought. Only the surge of the music is important. In its own way, rock music is as dominant as the rock of Gibraltar. Its message is an overpowering emotional one. The first sentence of the paragraph: ―In the rock music there is a distinct and almost overpowering beat.‖ it is the topic sentence. That is center sentence in the whole passage. Only understand the topic sentence, you can understand whole paper mean. 2) Prediction Predicting is the faculty of predicting or guessing what is to come next by making use of grammatical, logical and cultural clues. For example: Psychologically, we are rhythmical; we must eat, sleep, breathe, and play regularly to keep good health. Emotionally, we are rhythmical too, for psychologist says that all of us feel alternate periods of relative depression and cheer. Intellectually, we are also rhythmical for we must have periods of relaxation following periods of concentration. It naturally follows them that rhythm a fundamental aspect of our lives, must be a part of any good literary works whether poetry or prose. ― What would the next paragraph probably discuss?‖ A How to write poetry B How to understand rhythmical music C The kind of rhythm found in good literature D The impotence of rhythm in planning our lives 6 At the end of the paragraph it says ―It naturally follows them that rhythm a fundament aspect of our lives, must be part of any good literary words whether poetry or prose.‖ According to the information, we can predict that the following paragraph will discuss the kind of rhythm found in good literature. So we choose the best answer C. 3) Inferring Inferring means using of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown clement. The word-formation and derivation will also play an important part. For example: As the economic role of multinational, global corporations expands, the international economic environment will be shaped increasingly not by governments or international institutions, but by the interaction between government and global corporations, especially in the United States, Europe, and Japan. A significant factor in this shifting world economy is the trend toward region trading blocs of nations, which has a potentially large effect on the evolution of the world trading system .Two examples of this trend are the United States –Canada Free Trade Agreement [FIA] and Europe1992, the move by the European community [EC] to dismantle impediments to the free flow of goods, services, capital, and labor among member states by the end of 1992. However, although numerous political and economical factors were operative in launching the move to integrate the EC’s markets concern about protectionism within the EC does not appear to have been a major consideration. This is in sharp contrast to the FTA; the overwhelming reason for that bilateral initiative was fear of increasing United States protectionism. Nevertheless, although markedly different in origin and nature both region and nature, both regional developments are highly significant in that they will foster integration in the two largest and richest markets of the world, as well as provoke questions about the future direction of the world trading system. ―What is the similarity between the FFA and Europe 1992 according to the passage?‖ A. They both overcome concerns about the role of politics in the shifting world economy. B. They both originated out of concern over unfair trade practices by other nations C. They both exemplify a trend toward regionalization of commercial markets. D. They both placed the economic needs of the trading blocs ahead of those of the member nations. The third paragraph ―Two examples of this tread are the United States Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Europe 1992‖. From the information, we can know the two examples ―FTA‖ and ―Europe 1992‖ in order to identify the world economy tendency is to build the region business group, so we choose C. 9.2. Improving Reading Speed 7 In reading comprehension, we should solve two main problems. One is to understand the reading materials; the other is to read quickly to get the main meanings. Students who read slowly will easily get discouraged. They will also tend to stumble on familiar words and fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage. Then, how to speed up the reading speed? 9.2.1. Guessing the meaning of new words ―Reading was a psycholinguistic guessing game.‖(Goodman, 1967:108) The learners can use the word-formation strategies to guess the new word meaning. We can also guess the meaning from the context, etc. Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the meaning of the words they do not know rather than look them up in a dictionary. If they need to look at the dictionary to get a precise meaning, which is an important and necessary activity too, they should only do so after having tried to work out a solution on their own. That is vital to develop the skills of inference. 1) Using the word-formation to the meaning of the new words As one knows, lots of word formations have certain patterns such as: prefix, suffix, derivative, and compound etc. Like the root of ―log‖ (speech, speak) Lots of words are created by ―log‖, such as ―dialogue, prologue monologue, etc.‖ If one know the prefix dia (between) pro (before) mono (lonely) one can understand their meanings. 2) Guessing meaning from the context ―Frogs and other animals are known as amphibians because they have double life. They are at-home on land and in the water‖. If you don’t know the word ―amphibian‖ you can guess the meaning of the word from ―double life‖ and ―on land and in the water‖. 3) Using the relationship between paragraphs to guess the meanings of new words There are usually three methods—synonym, antonym and hyponymy. Antonyms are multiple words having the different meaning. (Zhang, 2002:209) For example: ―Like the other mountain boys, Dee was taciturn. But he became talkative when I mentioned the fish king Solomon to him.’’ If you don’t know the new word ―taciturn‖, you can guess the meaning from ―but‖ and ―talkative‖, it must have different meaning from ―talkative‖. Synonym—word or phrase with the same meaning as another in the same language though perhaps with a different grammar style or technical ones. (Zhang, 2002:191) For example: The directors are so pleased with the progress of the business that they plan to expand, enlarge the factory. We can know the words ―expand‖ and ―enlarge‖ have the same meaning. 8 Hyponymy—one other kind of sense relation between words. Hyponymy is the relationship, which obtains between specific and general lexical items. (Zhang, 2002:219) For example: A cat is a hyponymy of animal, flute of instrument chair of furniture, and so on. These specific words not only add much force and clarity but also evoke vivid picture in the reader’s mind. For example: She likes red colors; so today she is in crimson. If the word ―crimson‖ is new to you, you may guess the meaning of the ―crimson‖ through super ordinate term ―red colors‖. 9.2.2. Developing the reading habits and methods. If the students are reading for the meaning of the paper, try to read fast. Some students read very slowly, they think that reading slowly helps them understand better. That is not right. As a matter of fact, the faster students read, the better they understand. The expression ―haste makes waste‖ is not applies to reading. Remember, nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowly. Students mind will keep up with their reading speed. To improve your reading speed, you must get rid of the following bad habits: 1) Point to each word with a pen or a pencil while reading; 2) Read aloud in your mind, though other people cannot hear you reading; 3) Read back from time to time; 4) Consult the dictionary whenever you meet a new word. Bad reading habits will slow down the reading speed, so we should develop the good reading habits. 1) Students should read silently rather than read aloud. 2) Students should have a clear purpose in reading. 3) Students should read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word. 4) Students should concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and skip the insignificant parts. 5) Students should use different speeds and strategies for different reading task. 6) Students should perceive the information in the target language rather than mentally translate. 7) Students should guess the meaning of new words from the context or ignore them. 8) Students should have and use background information to help understand the text. A good reader should develop a correct reading method. That is, to train himself to read attentively (not to read back) and silently (not to read aloud), sentence by sentence, not word by word. Whenever meeting a new word, try to guess the meaning from the context. Consulting the 9 dictionary from time to time not only affects one’s reading speed and the comprehension of the reading material, but also will get the reader frustrated. 9.3. Some reading techniques 9.3.1. Skimming skills Skimming is used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text. When students read the newspaper, students are probably not reading it word-by-word; instead they scanning the text. Skimming is done at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading. Students often skim when they have lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. Use skimming when students want to see if an article may be of interest in their research. There are many strategies that can be used when skimming. Some students read the first and last paragraphs using headings summarize and organize ideas as they move down the page or screen. Students might read the title, subtitles, subheading, and illustrations. This technique is useful when students are seeking specific information rather than reading for comprehension. Skimming works well to find dates, names, and places. It might be used to review graphs, tables, and charts. 9.3.2. Scanning skills Scanning is a technique students often use when looking up a word in a telephone book or dictionary. Students search for key words or ideas. In most cases, students know what they’re looking for, so they’re concentrating on finding a particular answer. Scanning involves moving their eyes quickly down the page to seek specific words and phrases. Scanning the text can help students in three ways: 1) By letting students know whether the text contains any of the sorts of information students are seeking; 2) By giving students an impression of the author’s aims; 3) By giving students an idea of where in the text, students will find the information that’s relevant to they. In a word, scanning is a reading technique to be used when students want to find specific information quickly. In scanning students have a question in their mind when they are reading. Only to find the answer, so students can ignore the unrelated information. When they’re reading a text in order to find specific information, scanning it first to get an idea of the way the text is organized can be a big help. Visual clues-things like numbers and dates, lists, sections and subtitles, dialogues, quotations and recurring phrases are easy to be seen in a text, and can often give us a good picture of its organization and content before students start reading. When students 10 read in their own language, students usually notice the visual clues automatically. When student are reading in English, paying more attentions to visual clues before they read can improve their comprehension and make they reading more efficiently. All three of these advantages of scanning can make students a more effective and faster reader. 9.4. Reading Strategies-SQ3R Good reading strategies help the students to read in a very efficient way. SQ3R is a useful technique for fully absorbing written information. It helps ones to create a good mental framework of a subject, into which one can fit facts correctly. It helps students to set study goals. It also prompts students to use the review techniques that will help to fix information in their mind. SQ3R can be explained in detail in the following: 1) Survey: Survey the document: scan the contents, introduction, chapter introductions and chapter summaries to pick up a shallow overview of the text. Form an opinion of whether it will be of any help. If it does not give students the information their want, discard it. 2) Question: Make a note of any questions on the subject that come to mind, Turn each heading and subheading into a question. Especially while you are practicing this technique, write the questions down. This gives you a focal point for crystallizing a series of ideas (the answer). 3) Read Selectively: Read to find the answers to students’ question. By reading the first sentence of each paragraph students may well get the answers. Sometimes the text will "list" the answers by saying "The first point.... Secondly...." and so on. And in some cases students may have to read each paragraph carefully just to understand the next one, and to find the focus or main idea buried in it. In general, look for the ideas, information, evidence, etc. Now read the document. Read through useful sections in detail, taking care to understand all the points that are relevant. In the case of some texts this reading may be very slow. This will particularly be the case if there is a lot of dense and complicated information.. 4) Recall: Once the students have read appropriate sections of the document, run through it in their mind several times. Isolate the core facts or the essential processes behind the subject, and then see how other information fits around them. 5) Review: Once the students have run through the exercise of recalling the information, students can move on to the stage of reviewing it. This review can be by reading the document, by expanding their 11 notes, or by discussing the material with colleagues. A particularly effective method of reviewing information is to teach it to someone else! 10. Conclusion In this article, we talked about the reasons for improving reading ability firstly, then talked about the theme from four aspects: one is to improve reading comprehension ability by enriching and enlarging background knowledge, mastering correct methods of thinking as well as grammar and rhetorical knowledge. The second is to improve reading speed by grasping certain word-guessing skills and developing good reading habits and methods. The third is to discussed that students need to know scanning, skimming and the relationship between them. They need to realize how to read for different purpose. The fourth is to have talked about SQ3R strategies in reading. Only in this way can learners improve their reading ability and English level effectively. However, improving English reading ability is a longstanding process. It should be preceded in an orderly way and should be realized step by step. Surely, you cannot improve it within a short time. However, if you master the proper reading skills and reading strategies and keep on reading, you will improve your reading ability at last. 11.References: 1. Gavin J. Fairbairn & Susan A. Fairbairn Reading at University:A Guide for Student [M] 2.贝蒂娜?苏雷 《做一个高效的阅读者》[M].上海社会科学院出版，2006 3. 蒋成禹:《阅读入门》[M].浙江人民出版社，2005 4.彭锦秀、杨阳:―新课程指导下的大学英语泛读课程‖，《大学外语教学》[J].2005 5.潘意敏、潘峥峥《快速阅读法》[M]. 华东理工大学出版2005 6. 伍凌. Improving reading ability[M].厦门:高等教育出版社,2006 12