How to Improve English Reading in Middle School1.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【摘要】 阅读是学生学习英语的主要途径。但是在中学，在阅读方面仍然存在很多问题。阅读是学生学好英语的重要方，也是学生学好英语的基础。因此学生被要求有一定的阅读速度。这样，学生应该改变他们坏的阅读习惯然后提高阅读速度。【关键词】 阅读；提高；中学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.in china, there exists a common problem to our students, that is, although many students have acquired four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing according to the demand of our traditional syllabus, they often make mistakes in application of language in real life. even they can make up grammatically and semantically correct sentences, which are not appropriate or feasible in the daily communication; whats worse, sometimes it will violate cultural principle in the target language community, and thus communicative failure occurs at times. the reason is that modern english teachers often ignore cultural teaching and spend a lot of time in english language teaching.ii. the problems existing in english reading in middle schoolmany students seem to have no trouble at all learning to read. even when very young, they begin making connections between letters and sounds, sounds and words, words and thoughts. for these students, the process of reading seems simple and natural. for other students, however, learning to read is a continuous struggle. difficulties with basic reading and language skills are the most common of all learning disabilities, affecting up to 80 percent of students who have learning problems. one out of every ten students has significant problems with reading skills. medical and education specialists use many terms to refer to these problems, including reading differences, reading disorders, reading difficulties, and dyslexia. in bridges to reading, we use these terms interchangeably. reading problems is a lifelong condition that affects middle school students.reading problems is an invisible learning disability-you cant see it when you look at a student, or hear it when you talk to him. as a result, many students with reading difficulties never know why they have learning problems, and never get the help they need. recognizing reading problem is often made even more difficult because specific reading problems vary so much from student to student. sometimes there are no clues that the student will have reading difficulties. she may have a good speaking vocabulary, play well with friends, and appear to be ready for school. on the other hand, she may be poor at reading, slow to talk, or have trouble finding the right word when shes speaking or writing. whatever a student strengths or needs, reading problems will make it difficult for her to learn to read. most students with reading differences can learn to read.iii. the importance of improving reading and necessity of teaching reading3.1 the importance of improving readingreading can affect a student in many different ways. reading can prevent a student from moving to the next grade level and performing well in several aspects of daily living. words are on street signs, buildings and on documents as well as other important places. students that have reading problems should find help immediately.there 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.3.2 necessity of teaching reading there are many reasons that students are to read english texts are an important part of the teachers job. in the first place, many of them want to be able to read texts in english either for study purposes or simply for pleasure. anything we can do to make reading easier for them must be a good idea.reading texts provide good models for english writing; provide opportunities to study language vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way to construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons. when the teachers give reading class to students, they should notice a balance-a balance to be struck between real english on the one hand and the students capabilities and interests on the other. there is some authentic written material which beginner can understand to some degree: menus, timetables, signs and basic instructions, for example, and, where appropriate, teachers can use these. but for longer prose, teachers can offer their students texts, like english, are nevertheless written or adapted especially for their level. anyway, the materials to be read should be interesting and meaningful. teachers should become better acquainted with books written specially for teenagers and dealing with their problems.of course, it is important to study reading texts for the way they use language, how many paragraphs they contain and how many times they use relative clauses. but the meaning, the message of the text, is much more important. teachers should help students understand that the main reason to read is for them. they had their own purpose to read and reading must make sense, they have to find ways of doing something about it. they should be encouraged either to reread or to continue reading to gain meaning. but they must realize that the meaning is not in the teacher, but in the interaction between the reader and author. students should be encouraged to ask themselves repeatedly, “does this make sense to me?” students should be encouraged to reject and to be intolerant of reading materials that do not make sense.readers guesses or predictions are based on the cumulative information and syntactic structure they have been learning as they have been reading. therefore, their guesses are more often than not appropriate to the materials. students have to realize that risk taking in reading is appropriate; that using context to decide what words mean is a proficient reading strategy and that they have the language sense to make appropriate guesses which can fit both the grammatical and semantic sense of what they are reading.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. asking boring and inappropriate questions can undermine the most interesting text; the most commonplace passage can be made really exciting with imaginative and challenging tasks. working in groups, the english teacher and students take turns to ask each other questions following the reading. reading is an important way of gaining information in foreign language learning, it is a basic skill for a foreign language 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.iv. how to improve the students reading4.1 teaching methodstudents 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.4.1.1 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.choose texts from a textbook or something authentic that you can find on the internet.make sure the books are specific to the students age and reading level. go through the text carefully and ask yourself if there are any new words or difficult expressions. dont choose several articles at a time. underline or highlight all words and expressions that you plan in your pre-teaching on your students copies.give students some background information which relates to the text or ask students questions about the text. let students know the title of the text and ask them what questions might be asked in this text. write the words and expressions on the board and ask students if they can define any of them, give them some time to discuss this with a partner.4.1.2 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.it is recommended to carry out three readings in this order:(i). general-reading: students read a text to get a general idea and also get a clear outline of the text. flow charts are worth mentioning here, because they are widely used to get the clear structure.(ii). detailed reading: each student reads the same text silently on their own and finish many questions designed for detailed facts.(iii). post-reading: after discussion and final clarification, each student should be requested to extend the content beyond the text. at this point, teachers should take the reading text away from the upper level students so they will no longer be able to refer to it.4.1.3 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.teachers can ask students questions or pass out a worksheet related to the text. students should work in pairs or groups when they are answering questions.leave plenty of time for class discussion, let yourself be free to walk around for questions during pair and group work activities, and compile additional class assignments or homework that relate directly to the text and its content. consider incorporating a debate at the end of the reading, discussion, or exercises if the topic is controversial and can easily elicit both pro and con opinions.since reading is designed to give students practice in getting specific information, the way students read a text depends on the reading purpose.for example, students often scan a newspaper looking only at the headlines and possibly the first paragraph. however, if students come to a particular article that interests them, they will then read it in detail. when students read a novel, they often want to understand every word and sentence, so they read it carefully.4.2. 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.4.3 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.however, sometimes students get bored with a novel or are anxious to find out what happened. so they ofen skim the novel very fast, pausing occasionally to read a paragraph in more detail. therefore, in order to make reading more efficient, it is necessary for teachers to help students to know some reading strategic skills.both skimming and scanning are specific reading techniques for quick and efficient reading. the purpose of skimming is to find the main idea of the passage. people often do skimming when they have lots of material to read in a limited amount of time. when scanning, students only try to locate specific information and they often do not even follow the development of the story.scanning is another technique people often use when looking up a word in a telephone book or dictionary to search for key words or ideas. scanning involves moving your eyes quickly down the page to seek specific words and phrases.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:4.3.1. read the title.4.3.2. note the authors name and the source of the text.4.3.3. read the first paragraph completely.4.3.4. read subheadings and first sentences of remaining paragraphs.4.3.5 if the final paragraph appears to be a summary, read it completely.4.4. 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 material4.5 vocabulary buildingi 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： 4.5.1 pause for a moment on each new word in your mind 4.5.2try to guess what the word means from context，from the words around it