On Improving the Ability of English Reading Comprehension in Senior High School浅析如何提升高中生英语阅读理解能力.doc

浅析如何提升高中生英语阅读理解能力On Improving the Ability of English Reading Comprehension in Senior High School Outline1. Introduction2. Advantages of Improving Reading Ability? 2.1 Cultivation of the sense of language 2.2 Extension of vocabulary 2.3 Improvement of writing ability 2.4 Awareness of western culture 3. The Present Situation and Problems of English Reading in Senior High Schools 3.1 The analysis of reasons for present situation of English reading 3.2 The problems in reading 3.2.1 Lack of vocabulary 3.2.2 Barriers of complex sentences 3.2.3 Problems of discourse comprehension 3.2.4 Obstacles of western culture 4. Methods 4.1 Cultivation of the basic reading ability 4.1.1 Sensation of materials 4.1.2 Comprehension of materials 4.1.3 Consolidation and application of information 4.2 Guidance of reading strategies 4.3 Development of extra-curricular reading 5. ConclusionOn Improving the Ability of English Reading Comprehensionin Senior High SchoolDepartment of Foreign Languages, Luliang University, Luliang City, Shanxi, 033000Abstract: The aim of reading is to get information. Whether one can effectively get the useful information depends on the level of his reading ability. Reading ability is a foundational ability as well as an approach to improve students' self-taught ability. In addition, reading ability can promote listening, speaking and writing. This paper analyses the reading problems in current high schools and proposes the corresponding solution strategy. It can offer great help for the reading teaching in senior high schools. Key words: reading abilitycultureobstaclesstrategies and methods浅析如何提升高中生英语阅读理解能力摘要:阅读的目的是为了获取信息。一个人阅读能力的高低决定了他能否快速高效的吸收有用信息,阅读能力是英语自学能力的基础,又是培养学生自学能力的手段。同时,阅读能力的提高可促进英语听、说、写能力的提高。因此,在学生学习英语的过程中提高学生的英语阅读能力具有重大意义。本文较为深入的分析了当前高中生存在的阅读问题,并提出了相应的解决策略,为高中阅读教学提供了有益帮助。关键字: 阅读能力文化阅读障碍策略与方法On Improving the Ability of English Reading Comprehensionin Senior High SchoolIntroduction Reading is a cognitive and complicated mental process of comprehension and application, which is the most important means in learning. As an important activity in human society, reading is one of the basic ways to learn knowledge and explore the world for human being. In the process of reading, students base on a certain purpose and use the knowledge already have to select the useful information and infer the deep meanings of words. Reading can stimulate students' interest in learning English, help to expand their vocabulary, enrich their knowledge and improve the ability of using language. The ultimate target of English course is to develop students comprehensive ability of language usage. All this requests that the teachers should pay attention to the development of students reading habit and reading ability in the teaching so as to improve the students comprehensive reading ability. How to improve students reading ability has drawn a majority of educational experts attention all the time. Lv Fengfang 1994 discussed the importance of reading strategies in English reading in her book, English Reading Strategy. Its helpful for students to improve their reading speed and comprehension. In the paper, Reading Habit Research in Middle School, Li Yueqiu 2004 analyzed and explored students reading habits in middle schools, and put forward a series of effective ways to cope with the existing problems. But they didnt focus on the students in senior high schools to study how to improve their reading ability Now this paper mainly discusses the methods to improve students reading ability in senior high schools, analyzes students reading problems and proposes the corresponding solutions as well as some effective teaching methods. These will be helpful to improve students reading ability in senior high schools.2. Advantages of Improving Reading Ability2.1 Cultivation of the sense of language Learning English, the language sense is very important, because it determines whether your spoken language is authentic or not. The sense of language, namely, is language sensibility. It involves rich feelings and proficient ability in the long-term practice of the language. At the same time, the language sense is the direct and rapid overall perception to the specific environment of discourse without logical reasoning. It is formed naturally in the long-term language practice. An old saying goes practice makes perfect, which is a method of learning Chinese. Its the same to learn English as well. Reading is the most direct way to recite the basic training of students language sense. The more students read, the more sensible they will be in the language. Having a good sense of language, they can eliminate the differences between English and Chinese in the sentences, and they can express idiomatic English. In addition, a good sense of language is helpful for students to get good grades in all kinds of examinations. As a kind of invisible English language ability, the sense of language can make the students to overcome the grammatical difficulties and make the correct judgment. Thats the reason why some students who know little about grammar can choose the correct answer in examinations2.2 Extension of vocabulary Vocabulary is the basic unit of language. Words are like the bases of buildings in English learning. So vocabulary learning is the foundation of English learning. Only basing on certain vocabulary, can students cultivate and develop English listening, speaking, reading and writing. And how to remember words to enlarge your vocabulary is a headache to many students. Many students recite the booklets of vocabulary and dictionary to remember the words. This approach has some effect, but its so boring and easy to forget. In fact, in addition to rote learning, there are many methods to expand vocabulary. Reading is the best means to understand and memorize English words. Memorizing words in the reading is to put the words in a certain language environment to learn, to know the word context, and avoid remembering words in isolation, so that the word is more convenient to be memorizing, understanding and mastering. Not only the meaning of words can be remembered accurately and clearly, the usage of the words also can be mastered. In addition, a lot of reading can increase students chances of learning words. In a word, students may not understand a word at the first sight, but they can find its pronunciation by dictionary and meaning according to the context, and they also can infer the gist of it; when they see this word second or three times, they can not remember clearly, but there will be a general impression in their mind; when they meet it ten times, they will treat it as familiar as their own names, and no longer need to memorize it deliberately2.3 Improvement of writing ability English writing is an important skill that can reflect a person's level of comprehensive English learning. In English learning, writing is a key but also a difficulty. How to write English well is a headache for students. In addition to establishing a solid foundation of the language, including vocabulary and grammar, extensive reading is essential. If students read it more broadly, they will write good works. Through extensive reading and great exposure to language materials, on the one hand, students can accumulate a lot of beautiful words, English proverbs, epigrams, fixed expressions, idioms and rhetoric knowledge, absorb these into their own minds, and then express them in their articles; on the other hand, they can try to figure out and grasp the intention of the author according to the analysis of the frameworks of articles. 2.4 Awareness of western culture There is a close relationship between language and culture. Language is the carrier of culture, and culture influences language. If a person does not grasp a cultural background of the language very well, he she will not be a good language learner. Thus, if you want to learn English well, you should understand the customs and culture of English-speaking countries. Reading is the best way to understand western culture. Knowing by reading the history of different countries and their geographical, political and economic situations as well as their philosophy, literature, religion, science and technology can not only promotes the learning of language, but also increase the knowledge, enrich the experience of life, help one broaden the vision and develop a positive and optimistic attitude towards life.3. The present situation and problems of English reading in senior high schools 3.1 The analysis of reasons for present situation of English readingFor a long time, due to the limitation of teaching conditions, our country carries out the class teaching mode. Teaching content mainly focuses on explaining the vocabulary and analyzing sentence structures because of the limitations of the English classroom teaching. Although the students' vocabulary has been improved, students only learn some grammar rules, and do not learn various methods of reading. Consequently, there will hardly any improvement in students' reading ability. With the opening and reform, English teaching has made great reform. Teachers no longer emphasize the traditional grammar and pay more attention to cultivating the students' oral English expression ability and communicative ability. But how to cultivate and improve the students' reading ability still was not taken seriously Due to the lack of correct understanding of reading ability, when it comes to improving the ability of English reading comprehension, people think that doing a lot of reading exercises is the only feasible way to get ideal achievement in National College Entrance Examination. In fact, reading in exams is just a kind of quantitative standards and testing methods. At the same time, due to the multiple constraints of factors, some of the questions in exams are not scientific and accurate. So when students come into contact with the reading comprehension questions, students are misled by such problems. The students thinking is limited by small range topic and they often make mistakes. Gradually, the reading activities get more and more boring to them. Moreover, not like grammar that has rules to follow, each article has its different meanings, so students make mistakes frequently and become blind to the reading comprehension. They have no confidence to do reading comprehension questions, even are less likely to be interested in reading. Improving reading ability has become empty words. Specifically, there are still some problems in students English reading in senior high schools. 3.2 The problems in reading 3.2.1 Lack of vocabulary The lack of vocabulary and the inadequate understanding of new meaning of familiar words are the main existing problems. The word is the most basic unit in language. The lack of vocabulary not only influences the understanding of the sentence and the article, but also affects the reading speed degree and the development of oral communication in extent and depth. Sometimes, students will stop reading, when they encounter a new word. They nearly look up every word in dictionary without distinction. They spend much time on turning to dictionary or others for help to figure out the meaning, which wastes much time and lowers the reading speed. Gradually, students will try to avoid doing much reading further. Reading will be deglamorized to them 3.2.2 Barriers of complex sentences In the process of reading, the long complex sentences are often vague for us; it is difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence. In order to make the expression more accurate and strict , some English articles often use parentheses, separated structure, inversion structure, appositive structure, ellipsis and phrase structure to make the sentences long and complex. These phenomena affect the understanding of the sentence structure and the meaning of the sentence. Take the sentence, people who sleep less than 7 hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index than people who sleep more, as an example. In this sentence, students can almost know the meaning of every word. But they may not understand the meaning of the whole sentence, if they have little knowledge about the structure of sentences. They are incapable of analyzing the rule of the sentence by simplifying it and transferring it to a brief sentence that people tend to have a higher body mass index than people. Thus, this sentence will become difficult to understand. So complex sentences are big barriers in students reading. 3.2.3 Problems of discourse comprehension When reading an article, we only can know the literal meaning, often cannot grasp main idea of every paragraph or the thesis of the whole passage and cannot understand the deep connotation. We do not have the ability to judge and reason. We can see the text basically, but can't find support sentence in reading comprehension. Its a common problem in students reading. They read a sentence word by word and try their best to figure out the meaning of every word. They can know the literal meanings of the sentences, but they cant master the deep connotations that the writers want to express. Discourse comprehension refers to the main ideas of passages, the intention and attitude of the authors. But its a little difficult for students in senior high schools 3.2.4 Obstacles of western culture The authors expression habits, their social environment and their experience of life are important factors in reading comprehension. They all belong to culture. The lack of understanding of the different culture between Chinese and Western is also a very big problem. Due to the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture and the conflict between the cultural concept, students often have the illusion that they treat their own ideas as the authors ideas in articles. For example, Chinese emphasize the corporate interest, while Americans value the individual freedom. In eating, Chinese pay more attention to the tastes, but westerners attach importance to the nutrition. There are so many differences between Chinese and westerners. If students know nothing about the cultural distinction, they will feel confused in comprehension of articles4. Methods 4.1 Cultivation of the basic reading ability Reading ability depends on the language general training. Solid knowledge of written language structure and strong sense of basic vocabulary are prerequisites for improving the reading comprehension. Usually, in the process of learning, the students base on books by remembering the words and texts, doing a lot of grammar exercises and translating Chinese into English. They just have reading practice in tests and comprehens