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【Abstract】According to the result of the observation, the author finds out many problems about the reading teaching and studying at the normal college. In order to improve students’ English reading proficiency, she makes some suggestions about reading strategies.
【Key words】normal English; English reading proficiency; strategies
【中圖分类号】H31 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2013）02-0120-02
Practical English is a compulsory course for every non?鄄English major at a normal college. Reading is the major skill in practical English teaching. Thus acquiring reading proficiency is of great importance to vocational college students. But the teaching and learning of it at vocational college are so far not satisfactory. It’s observed that a considerable number of students at vocational college rarely use reading strategies. On the other hand, teachers do not know how to use proper teaching strategies before asking students to read. The teaching strategies they use are monotonous, boring and insufficient. In short, we can find the following problems which exist in English reading teaching at vocational colleges in China according to the results of the study.
1)The teaching materials currently used in English reading class at normal college are not suitable for students. Generally, the reading materials are too difficult for the students. And the content of most materials are about adult world. The students as teenagers have few interest in these. This results in their motivation for English reading class is low.
2)Many teachers neglect activating students’ background knowledge before reading at college. In reading classroom, most questions provided by teachers are about new words. They hardly remind students of background knowledge. And the students lack enough social common senses because they have almost never read after class.
3)The students don’t have adequate English vocabulary. They encounter so many new words in the reading materials that they can’t grasp the main idea of the text. And they haven?蒺t developed efficient methods to memorize new words and expressions according to the results of the classroom observation.
4)Students?蒺 reading speed is lower than necessary at normal college. Because of absence of reading skills, many vocational students can?蒺t complete the reading task during test and examination. In classroom observation most are observed having a lot of bad habits during reading. They can?蒺t know how to speed up reading. 5)The students?蒺 reading comprehension abilities are very poor. According to the result of the investigation, we can find that most students cannot grasp the main information of the passage even if they complete reading and teachers neglect helping them to improve this abilities.
As the problems have emerged, the next item on the agenda is to seek the solutions.
We can introduce the five strategies when teaching and studying an CET3/4 in an English reading class at the college: selecting appropriate reading materials and building students?蒺 motivations for English reading class; arranging students?蒺 reading literary works after class and activating students?蒺 prior knowledge; guessing the meaning of words and phrases and cultivating students?蒺 vocabulary; overcoming the shortcomings and increasing students?蒺 reading speed and employing multiple test methods and testing students?蒺 reading effects.
1.Selecting appropriate reading materials and building students?蒺 motivations for English reading class
Type of the article is one of the factors that cause the difficulty of the article. Although present practical English books have improved a lot, the types of articles are generally monotonous. If as many types of texts as possible are provided, students will have more interest to read them.
Then when teachers teach reading skill, teachers should consider the difficulties of the text not only deriving from the new vocabulary and complexity of sentences, but also from text structure. If vocational students cannot understand the structure of the text, the reading efficiency will be lowered. For lower grade students, text structure analysis is especially important. At last the difficulty level of reading material should be controlled efficiently when selecting reading material.
2.Arranging students?蒺 reading literary works after class and activating students?蒺 prior knowledge
As Neil J. Anderson (1989) points “A reader?蒺 background knowledge can influence reading comprehension skills.” Background knowledge includes all experience that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, knowledge of how texts can be organized rhetorically, knowledge of how one?蒺s first language works, knowledge of how the second language works, and cultural background and knowledge, to name a few areas. Background knowledge is also referred to as schema in the reading literature.
To broaden vision and enrich students?蒺 previous knowledge, teachers should ask students to read literary works after class intentionally. The greatest advantage of this idea is that the student can be fully absorbed into the culture of the target language, in which they can feel and understand all by themselves with the help of the fundamental knowledge they get from their teachers. As they can read and discuss freely, they will slowly find their own ways of reading and improve their reading ability, this will develop both their reading ability and their culture awareness as we wish. Then how can we develop students?蒺 previous knowledge?
Previous knowledge in order that they can understand articles completely. Let?蒺s take Text B in Unit One in New Horizon English Course (Book 1) as an example. The title is “Hi, I?蒺m New Here”. Before explaining the text, we should explain the two unfamiliar phrases: Maryland University and Virginia to the students. And if they want more information, we can recommend the website related to the topic. As the text is about the writer?蒺s experience of going to college for the first time, we can try to draw students?蒺 attention to their experiences of going to the college.
3.Guessing the meaning of words and phrases and cultivating students?蒺 vocabulary
Although only knowing a lot of words does not mean that a reader can read well, it is obvious that the reader?蒺s vocabulary play a crucial role in reading. And grasping a large amount of words can contribute to the improvement of the competence of reading comprehension. There are a lot of ways to increase vocational students?蒺 vocabulary: route repetition; guessing the meaning of words and phrases by use of context. We are sure that the basic vocabulary should be explicitly taught by teachers. But more important, students should learn to use context to effectively guess the meanings of the less frequent vocabulary.
In general, we can make the following steps to guess the meaning of the new words and phrases.
1)According to the sentence structure, we can tell the part of speech of the new words and phrases.
English words can be divided into ten kinds: noun, article, pronoun, adjective, numeral, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. And in terms of syntax, different parts of speech act as the different component of the sentences.
2)According to the formation of the new words, we can guess the meaning of the unknown words.
We can use the method of word analysis. Generally, we can break down the unknown words into three parts. The beginning is prefix, the middle is root, and the end is suffix. Prefix and suffix are also grammatically meaningful besides the root word. And the major prefixes are classified into the following categories by their meaning: negative prefixes; pejorative prefixes; prefixes of degree or size; prefixes of attitude; locative prefixes; prefixes of time and order. Suffixes usually change the word from one part of speech to another. Here is a partial list of common suffixes:?鄄er (or), ?鄄ess, ?鄄hood, ?鄄ship, ?鄄tion, ?鄄ion, ?鄄ment, ?鄄al (none); ?鄄ify, ?鄄ize, ?鄄en, (verb); ?鄄ful, ?鄄less, ?鄄like, ?鄄some, ?鄄able (adjective). 3)According to the surrounding words, and sense of the sentence and paragraph we can make our intelligent guess.
Sometimes the writer will paraphrase (use other words) to make his meaning clearer for the reader. It usually exists in the surrounding words or the next sentence. These paraphrases are often signaled by punctuation, such as comma(,), double dash (——) and set of parenthesis(( )). And there are some special words and phrases can signal contextual paraphrasing, such as “i.e., that is, in other words, or” and so on. So we can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by the punctuation or these signal words.
4.Overcoming the shortcomings and increasing students?蒺 reading speed
1)Don?蒺t read word by word. Focus the attention on sentences and paragraphs.
Reading word by word is that when facing with a sentence or a paragraph, one doesn?蒺t skim through strings of words or sentences，but points at one word after another to move to the right of the page with forefinger， pen, pencil or ruler. In this way one sentence will take a lot of time, and the field of vision is narrow, speed is slow. Moreover， it?蒺s difficult to understand sentences in right sense. Getting over this shortcoming is not so difficult. When students read, they should sit straight with the head one foot or so away from the pages，with two eyes covering greater area.
2)Don?蒺t turn back to read the materials many times.
Grasp the main idea of the paragraph. Coming back to look at once is OK. To overcome this shortcoming students can use hard paperboard or thick white paper to cover what they have read, which makes them find no way to come back to look at again. In this way if only they insist on practicing for a long time, they can concentrate their energy to read, they can try to keep what they are reading in mind，they can move forward fast to read another paragraph.
5.Employing various test methods and testing students?蒺 reading effects
Testing is an important part of every teaching and learning experience. And different test methods employed may exert considerable influence on vocational students?蒺 performance at reading class. So teachers must choose the most appropriate method in different situations. At vocational college, teachers generally adopt two methods of testing to test the results of students reading studying results: multiple choice (MC) and Information Transfer (IT). For large?鄄scale tests MC questions may be better because of its high marker reliability and ease of marking. For small?鄄scale tests IT tasks may be reading better because it can better reflect the candidates?蒺 ability to deal with in the English situation. To sum up, the strategy reading instruction approach is far more effective than the traditional reading teaching method. It is valuable in helping overcome the time?鄄consuming and low efficient situation present in English reading teaching at vocational college in China if it is put in wider use.
References:
[1]Anderson, N. J. “Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing”. Modern Language Journal 75:460-472， 1989.
[2]Anderson, N. J. Exploring Second Language Reading Issues and strategies， 2004.
[3]Cohen, A. D. Language learning: Insights for learners, teachers, and researchers. New York: Newbury House, 1990.
[4]Hittelman. D. R. Developmental Reading K-8: Teaching from psycholinguisticPerspective, 1988.
[5]O?蒺 Malley, J. M. Learning Strategies in SLA. Cambridge University Press. 1990.
[6]程立新 Using context Clue in Reading, 《承德民族職业技术学院学报》, 2004年第2期.
[7]丁言仁 《第二语言习得研究与外语学习》 上海: 上海外语教育出版社, 2004年.
[8]严丽 A Discussion of the Relationship between Reading Rate and Comprehension, 《安徽农业技术师范学院学报》, 2000年第14期.
【Key words】normal English; English reading proficiency; strategies
【中圖分类号】H31 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2013）02-0120-02
Practical English is a compulsory course for every non?鄄English major at a normal college. Reading is the major skill in practical English teaching. Thus acquiring reading proficiency is of great importance to vocational college students. But the teaching and learning of it at vocational college are so far not satisfactory. It’s observed that a considerable number of students at vocational college rarely use reading strategies. On the other hand, teachers do not know how to use proper teaching strategies before asking students to read. The teaching strategies they use are monotonous, boring and insufficient. In short, we can find the following problems which exist in English reading teaching at vocational colleges in China according to the results of the study.
1)The teaching materials currently used in English reading class at normal college are not suitable for students. Generally, the reading materials are too difficult for the students. And the content of most materials are about adult world. The students as teenagers have few interest in these. This results in their motivation for English reading class is low.
2)Many teachers neglect activating students’ background knowledge before reading at college. In reading classroom, most questions provided by teachers are about new words. They hardly remind students of background knowledge. And the students lack enough social common senses because they have almost never read after class.
3)The students don’t have adequate English vocabulary. They encounter so many new words in the reading materials that they can’t grasp the main idea of the text. And they haven?蒺t developed efficient methods to memorize new words and expressions according to the results of the classroom observation.
4)Students?蒺 reading speed is lower than necessary at normal college. Because of absence of reading skills, many vocational students can?蒺t complete the reading task during test and examination. In classroom observation most are observed having a lot of bad habits during reading. They can?蒺t know how to speed up reading. 5)The students?蒺 reading comprehension abilities are very poor. According to the result of the investigation, we can find that most students cannot grasp the main information of the passage even if they complete reading and teachers neglect helping them to improve this abilities.
As the problems have emerged, the next item on the agenda is to seek the solutions.
We can introduce the five strategies when teaching and studying an CET3/4 in an English reading class at the college: selecting appropriate reading materials and building students?蒺 motivations for English reading class; arranging students?蒺 reading literary works after class and activating students?蒺 prior knowledge; guessing the meaning of words and phrases and cultivating students?蒺 vocabulary; overcoming the shortcomings and increasing students?蒺 reading speed and employing multiple test methods and testing students?蒺 reading effects.
1.Selecting appropriate reading materials and building students?蒺 motivations for English reading class
Type of the article is one of the factors that cause the difficulty of the article. Although present practical English books have improved a lot, the types of articles are generally monotonous. If as many types of texts as possible are provided, students will have more interest to read them.
Then when teachers teach reading skill, teachers should consider the difficulties of the text not only deriving from the new vocabulary and complexity of sentences, but also from text structure. If vocational students cannot understand the structure of the text, the reading efficiency will be lowered. For lower grade students, text structure analysis is especially important. At last the difficulty level of reading material should be controlled efficiently when selecting reading material.
2.Arranging students?蒺 reading literary works after class and activating students?蒺 prior knowledge
As Neil J. Anderson (1989) points “A reader?蒺 background knowledge can influence reading comprehension skills.” Background knowledge includes all experience that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, knowledge of how texts can be organized rhetorically, knowledge of how one?蒺s first language works, knowledge of how the second language works, and cultural background and knowledge, to name a few areas. Background knowledge is also referred to as schema in the reading literature.
To broaden vision and enrich students?蒺 previous knowledge, teachers should ask students to read literary works after class intentionally. The greatest advantage of this idea is that the student can be fully absorbed into the culture of the target language, in which they can feel and understand all by themselves with the help of the fundamental knowledge they get from their teachers. As they can read and discuss freely, they will slowly find their own ways of reading and improve their reading ability, this will develop both their reading ability and their culture awareness as we wish. Then how can we develop students?蒺 previous knowledge?
Previous knowledge in order that they can understand articles completely. Let?蒺s take Text B in Unit One in New Horizon English Course (Book 1) as an example. The title is “Hi, I?蒺m New Here”. Before explaining the text, we should explain the two unfamiliar phrases: Maryland University and Virginia to the students. And if they want more information, we can recommend the website related to the topic. As the text is about the writer?蒺s experience of going to college for the first time, we can try to draw students?蒺 attention to their experiences of going to the college.
3.Guessing the meaning of words and phrases and cultivating students?蒺 vocabulary
Although only knowing a lot of words does not mean that a reader can read well, it is obvious that the reader?蒺s vocabulary play a crucial role in reading. And grasping a large amount of words can contribute to the improvement of the competence of reading comprehension. There are a lot of ways to increase vocational students?蒺 vocabulary: route repetition; guessing the meaning of words and phrases by use of context. We are sure that the basic vocabulary should be explicitly taught by teachers. But more important, students should learn to use context to effectively guess the meanings of the less frequent vocabulary.
In general, we can make the following steps to guess the meaning of the new words and phrases.
1)According to the sentence structure, we can tell the part of speech of the new words and phrases.
English words can be divided into ten kinds: noun, article, pronoun, adjective, numeral, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. And in terms of syntax, different parts of speech act as the different component of the sentences.
2)According to the formation of the new words, we can guess the meaning of the unknown words.
We can use the method of word analysis. Generally, we can break down the unknown words into three parts. The beginning is prefix, the middle is root, and the end is suffix. Prefix and suffix are also grammatically meaningful besides the root word. And the major prefixes are classified into the following categories by their meaning: negative prefixes; pejorative prefixes; prefixes of degree or size; prefixes of attitude; locative prefixes; prefixes of time and order. Suffixes usually change the word from one part of speech to another. Here is a partial list of common suffixes:?鄄er (or), ?鄄ess, ?鄄hood, ?鄄ship, ?鄄tion, ?鄄ion, ?鄄ment, ?鄄al (none); ?鄄ify, ?鄄ize, ?鄄en, (verb); ?鄄ful, ?鄄less, ?鄄like, ?鄄some, ?鄄able (adjective). 3)According to the surrounding words, and sense of the sentence and paragraph we can make our intelligent guess.
Sometimes the writer will paraphrase (use other words) to make his meaning clearer for the reader. It usually exists in the surrounding words or the next sentence. These paraphrases are often signaled by punctuation, such as comma(,), double dash (——) and set of parenthesis(( )). And there are some special words and phrases can signal contextual paraphrasing, such as “i.e., that is, in other words, or” and so on. So we can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by the punctuation or these signal words.
4.Overcoming the shortcomings and increasing students?蒺 reading speed
1)Don?蒺t read word by word. Focus the attention on sentences and paragraphs.
Reading word by word is that when facing with a sentence or a paragraph, one doesn?蒺t skim through strings of words or sentences，but points at one word after another to move to the right of the page with forefinger， pen, pencil or ruler. In this way one sentence will take a lot of time, and the field of vision is narrow, speed is slow. Moreover， it?蒺s difficult to understand sentences in right sense. Getting over this shortcoming is not so difficult. When students read, they should sit straight with the head one foot or so away from the pages，with two eyes covering greater area.
2)Don?蒺t turn back to read the materials many times.
Grasp the main idea of the paragraph. Coming back to look at once is OK. To overcome this shortcoming students can use hard paperboard or thick white paper to cover what they have read, which makes them find no way to come back to look at again. In this way if only they insist on practicing for a long time, they can concentrate their energy to read, they can try to keep what they are reading in mind，they can move forward fast to read another paragraph.
5.Employing various test methods and testing students?蒺 reading effects
Testing is an important part of every teaching and learning experience. And different test methods employed may exert considerable influence on vocational students?蒺 performance at reading class. So teachers must choose the most appropriate method in different situations. At vocational college, teachers generally adopt two methods of testing to test the results of students reading studying results: multiple choice (MC) and Information Transfer (IT). For large?鄄scale tests MC questions may be better because of its high marker reliability and ease of marking. For small?鄄scale tests IT tasks may be reading better because it can better reflect the candidates?蒺 ability to deal with in the English situation. To sum up, the strategy reading instruction approach is far more effective than the traditional reading teaching method. It is valuable in helping overcome the time?鄄consuming and low efficient situation present in English reading teaching at vocational college in China if it is put in wider use.
References:
[1]Anderson, N. J. “Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing”. Modern Language Journal 75:460-472， 1989.
[2]Anderson, N. J. Exploring Second Language Reading Issues and strategies， 2004.
[3]Cohen, A. D. Language learning: Insights for learners, teachers, and researchers. New York: Newbury House, 1990.
[4]Hittelman. D. R. Developmental Reading K-8: Teaching from psycholinguisticPerspective, 1988.
[5]O?蒺 Malley, J. M. Learning Strategies in SLA. Cambridge University Press. 1990.
[6]程立新 Using context Clue in Reading, 《承德民族職业技术学院学报》, 2004年第2期.
[7]丁言仁 《第二语言习得研究与外语学习》 上海: 上海外语教育出版社, 2004年.
[8]严丽 A Discussion of the Relationship between Reading Rate and Comprehension, 《安徽农业技术师范学院学报》, 2000年第14期.