The Research on English Reading Strategies by Non-English Majors.doc

非英语专业学生阅读策略的研究the research on english reading strategies by non-english majorsabstract: reading is one of the four important skills in english as a second or foreign language. it is also a skill that the students need to possess to support independent and self-directed learning. since goodman put forward the top-down model, the focus of reading research has been changed from the result to the description and study of reading process. hence the investigation of reading strategies becomes more and more important. the research intends to investigate the situation of reading strategy use among non-english majors in shihezi university, what strategies are more frequently used and what are more closely related to reading proficiency. the results of data analysis indicated that successful readers use the reading strategies more consciously than unsuccessful readers. the differences of making inferences and structure analysis, especially complex syntactic analysis and discourse analysis, are salient among the five reading strategies. some relative suggestions in english reading teaching are given in this thesis.key words: non-english majors; reading strategies; reading skill摘 要：阅读是学习第二外语必须掌握的四项基本技巧之一，也是大学生用于自学须掌握的学习策略和技巧。自古德曼提出自上而下的阅读模式后，阅读过程逐渐成为阅读研究的中心。这使得对阅读策略的研究越来越重要。本次研究目的在于了解石河子大学非英语专业大学生阅读过程中策略的使用情况。通过研究结果分析，发现阅读能力强与阅读能力弱的学生在阅读过程中都不同程度的使用阅读策略，但成功阅读者能更有意识的使用策略，在五种阅读策略的运用中，存在明显差异的策略为对文章进行推论的策略和进行结构分析。文章对阅读教学也提出了一些相关性的建议。关键词：非英语专业；阅读策略；阅读技巧contentsi. introduction.1ii. literature review.2a. reasons for studying reading strategies.2b. theoretical models of reading21. top-down reading model.32. bottom-up reading model33. interactive reading model.3 c. summary of the models.4iii. experiment and analysis.4a. participants.4b. the questionnaire. .4c. the results and analysis.5 d. summary of reading strategy use.10iv. suggestions in english reading teaching.10a. enhancing vocabulary teaching.11b. cultivating students thinking abilities.11c. teacher guided extensive reading exercises11v. conclusion.12works cited.13appendix.14the research on english reading strategies by non-english majors in shihezi universityi. introductionenglish reading is paramount. this is not just because english is learned primarily as a means of gaining information through the written language, but also because reading provides the most efficient and hence the most important channel of linguistic input through which students improve their reading competence (dai and chen 108). for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in second language learning, particularly in english as a second or foreign language. without solid reading proficiency, second language readers cannot perform in order to succeed, and they cannot compete with their native english-speaking counterparts. for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in english as a second or foreign language (carrell 78). in recent years, because of the expansion of enrollment in colleges and universities, the reading proficiency of non-english majors differ greatly, which to some extent affects their ability of listening, speaking, writing and translating. this remains a headache for both students and teachers. on the one hand, many students find it hard to improve reading proficiency although they spend much time on it; on the other hand, english teachers are confused by the discrepancy of reading competence among the students since they receive the same training and instruction. this article analyzes the english reading strategies used by non-english majors based on a questionnaire. the research was primarily motivated by the writers belief and desire to teach effective reading strategies to equip students with the skills to become autonomous learners and thereby to extend beyond the classroom. it begins with a survey to investigate the reading strategies which non-english majors used in their english language lessons, their extensive reading of story books. the significance of this thesis is let the non-english learners know more knowledge about reading strategies from all sides, attract the students attention to the importance of the english reading strategy preferences and encourage the students try to find out their own reading strategies. offer some approaches of fostering the students reading strategies for students. improve my own research levels from both the theoretic aspects and the practical aspects. the importance of the investigation of reading process makes it necessary to describe and look into the strategies reader use during their reading. different classifications of reading strategies are proposed. the study is centered on the process of reading instead of the product end. this research is to explore the following statements:1. the research intends to investigate the current situation of reading strategy use among non-english majors in shihezi university, and what strategies are more frequently used and what are more closely related to reading proficiency.2. by investigating and analyzing the reading strategies of non-english majors, we try to find out what strategies non-english majors use and reveal the differences between successful readers and unsuccessful readers and to help our teaching of reading.ii. literature reviewa. the concept of reading strategiesstrategies can be defined as deliberate actions that learners select and control to achieve desired goals or objectives (winograd and hare 123). this definition emphasizes the actives role that readers take in strategic reading. students need to learn how to orchestrate the use of reading strategies to achieve the desired result (anderson 70). the term strategy refers to the mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read. the term strategy also refers to the problem-solving techniques readers employ to get meaning from a text and it summarizes readers behaviors (barnett 36). language reading is a process of how the mind functions during reading rather than the product of reading. it focus on individual readers abilities to cope with specific texts and textual elements make readers strategies integral to a study of the second language reading process. broadly speaking, reading strategies refers to mental or behavioral activity that may occur at a specific stage in the overall process of language acquisition or language use. this study begins with three reading models, and then comes to the introduction of reading strategies, and finally different reading strategies according to hosenfeld. b. theoretical models of readingreading is by far the most important means of learning a second language or foreign language. for many years, the process of reading and reading comprehension has always been the research subject for psycholinguists and psychologists. based on researches of reading, some theories about reading have been established. generally speaking, these theories can be divided into three types: the top-down model, represented by goodmans model; the bottom-up model, represented by goughs model; and the interactive model, represented by rumelharts model.1. top-down reading modeltop-down reading models suggest that processing of a text begins in the mind of the readers with meaning driven processes, or an assumption about the meaning of a text (dai 203). top-down reading model is a reading model that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text, says reading is driven by meaning, and proceeds from whole to part. here are some features of a top-down approach to reading (gove 83): first, readers can comprehend a selection even though they do not recognize each word. second, readers should use meaning and grammatical cues to identify unrecognized words. third, reading for meaning is the primary objective of reading rather than mastery of letters, sound relationships, and words. four, reading requires the use of meaning activities rather than the mastery of a series of word-recognition skills. finally, the most important aspect about reading is the amount and kind of information gained through reading. not only the readers prior linguistic knowledge and level of proficiency in the second language is important, but also the readers prior background knowledge of the content area of the text as well as of the rhetorical structure of the text is also important.2. bottom-up reading modela bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text, says reading is driven by a process that results in meaning, and proceeds from part to whole. this model describes the whole process of the reading, i.e, from the moment the first letter is identified to the overall meaning of the text is absorbed. it is said to be the representative of the model who maintains that all letters in the visual field should be accounted for individually by the reader prior to their being strung together to form meaning. according to a bottom-up reading model, reading is driven by a process that results in meaning and proceeds from part to whole. a bottom-up strategy requires progress in the opposite direction with top-down strategy.3. interactive reading modelan interactive reading model attempts to combine the valid insight of bottom-up and top-down models. it attempts to take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models, and try to avoid the criticisms leveled against each, making it one of the most promising approaches to the theory of reading today (mccormick 225). among the above three models of reading, both the bottom-up and top-down model reflect the traditional concept of reading that reading proceeds in sequential steps, while the interactive model, which suggests that the reader uses all levels of processes simultaneously and in parallel, is more popularly applied today. bottom-up theorists lay stress on the lower identification of the text segments and ignore other factors, such as readers participation, while top-down theorists encourage the reader to count on his prior linguistic and conceptual knowledge to make predictions about the text, and they underestimate the importance of text itself.c. summary of the modelsamong the above three models of reading, both the top-down model and bottom-up model reflect the traditional concept of reading that reading proceeds in sequential steps, while the interactive model, which suggests that the reader uses all levels of processes simultaneously and in parallel, is more popularly applied today. one corollary of the interactive model is that the use of reading strategies in the process of reading comprehension is indispensable. a model might be understood as a set of assumptions about what happens when a reader approaches a text, which is the ways a reader derives meaning from printed material (devine 127). if the reader is acquainted with various reading models, he will find it easier to handle the text and become more efficient and effective.iii. experiment and analysisa. participantsthere are 120 students from shihezi university who majored in chinese literature in this investigation. students of grade 2008 have already had 3 english exams. based on the mean scores of their reading comprehension exercises in the three final exams, and their usual performance introduced by their teachers, we try to find what reading strategies they use frequently.b. the questionnairethe questionnaire is drawing on the experience of liu jihong and combines the situation of non-english majors in shihezi university for better understanding. its composed of 22 items, which can be roughly classified into 5 categories: prediction, inferences, skimming, and scanning and structure analysis. each item has 5 scores which indicate the frequency of the strategy use for the subjects to assess their normal strategy use. the whole class did the questionnaire. before handing out the materials, the teacher made clear to them such things as the purpose of the survey, the procedure to do the questionnaire. it was emphasizing that there were no right or wrong answers and that their results would not affect their grade. the students were asked to read each of the statements carefully and to make a choice (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) that tells how true of them the statement is. it took the students about 25 minutes to finish the questionnaire on the average.c. the results and analysisthis table presents results of the questionnaire.classificationitemmeanfrequency scale standard deviationpearson correlationaverage meanpredictionstructure12.12low6.71.1152.93title24.05high.93.018beginning43.22media.91.106context53.18media1.16.125inferencebackground143.76high.75.5112.55unstated opinions152.43low5.83.172implied meanings182.13low6.10.081unknown context201.85low6.15.015skimmingregarding the passage as a whole63.05media1.09.0733.31topic sentences84.30high.87.330reading faster92.10low6.11.083ignoring details102.41low6.07-.015beginning ending114.33high.87.198scanningreading faster33.25media1.03.0673.10familiarizing72.14low5.95-.201passage structure122.18low.93.141ignoring words132.36low7.11.080looking details174.35high.85.531structureanalysisparagraphs relationship163.10media1.11.1152.75conjunctions193.13media.70.455structure of the passage212.26low.93.253inter-sentential relationship223.08media1.07.106the data were processed by means of the spss11.5 to obtain the mean and standard deviation of each item, hence each variable. moreover, the mean score of each item was classified into three frequency scales: low, media and high by using oxford (1990).1. predictionit has been mentioned in the top-down model. in the reading process, the readers sense and experience helps him to predict what the writer is likely to say next and keep modifying the hypotheses in the following context. if a reader can always think along with the writer, undoubtedly he shares some presuppositions of the writer and the reading becomes relatively easy. the ability to predict what the writer is going to say next is both an aid to understanding and a sign of it (nuttall 120). prediction is possible at a number of levers. from the title of a book readers can know the topic and possibly at something about the treatment.from the item1, 2, 4 and 5, we know that non-english majors are not good at prediction, especially predicting according to structure. one reason is that students pay less attention to structure, because they think structure analysis is boring and they dont connect structure with sound prediction. in their daily reading, they pay too much attention to title, but once the title does not exist, prediction will seldom take place. non-english majors control of english is not satisfactory, especially with the enlargement of the enrolment, their english level differ greatly. even for the same student, his ability in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating are also different, which to some extent affect their reading proficiency. even the successful readers do not want to stray too far away from the context. they are used to accepting what the passage offers to them instead of using their ability and background knowledge to predict.2. inferenceas chamot puts it, inference means using available information to guess meaning of new items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information. scholar s.i. hayakawa states that inferences are statements about the unknown made on the basis of the known (langan 133). in many cases, readers should read beyond the literal meaning of the text to infer the writers real intention and attitudes since they are not directly stated. so, readers should make use of their background knowledge and the text context to comprehend the text. guessing and hypothesis testing is two essential feature of inference.inference is examined in the questionnaire through item 14, 15, 18 and 20. all of the four items have positive correlation with reading proficiency, among which the strategy of using background knowledge has a significant correlation. it shows that the frequent use of these strategies can lead to good effect. its a sensible way to share the writers presuppositions by applying some of the readers life experience and background knowledge since we are living in the same world. certainly, the application should be tightly connected to the reading material; otherwise it will mislead readers and distract their attention. in the process of reading, successful readers attempted to look into the authors attitude on the basic of given information and mostly they had the ability to find implied meanings and infer unknown context while unsuccessful readers only used their background knowledge. undoubtedly, large amount of reading may prompt the using of background knowledge. all the subjects agreed great deal of reading have good effects on reading comprehension. in the survey we can see although all of the readers had some related knowledge, the unsuccessful readers did worse than successfu