How to improve English Reading in Middle School 英语专业毕业论文.doc

How to improve English Reading in Middle School Abstract: Reading is the main way for students to learn English. But in middle school, a lot of problems still exist in the English reading .Reading is an important way of the students to study English well. It is a basic skill for a student, so students are asked to read them with a certain speed. To do this, students should change their bad reading habit and raise reading speed. Key words: reading ，improve，middle school I. IntroductionReading is one of the fourth basic skills of English. However, in middle school, the situation of students reading ability is far from being satisfactory.For many students, they are afraid of reading and most of them show little interests in reading for the English reading is too boring. In order to search for a right way to solve the problem, I have been devoted to search for an effective teaching method to improve students reading abilities. II. The importance of improving reading and how to improve Reading 2.1 The importance of improving readingThere are many reasons that students are to read English texts are an important part of the teachers job. First, many of them want to be able to read texts in English. Anything we can do to make reading easier for them must be a good idea. Second, Reading texts provide good models for English writing; study language vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way to construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. Last, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics. Of course, it is important to study reading texts for the students, how many paragraphs they contain. But the meaning, the message of the text, is much more important. Teachers should help students understand that the main idea. They had their own purpose to read, they have to find ways of doing something about it. They should be encouraged to continue reading to gain meaning. But they must realize that the meaning is not in the teacher. Students should be encouraged to ask themselves, “Can I understand them?”Students have to realize that risk taking in reading is appropriate; that using context to decide what words mean is. Once a decision has been taken about what kind of reading text the students are going to read, teachers need to choose good reading tasksthe right kind of questions and useful puzzles, etc. Working in groups, the English teacher and students take turns to ask each other questions after the reading. Reading is an important way of gaining information in foreign language learning, it is a basic skill for an English learner. There is a lot of reading exercises in an examination today. But all these readings must be done in limited time. So students are asked to read them correctly and with a certain speed. To do this, you should change your bad reading habit and raise your reading efficiency.2.2 How to improve the students readingStudents have many kinds of experience; some texts are written with specific situation in mind and invite specific ways of readings. One way is to teach reading in three stages: before reading stage, while reading stage, and after reading stage. Each stage has a different goal and deals with different reading strategies. The overall aim is to train the students to be efficient readers in the foreign language.2.2.1 before readingBefore reading means before the text is read. To read even the simplest passage, you have to be able to place it within a context and to anticipate what you are likely to find. The aims of the before reading is arousing the students interest. Students read the text by providing a purpose for reading, preparing the students for the content of the text. Not all three aims are relevant to all text types. So, the teacher does not have to spend too long on motivating them to read.2.2.2 While reading While reading is mainly focuses on the exploitation of the text. It aims to help the reader understand the content and structure of the text, as well as the authors purpose in writing it. The purpose of a reading lesson is to teach not test. As a teacher we should help students become efficient readers with their own reading skills.2.2.3 after reading After reading work is not directly connected with the text, but usually “grows out” of it. It has two aims: one is to consolidate or reflect on what has been read in the text, the other is to relate the text to the students own knowledge. As teachers, we give students a sense of responsibility to read a text, when they know that they will have to use the information gained from it to do something else.III. Reading SkillsWith the coming of the television age of our society，many people would have us believe that we are moving rapidly away from reading as a necessary life skillBut this is not the case at all Good reading is a more important life skill than ever before and the printed word continues to be the cornerstone of both higher education and better positions in the job market For students，almost all studying involves readingFor adults， reading is day to day，either a stumbling block or a smooth path to pleasure and opportunityThis is why good reading habits are not only an important study skill for the student，but also an important life skill for anyone 3.1 Skimming Skimming is very fast reading. When you are skim, you read to get the main idea and a few, but not all of the details. To skim rapidly, you must leave out parts of the material.Before starting to read a passage in detail, the teacher first ask the students to take a moment to preview the passage. Students should read often contains an introduction or overview of what will be talked about. Then from the second paragraph as students have to in order to discover whether it contains a main idea or any important details. The teacher ask the students to have these in mind: for which the passage was written, what type of passage it is, what the purpose and attitude of the author is and what the style of the article is.You read the ending paragraphs which you should read more fully because they often contain a summary.The following practical steps for skimming are suggested to help the students get started:1. Read the title.2. Note the author's name and the source of the text.3. Read the first paragraph completely.4. Read subheadings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.5 If the final paragraph appears to be a summary, read it completely.3.3 Reading speedAnother good reading habit is reading fastIn fact，most students read much too slowly Studies show that fast readers are the best readers， Remember，nothing hurts concentration more than reading too slowlyYour mind will keep up with your reading speed if you ask it toBy always reading at your top speed，you challenge your understanding and make it easier for your mind to concentrate on the material 3.4 Vocabulary building I think memorizing word parts and their meanings will not help you become a better reader. For a student with good reading habits, a printed page contains not only words but also ideas，actions，thoughts and feelings. But all these things are built on wordsThe more words you are familiar with，the less you are aware of reading words and the more you are aware of content and meaningExpanding your vocabulary will help you to read more effectively and rapidly Many students simply skip over words they do not understandThis naturally， hurts their overall comprehensionOther students stop at teach new word and look it up in the dictionary，but this method can slow down your reading affecting concentration and comprehension But you can build your vocabulary without using a dictionary each timeHere are two rules： 1Pause for a moment on each new word in your mind 2Try to guess what the word means from context，from the words around itWhat happens with this method is that you will see the word again and againEach time you will have a stronger impression of the meaningSoon，the new word will be familiar and its meaning clear The key to the method is to be alert to new wordsDon't skip over themYou'll find you are adding to your vocabulary each day and a good strong vocabulary is a great help to reading quickly and with strong comprehension Good reading habits like these can help students and working adults alike to be more successfulThe special world of school and the real world of school and of everyday life can be more comfortable，productive and rewarding with the addition of simple yet important life skills such as good reading habits IV. Classification of teaching reading In my opinion, most teachers in middle school always adopt the traditional teacher-centered classroom teaching in reading class, which emphasize grammar and translation teaching. They spend most time to explain words, grammar, and translate each sentence into Chinese. Then such teaching methods must result in silent class. When teach teachers intonation and expressions still the same. They speak neither too fast nor too slow, neither too loud or too low. They dont change their expressions, let alone a smile, and they always seem never use body language. They just repeat every procedure that happens in every class. This is bad for the reading.So, students in the class study very boring. They just do what teacher tells them to do, and have little opportunity to speak in the class. Even given chance, they never want to express themselves freely. They have to listen to the teacher speaking all the time and just feel sleepy. They will never enjoy such a reading class and just hope the bell could ring soon. If this continues, students will lose the passion of learning English and even hate English class. In such situation, what we need to do to activate students in reading class. V. ConclusionIn short, we find class lively in the process of learning the language. The method enable students consciously rehearsals. Thinking students will be able to remain active in the classroom.It is considered that reading is a complex automatic process involved a-lot-of and it was a process of thought. Teaching method should be changed by the object, surrounding and teaching goal. It cant be the same. We have to take into consideration the elements of all sides. Certainly, in reading practice students play the leading role. No matter how teachers teach, no matter how much knowledge teachers offered, it can never take the place of their own wide-spread and abundant practice. Teachers are mainly used to rise students interesting of learning, to organize, supervise and check up the reading activity, to discover and solve questions of language and knowledge, whats more to help them while necessary.References Sandra Silberstein. Techniques and Resouces in Teaching Reading. 北京: 人民教育出版社, 2002.Rivers, W.M.: Teaching Foreign Language Skills M. The University of Chicago Press. 1968.Richard Veit Christopher Gould John Clifford, Writing,Reading,and Research Third Edition M . New York: Macmillan College Publishing Company, 1994, P63.Dorothy Grant Hennings, Reading with Meaning Strategies for College Reading Third Edition M .Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Press:1996,P42. Belyayev B.V. The psychology of Teaching Foreign Languages. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1963.