浅析非英语专业本科生英语阅读的困难及对策(英文版).doc

A Study of the Difficulties and Strategies in English Reading of the Non-English MajorsAuthor: Li GuojuanSupervisor: Li Yinping, Lecturer(College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018)Abstract: English reading always plays an important role in English learning. But the non-English majors usually can not pay enough attentions on English reading, so there are still many problems in English reading hindering the improvement of their English level. By means of a self-designed questionnaire, this paper aims to reveal the basic English reading condition of the non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university. And based on the result of the investigation, I analyze the difficulties they faced in English reading and advance some corresponding solving strategies on how to improve the non-English majors English reading ability in the light of these problems.Key Words: non-English majors; English reading; difficulties; strategies非英语专业本科生英语阅读的困难及对策摘 要: 英语阅读在英语学习中一直起着至关重要的作用，但对于非英语专业本科生，由于平时对英语的重视程度不够，所以英语阅读方面仍存在很多问题阻碍英语水平的提高。为了帮助非英语专业的同学更好的提升英语阅读水平，本文通过调查问卷的形式对山东农业大学不同的非英语专业本科生进行了调查，在此基础上对他们在英语阅读中面临的困难及成因进行分析，并针对这些问题就如何提高非英语专业本科生英语阅读能力提出了相应的解决策略。关键词：非英语专业；英语阅读；困难；策略1. A Brief Introduction of the Importance of English Reading In the contemporary society, English, as an international language, becomes more and more important in todays increasingly high degree of internationalization and extensive degree of the exchanges between China and the rest of the world. But as the learning of a language, the students reading ability largely reflects the level of the comprehensive ability of English and the ability to adapt to the demands of the era in the future. English reading is one of the most basic and important English abilities. Reading is the important way of acquiring knowledge, understanding the world, and developing intelligence and emotions. Developing reading ability can help expand your vocabulary, enrich your language knowledge and improve your language skills. English reading skill is not only one of the important language skills but also one of the learning skills students must master. English reading ability is the basis and prerequisite of developing other language skills and is also one of the important symbols to measure ones English levels. It is an important goal of learning a foreign language. By mastering the English reading ability, students can understand the education, science, polity of the latest development within the scope of the world and can also lay the solid foundation for better integrating into the international community.2. The Condition of the Studies on English ReadingThe study on English reading strategies should be based on the research of learning strategies. Since the 1970s, many foreign researchers have paid attention on the importance role the learning strategy plays in language learning, such as Rubin (1975), Naiman (1978), Stern (1975), etc. Since the 1980s, Chinese scholars also began to pay close attention on the learning of English learning strategies, such as Wen Qiufang (1984), Lv Zhongshe (1998), Liu Jinkai (2002), etc. There are also some researches aiming at English reading strategies, but the number of the researches of reading strategies for non-English majors is very small. In view of this condition, the paper makes an investigation into the English reading condition of the non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university by means of a self-designed questionnaire.3. Investigation Method3.1 Investigative QuestionsThis investigation is carried out by asking the non-English major students to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire aims at the following problems: (1)The time used in English reading and the reading materials; (2) The purpose of reading;(3) English reading difficulties and reasons.3.2 Investigative ObjectsThe objects of the investigation are the 60 seniors of non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university. And their ages rang from 19 to 22, with an average age of 20.67, among which the number of the girls is 30 and the boys 30.3.3 Investigative InstrumentThis investigation is carried out by asking the non-English major students to answer the questionnaire. In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, the questionnaire is written in Chinese. This questionnaire includes two parts: the first part is about the basic situations, including the age, sex, major and English level. The second part is mainly about the English reading purposes, time, materials and difficulties and so on.The questionnaire aims to investigate into the non-English majors of different English levels, and then a statistical analysis was made according to the results, thus we will find their problems in English reading and put forward the corresponding strategies.4. Investigation Results and the AnalysisThe investigation results show that: on the whole, the investigative objects spend little time on English reading and read reference materials, newspapers and magazines mostly. The main reading purpose for most students is to improve their English level. The investigative objects biggest difficulty in English reading is too little time they spend on English reading, and as a result of this, their interests in English decline and the English level lowers.4.1 Reading TimeThe time the investigative objects spend on English study and reading all is very little. The textbook learning and after-class reading time is only 2.7 h and 2.1 h on average respectively, so the English learning time on average is only 4.8 h weekly. Many students say that not understanding the meaning and the pressure coming from the learning of specialized courses lead to their unwilling to invest enough time and energy in English learning.The investigative objects time spent on after-class reading is significantly less than on textbook learning. The majority of students think textbook learning is more important than after-class reading because most of the exam content com from the textbook. So learning the textbook well can be beneficial to improve ones test scores. On the other hand, the teacher do not put forward any requirements for after-class reading, nor any forms of inspection. So the benefits of after-class English reading can not be seen apparently.4.2 Reading MaterialsReference materials: nearly half of the students choose to read reference materials. Most students think they can improve their English test scores by doing all kinds of English reference materials, especially for the nation-wide test, such as the CET-4 and CET-6.Newspapers and magazines: about 42.7% of the investigative objects read English magazines or newspapers in their leisure time, mainly including China Daily the 21st century English world English learning and the English salon. They choose these newspapers and magazines mainly because of their strong topicality, rich in content and the convenience for buying or borrowing. At the same time, the language in these domestic newspapers and magazines is usually simple and the content is familiar and easy to read, so it is natural for them to become students preferred after-class readings.Fictions: the majority of students are more interested in the novels, but because large numbers of the long novels sold need more time to read, and part of the students, teachers and parents see novels as other, so only a few students read novels, among which is largely the world famous books of simplified edition.Professional books: the students reading professional books account only 0.9%. The main reason is the professional books students are generally difficult, and most students have little interest in them,.4.3 Reading Purposes The non-English majors have clear purpose while doing English reading. Almost no one choice to read without a definite purpose and nearly half of the students primary reading purpose is to improve his English level. But there are also 42.7%students reading purpose is the need of employment and only 9.5 percent of students hope that by English reading they can enrich their life and achieve the purpose of entertainment.The results indicate that the students foreign language reading is mainly to pass the exam, obtain information or other tools having to do with ones future, rather than appreciate the culture. Students get little pleasure in reading, so they certainly will read as little as possible. Read less makes it more difficult to understand and the reading speed couldnt be improved. As a result of this, the students interest in reading becomes less and less. All respondents think English reading can help to improve the English level. About 13.16% students think it has a great help, 34.21% think the benefit is bigger, 47.37% think it is general, and the rest think reading helps little. Apparently, almost all students have realize the importance of English reading, but the degree of the help is not disagreed.4.4 Reading Difficulties 15.9% students think they cant find the right English reading materials. And most students hope they can read the best-selling pop novels in recent years, preferably the thrilling short stories. There are still a lot of students being interested in newspapers and magazines which are topical and interesting. But the kinds of our countrys existing newspapers or magazines are very little, so the range we can choose is small. While most English newspapers and magazines focus on English learning or exam-oriented, the true presses focus on reading are very few.There are 35.9% students think most reading materials are too difficult to understand. But at present the publishers in our country seem to be keen on the exam-oriented teaching materials and books. So the really suitable English reading materials for students are very little. And most reading materials suitable for English majors are usually too difficult for most non-English major students.About 32.3% students proposed that they have no time to read. On the one hand, their professional learning is very busy. On the other hand, the wrong reading method and materials also play an important role in this. . In addition, many students think their English class is low efficient, and it seems that they cannot learn any useful knowledge. Besides, after-class reading guidance is lacked. .5. English Reading Strategies5.1 Inspire Reading InterestsJust as the saying goes: interest is the best teacher. Interest is the tendency of an activity people like. The more interests the students have in English, the more learning enthusiasms they have and the stronger the self-consciousness is. So students shall develop their interests in English actively. They can choose some reading materials they interested in (such as the English newspapers, magazines or novels, etc.) to read. They can appreciate the uniqueness of English culture by reading, such as the beautiful pronunciation, intonation and the humor and wit language, etc. Furthermore, through appreciate the English songs or movies, we can learn a lot background knowledge of English and foreign legendary anecdote, thus stimulate the students interest in English. On the basis of this, the students should create the chances for himself to practice English as much as possible, such as taking part in some English situational dialogues, learning some English songs, attending English contest. By fully satisfying their desire of performance and create, they can enjoy the happiness of learning English and result in strong learning requirements and continuous learning passions. This can also create the students desire of English reading.5.2 Increase the vocabulariesThere are many factors deciding the English reading comprehensions. It is generally believed that the vocabulary, background information of the article, the reading skills and the native language reading abilities all have something with English reading comprehension. As the non-English major students are concerned, the level of English reading comprehension is mainly based on the vocabularies. The more vocabularies they have, the easier the reading is. If the students could not reach a certain number of vocabularies, it is difficult to use analysis induction, inference and learning abilities. Therefore, certain number of vocabularies is the premise and basis of English reading. But in the process of reading, they will unavoidably meet some new words. Some students will look up the new words in the dictionary, and then their reading may be interrupted and it also influences the overall understanding of the materials. So it is necessary to make the students master some skills of acquiring the new words meaning without the help of the dictionary.First to guess the meaning from the context, another through logical reasoning, sometimes their life experience and common sense can also help determine meaning. For example, the length of her hair astonished me. I dont think I have ever seen hair so long. By the readers experience, it is not difficult to imagine the meaning of the word “astonish” (make surprise).Furthermore, the grammar knowledge, especially the word-formation, synonyms and antonyms, appositives, declarers and the attributive clause, can give the definitions or explanations of some key words in the article. For example, seaweed, according to the synthesis of the two words sea and weed, you can know its meaning.5.3 Master grammar knowledge and learn to analyze the complex sentencesReading is not a solitary language skill, some grammars must be mastered on the basis of certain number of vocabularies. The grammas the non-English major students master are not comprehensive, therefore the complex sentences should be paid more attentions in the usual reading processes. And the key of understanding the complex sentences is the mastering of the sentences backbone and the structure and logical relations between the sentences. Finally the core meaning of the sentences can be caught.Analysis on the structures of sentence mainly refers to the sentences elements: subject, predicate, object, attribute adverbial modifier and the complement. The logical relationships between the sentences are conjunction, Relative pronoun and adverb. It is necessary to master and apply these words to analyze the complex sentences. The main reason that the students cant understand the sentences or the article is their not understanding of the connection and hierarchy between the sentences.For example, Young Men who have reasons to feel that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer.Firstly, we should tell which is the main clause, namely the trunk, and then analysis the clauses the sentence contains. After the analysis it is easy to see the trunk of the sentence: Young Men may feel bitter in the thought.It is indispensable for the improvement of ones reading and writing skills to analyze the complex sentence, and it also plays a critical role in the promotion of the reading comprehension level.5.4 Improve the Ability of Discourse AnalysisIt is prerequisite to grasp the vocabularies and grammar knowledge in English reading and the basement of reading is the comprehension of the words and sentences. The skills of the analysis of the course play an important role in the improvement of the English reading level. This is because it can train or stimulate students creative thinking and promote the students language competence and communicative ability. Therefore, in the process of English reading, the students should select the reading materials covering the daily life as far as possible, such as legends, characters, societies, culture, general technology or the political and economics. Besides, in order to avoid simplification they should choose the narrations, descriptions, expositions, argumentations and practical writings, etc. In the reading process, first we should forecast the articles style and subject according to the title and the related background knowledge, and then skim the text and check the predictions, summarize the main contents and grasp the main idea. Then read the article paragraph by paragraph, find out the topic sentence of every paragraph, point out the article adversative conjunctions or transitions, analyze its logical sequence and the authors train of thought, and at the same time, learning the linguistic knowledge. Finally read between the lines carefully and understand the article into a higher level. The ability of reading comprehension can be improved by using the reading skills proficiently in English reading.5.5 Increase Reading SpeedMany students have some bad reading habits in the process of English reading which lead to the lowing of their reading efficiency. For example: some students speak out the words while reading. This may affect the frequency of the eyes glance and hinder the comprehensive understanding of the whole content so that the reading speed will decrease. Some students always like to look it up in the dictionary when they come across a new word in the process of reading rather than beat their brains to judge its meaning, ignoring the cultivation of their ability. Some students like reading word by word by pointing to the word by his finger. In fact, the speed the eyes move is much faster than the fingers. Some students like reading with their head back and forth following the eyes, or playing with a pen in his hand. This is to say that its hard for them to concentrate on the article. Reading is the process for the reader to communicate with the author, which requires the students to think actively and concentrated. Reading comprehension and reading speed is the two factors affecting reading efficie