How to Cultivate Students' Reading Ability英语专业毕业论文.doc
How to Cultivate Students' Reading Ability Abstract How to cultivate students reading ability is an urgent affair. Its also one of the most important factors in middle school English teaching and learning. This passage analyses the difficulties in the teaching reading and proposes some proper solutions to them. She has also pointed out that grasping the scientific skills and methods of reading comprehension is the most important strategy in improving English. Key words:English language teaching comprehension impediment, comprehension methods reading ability cultivating Main Headings Introduction : Content 1. Skimming and Scanning 2. The authors viewpoint 3. The structure of the passage 4. The structure of paragraphs 5. Students' Anticipation 6. Punctuation 7. SummarizingConclusion:Bibliography Introduction : How to cultivate students interests in reading is the key to improving students reading ability. The traditional method of having students read silently, answer comprehension questions, and then discuss an article can become boring to both students and teachers. An alternative to this traditional approach is turning articles into jigsaw activities, in which any one student only has a portion of the information needed to complete a task. Junior English Reading Teaching is an extremely important part of teaching. The aim of our teaching is to train our studentslability to do reading on their own and the ability to use the language properly. Moreover, in recent years College Entrance Examinations, reading comprehension covers more than 60%, which further requires that we should pay attention to cultivating students in English reading comprehension. Content Reading is one of the important skills in English learning. Its purpose is to enlarge their vocabulary and familiarize themselves with background information about English and to cultivate(培养) students' careful observation and their logic thinking. What is more, it is to improve students' comprehension. I have tried to train my students in the following ways: skimming and scanning, author's viewpoint, structure of the passage, structure of paragraphs, students' anticipation, punctuation and summarizing. 1. Skimming and Scanning Before starting to read a passage in detail, first I ask the students to take a moment to preview the passage. Read quickly, without pausing to study the details. This is called skim reading. The students ask them to have these in mind: for which the passage was written, what type of passage it is, what the purpose and attitude of the authoris and what the style of the article is. After having skimmed the passage, the students can study the passage in more detail, reading more slowly and carefully and looking for specific information that the questions are concerned with. This is called scanning. When students do the scanning, I ask them to read without any sound, to notice only the key words and not to pay too much attention to the new words but to pay the sense group and the main meaning of the sentence. Especially pay attention to the first sentence and the last sentence of the paragraph. 2. The authors viewpoint In reading a passage I ask the students to makes guesses about the position of the author. Is the author nautral or does the author show his own opinion. The author often shows his opinion either by adding certain phrases or by adding a value to a word. I let the students to pay more attention to these words that the author can add, like luckily, unfortunately to show that he is pleased or not pleased with something. He can also add words, which show his surprise, regret or other emotions, for example surprisingly, to shock, unexpectedly, regrettably, pity, desirable, to be disappointed, etc. The author may also use words to indicate the level of certainty, for example: certain, obviously, undoubtedly, naturally, always, often, likely, probably, maybe, unlikely, hardly, rarely, never, etc. Another possibility is that the author adds words to comment on more or less objective facts. 3. The structure of the passage I let the students know that the structure of a passages mostly with a title and sometimes a subtitle. After that, the introduction and the body followed by a conclusion or summary. An important aspect of reading is prediction. The better the student can predict what he or she is going to read, the faster and more effective he or she will read. The prediction process begins with the title. The introduction mostly informs the student about what he can expect. The body consists of paragraphs. Each paragraph deals with one aspect of the subject matter. Paragraphs are linked in a logical way; and the conclusion puts the subject matter in the right perspective. I asked the students' to form. the main idea of the passage by putting the topic sentence of every paragraph. 4. The structure of paragraphs I tell the students that a paragraph is a group of sentences. A typical paragraph consists of three parts. The first sentence usually contains the topic sentence, which is the heart of the paragraph. The topic sentence contains the new aspect of the subject of the passage. The second part of the paragraph contains sentences, which develop the aspect. These sentences may contain arguments, explanations, details, examples, and other supporting evidence. The last sentence of a paragraph is often a summary of the paragraph or a linking sentence to the next paragraph. So we can get a good impression of the contents of the paragraph by the structure. 5. Students' Anticipation(推测) I let students know that even if you have a wide and flexible vocabulary you will encounter words of which they do not know the meaning. Very often there is not enough time to look up all those words in a dictionary. This means that students should be able to guess the meaning of the word. This is often possible if the student understands the relationships between words in meaning and form. I ask the student to notice the word formation if they meet new words. From the roots and affixes and conversion and compounding, they learn to try to guess the meaning of the word according to the content. To make a good guess at the meaning of the word, I ask students to pay attention to the clues; indications that help him find that meaning. If you meet new words and try to find if there are synonyms and repeated ideas of the new words. I teach students to follow these steps: 1) Determine the word class, i.e. a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb, etc. 2) Determine its function in the sentence, i.e. is it an attributive or an adverbial? 3) Contextual clues, is the context in which we find this word positive or negative; what does the context tell us about the word? 4) Word formations, is there any relation between this word and a word that is familiar to you? 5) Guess the eventual meaning of the word logically and reasonably. 6. PunctuationI teach the students to know punctuation is partly based on grammar. For example, commas are often used to separate clauses. If the student understands the meaning and usage of punctuation marks, it will be easier to understand the grammatical structures. Punctuation marks also indicate how the author wants the student to interpret a piece of passage. For example, if the author puts something in brackets, the part of the sentence should be interpreted as an addition to the sentence. Sometimes the parentheses indicate the author's point of view. 7. Summarizing We know that it is very difficult to remember the complete contents of long passages. For that reason it is often advisable to make notes of information in the passage that is essential for the student. The result is a short outline of the passage containing all aspects of the passage. In this way students can grasp the main ideas of the passage. I ask the students to follow these steps: 1) Familiarize(熟习) with the material. After students have read the passage or a section of it, they can start summarizing. The length of the section read through depends on the structure and the complexity(复杂) of the passage. 2) Select important information. I ask the students to go through each paragraph, sentence by sentence, asking themselves which information is absolutely essential to the argument. They should point out complete sentences as much as possible. An alternative is to underline or highlight important sentences or phrases. Pay attention to these important points: author, title, reason why the passage was written, purpose, theme, key words, link words, all major aspects, explanations, authors opinion. Less important points: introduction, summary, repetition, examples, important figures and dates. 3) Paraphrase the information. I ask the students to point out the information of the previous step in their own words. And writing down information in their own words forces them to completely understand what they are writing down. They should try to shorten long and complex sentences into much shorter ones. 4) Insert links between sentences and paragraphs. Let students make sure that the connection between sentences is clear and logical and that each group of sentences smoothly fit in one paragraph. 5) Adjust the length of the summary. If they have to make a summary as part of an assignment and they are assigned a maximum number of words, count the words and leave out information that is not essential or add important information.Conclusion: Through the training of the reading skills of skimming and scanning, author's viewpoint, structure of passages, structure of paragraphs, students', anticipation, punctuation, and summarizing, students know the steps of how to understand a passage and particularly how to deal with the comprehension questions in the examination. But we know reading is a practise of long period and we must have a lot of practice. In order to cultivate the reading ability, students need knowledge of grammar, a good master of vocabulary, a good ability of analysis and a good memory as well. So we must try to train the students enlarge their vocabulary, the skills of reading, broaden their background knowledge and cultivate the ability of question analysis and resolution.Only in this way can we raise the student's comprehension ability. Bibliography & Reference 1.<<英语教学法>> 何广铿：英语教学法基础， 暨南大学出版社，2003年版 2.<<中小学外语教学>> 李貌：中小学外语教学， 2005年. 3 .杨春梅 英语阅读理解能力方法技巧及素质的研究教材.教法.学法.2001年第四期. 4.Richards, J.C (1990) The Language Teaching Matrix , Cambridge University Press. 5.普通高中英语课程标准人民教育出版社2003.4 6.肖坤等编写高中英语课程基础训练湖南教育出版社2003.12 7.Junior English for China-StudentsBook, People Education Press.2004.7. http: 8.The activity arouses the studentsinterests in English reading. 9. 李俊. 论21世纪英语阅读教学的定向问题 J.国外外语教学.2007.6. 10、初中实验课本（九年级英语教材目录、引言）实验版。生命列车The Train Of Life1. 不久以前，我读了一本书。书中把人生比作一次旅行。2. 人生一世，就好比是一次搭车旅行，要经历无数次上车、下车; 时常有事故发生; 有时是意外惊喜，有时却是刻骨铭心的悲伤 3. 降生人世，我们就坐上了生命列车。我们以为我们最先见到的那两个人-我们的父母，会在人生旅途中一直陪伴着我们。 4. 很遗憾，事实并非如此。他们会在某个车站下车，留下我们，孤独无助。他们的爱、他们的情、他们不可替代的陪伴，再也无从寻找。 5. 尽管如此，还会有其他人上车。他们当中的一些人将对我们有着特殊的意义。 6. 他们之中有我们的兄弟姐妹, 有我们的亲朋好友。我们还将会体验千古不朽的爱情故事。7. 坐同一班车的人当中，有的轻松旅行。8. 有的却带着深深的悲哀 还有的,在列车上四处奔忙，随时准备帮助有需要的人 9. 很多人下车后，其他旅客对他们的回忆历久弥新 但是，也有一些人，当他们离开座位时，却没有人察觉。10. 有时候，对你来说情深义重的旅伴却坐到了另一节车厢。你只得远离他，继续你的旅程。11. 当然，在旅途中，你也可以摇摇晃晃地穿过自己的车厢，去别的车厢找他 12. 可惜，你再也无法坐在他身旁，因为这个位置已经让别人给占了 .13. 没关系。旅途充满挑战、梦想、希望、离别 就是不能回头。因此，尽量使旅途愉快吧！14. 善待旅途上遇见的所有旅客，找出人们身上的闪光点。15. 永远记住，在某一段旅程中，有人会犹豫彷徨，因为我们自己也会犹豫彷徨。16. 我们要理解他人，因为我们需要他人的理解。17. 生命之谜就是：我们在什么地方下车？坐在身旁的伴侣在什么地方下车？我们的朋友在什么地方下车？我们无从知晓 18. 我时常这样想：到我该下车的时候，我会留恋吗？我想我还是会的。和我的朋友分离，我会痛苦。让我的孩子孤独地前行，我会悲伤。 我执著地希望在我们大家都要到达的那个终点站，我们还会相聚 19. 我的孩子们上车时没有什么行李，如果我能在他们的行囊中留下美好的回忆，我会感到幸福。20. 我下车后，和我同行的旅客都还能记得我，想念我，我将感到快慰。21. 献给你, 我生命列车上的同行者, 祝您旅途愉快!1. Not long ago, I read a book, in which a mans life was compared to a journey.2. The life of a man is just like a hitchhiking，during which many times we go up and down. Now and then things will happen accidently, some of which are to be unexpected excitement，while some heart-breaking sorrows. 3. When first embraced the world，we are already on the train of life. We take it for granted that the first two persons, our parents, whom we are encountered with, will accompany us all the way.4. Sadly，things do not go on as we thought.Our parents will get off the train at a certain station，leaving us, bereft and helpless.Their love and emotion to us and their irreplaceable company can be found in nowhere.5. However，there will be somebody else who will get on the train. Some of them will have special meaning to us.6. Some of them may be our siblings , relatives and friends, and we will also expereince the imperishable love.7. Some of our travelling companions are quite light-hearted on the way.8. While some may bear immense sorrow.Still some ,back and forth, are ready to hold out their hands for others who need help.9. Some people alight off the train, yet they are still kept in the mind of the other passengers for long;some, to the opposite, leave their seats without being noticed.10. Sometimes, the one,who is dear to your heart, has huddled into another carriage. Nothing but one you can do is just to keep on going, far away from him.11. Of course, during the journey, you may stagger to another carriage to look for him.12. Its a pity that you will never seat yourself beside him because the seat has been engaged by others. 13. Never mind. The journey is full of challenges,dreams, hopes and departures- but only one thing is that you cant turn back. So, have a good journey with heart and soul.14. Show your good-will to all the passengers you are encountered with, and find the merits of theirs.15. Remeber that someone may oscillate just as we do in the journey.16. We should understand others just as we need others understanding.17. The enigma of life is：Where shall we get off the train of life?And how about the companions beside us?And our friends?We dont know.18. Sometimes I think：When my time comes to get off the train，shall I miss it？I think I will.It is a suffering when I part with my friends.I will be sorry for leaving my kids going alone.I firmly hold that when we get to the terminal，we will have another reunion.19. When my kids get on the train of life, they have only little luggage in their travelling bags. However,if I can leave the beautiful memory in them,I will be happy. 20. After getting off the train of life, I will be content if my fellow passengers will remember
