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A Thesis Submitted as a

Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of

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B.A. in English

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YUXI NORMAL UNIVERSITY

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Statementof Authorship

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Except where referenceis made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material publishedelsewhere or extracted in whole or part from a thesis presented by me foranother degree or diploma.

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No other person’s workhas been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis.

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This thesis has not beensubmitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any tertiary institution.

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          Signed:

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           Date:

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Up finishing this thesis, I felt indebted to a group ofindividuals, without whom the thesis would never be brought to the presentshape. I'd like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all ofthem.

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First of all, I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Yan Shuhong, for her professional guidance, intellectualstimulation，consistent support and friendlyencouragement throughout the entire thesis writing.

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Secondly, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Xiong Jianwei and Miss Jiang Chenhui and their students in No.2 Middle School of Qiaojia County, who provided convenience and advice withcollaboration, patience, and earnestness when I did my investigation

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Thirdly, I would also like to give my special thanks to allother teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages at Yuxi Normal University, whose courseshave benefited me a great deal during my college study.

Finally,I’d like to thank my classmates and friends. They encouraged me a lot and alsogive great help. I want very much to show my thanks to all of them and I willkeep their great love in my heart forever.

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Abstract

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Reading as a means of linguisticinput is important for students’ English learning. As the high pace of currentlife, students are also required to have the competence of reading and gettinginformation as efficiently as possible. But many middle school students feel itis difficult to deal with English reading comprehension accurately and rapidly,especially, in English test. In order to improve students’ English study andenable themselves to read efficiently, it is essential to help them developgood learning habits and form effective strategies. This paper investigatessome first year students of No.2 Middle School of QiaojiaCounty, Yunnan province by questionnaire and interview, and analysis their mainreading problems. According to their situation, some suggestions are provided:expanding vocabulary, learning background culture and some fast readingstrategies to help them improve their reading efficiency.

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Key Words: English reading; reading efficiency;vocabulary; background culture; reading strategies

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摘 要

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阅读作为语言输入的一种手段对学生的英语学习非常重要。随着现代生活的快节奏，作为 学生也应具有快速阅读获取信息的能力。然而， 很多高中生发现有效地完成英语阅读理解对他们来说十分困难，尤其是在英语考试中。因此，为了提高学生的英语学习并能使他们能独立有效地阅读，就必须帮助他们养成良好的学习习惯，构建有效地学习策略。本文主要通过问卷与采访的方式调查了一些巧家县第二中学高一学生的阅读情况， 分析存在的主要阅读问题，并相应地提出一些建议：扩大词汇量，学习和了解背景文化知识以及利用阅读策略来帮助他们提高他们的阅读效率。

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关键词：英语阅读；阅读效率；词汇量；背景文化；阅读策略

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Contents

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Statement of Authorship………………………………………………………........ⅰ

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Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………...ⅱ

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Abstract………………………………………………………………………….......ⅲ

摘 要............................................................................................................................ⅳ

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1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1

  1.1 The background of the study....................................................................................................1

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1.2 The Significance of the Study..................................................................................................2

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  1.3 The Scope of the Study ...........................................................................................................2

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  1.4 The Research Questions...........................................................................................................2

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2.Literature Review......................................................................................................2

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  2.1 Definitions of Reading Efficiency...........................................................................................2

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2.2 Related Theories.......................................................................................................................4

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3. Research Methodology.............................................................................................5

3.1 Subjects....................................................................................................................................5

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3.2 The Research Instruments........................................................................................................6

3.3 Procedures and Data Collection...............................................................................................6

4. Data Analysis and Results.......................................................................................7

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4.1 The result of questionnaire.......................................................................................................7

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4.2 The result of interview...........................................................................................................10

5.Ways of Improving Reading Efficiency...........................................................................11

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5.1 Expanding students’ English vocabulary................................................................................12

5.2 Learning the culture in which the target language is used.....................................................12

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5.3 Reading strategies..................................................................................................................13

6. Discussion................................................................................................................15

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7. Conclusion...............................................................................................................18

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References

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Appendices

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1. Introduction

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1.1The background of the Study

Reading is an important way toget information and it plays an important role in our daily life. As the highpace of current life, people are required to read and get information asefficiently as possible. English as a crucial communication tool of the wholeworld is an important subject in middle schools of China. Especially in the College Entrance Examination, English shows itsgreat importance, because students are usually required to finish certainmaterials in the limited time, and reading comprehension becomes the mostdifficult part for most of them. If students want to get a high mark in thetest, they should try their best to do reading comprehension well. And in theNational English Curriculum(2001), it emphasizes the main task of the Englishcurriculum is to stimulate and cultivate students’ interests and theirconfidence in learning strategies and also enable students to master basicEnglish language knowledge and skills in listening, speaking, reading andwriting so that they form sufficient competence in English. And reading as oneof the four language skills is by far the most important for English learning. Becausereading can help expand students’ English vocabulary and improve theirpunctuation, English grammar, and writing, and also develop their interest inEnglish learning. Readingcomprehension as a way to test students’ English knowledge and theircompetences of reading and gaining information efficiently occupies a verysignificant place in English test. Improving students’ reading efficiency isnot only essential to improve their grades but also good for their furtherEnglish study. Therefore, we need to find some effective reading strategies forthem, and to help them become efficient readers.

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1.2The Significance of the Study

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Readingis important for everyone to learn English as a foreign language. Nowadays,students should learn to read more in a short time. This study analyzes readingproblems, which exist in English reading comprehension of the first-yearstudents at No.2 Middle School at Qiaojia County, YunnanProvince and gives some suggestions to solve these problems and help students to do reading comprehensionrapidly and accurately in the future and also develop skillful readingstrategies for their further English learning.

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1.3The Scope of the Study

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The study is just involvedthe first-year students of No.2 Middle School in Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province. It just investigates and analyzestheir prominent English reading problems and tries to find effective ways tosolve these problems.

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The suggestions given inthis paper are only involved in English test, so they don’t apply to othersubjects.

1.4 The ResearchQuestions

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Thefollowing questions are discussed in this paper:

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（1） What English readingproblems do the first-year students of Qiaojia No.2Middle School usually have?

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（2） Whatsuggestions can be given to solve these problems? copyright paper51.com

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2.1 Definitions of ReadingEfficiency

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Readingcan be defined as “the attaining of meaning as a result of interplay betweenperceptions of graphic symbols that represent language, and the memory tracesof the reader’s past verbal and non verbal” experiences (Harris, 1979). Reading is a complex cognitive process. The complexprocess does not only depend on the linguistic factors influenced by letters，words， custom expression，sentences，grammar and knowledge, but also is confined bythe non-linguistic factors，such as reading habit and psychology, background knowledge，discourse，reading skills， reading strategies and soon. Foreign language reading efficiency is bothcontained reading comprehension and reading speed, in other words, it’s aprocess influenced by linguistic factors and non-linguistic factors (Xiao Hongwu, 2008).For Comprehension, it may be regarded asrelating what we attend to in the world around us---the visual informationprint in the ease of reading to what we already have in our heads. Readingcomprehension involves extracting the relevant information from the text asefficiently as possible, connecting the information from the written messagewith one’s knowledge to arrive at an understanding according to Day & Bamford (1998:12). It comes to reading speed: understandingtexts more quickly. Speed reading aims at increasing one’s reading speed. It isan essential skill in any environment where you have to master professionalenvironment (Tian jinping,2006-201). As what Francoise Grellet (cited by Dai Junxia and Chen Zonglun, 2008) definedfrom the aspect of information, “Understanding a written text means extractingthe required information from it as efficiently as possible.” Therefore,improving students’ reading comprehension and reading speed is essential forimproving their reading efficiency.

2.2Related Theories

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Reading is a complex process thatthe readers have to think and use some strategies and skills to find the informations from the materials at the same time. Asstudents, they should apply various reading strategies or skills in the processof reading to make sure they can understand the reading materials rapidly andclearly. According to Clark(1987, 238-240,cited by Dai Junxia & Chen Zonglun),reading skills, from the methodological viewpoint, include scanning, skimming,reading for thorough comprehension andcritical reading while language skills refer to vocabulary, structure anddiscourse. Bias towards or against either of the two sets of skills would mostprobably produce unsatisfactory results, for effective and efficient readingwill not only enable students to gain access to information, but also toproficient language skills, which will in turn facilitate the improvement ofreading proficiency. Sufficient vocabularies which can help students get themeaning out of passage without constantly stopping to look up every word in adictionary. The reading process has famously been described as a “psycholinguisticguessing game” (Goodman in Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983-74) in which “efficient readers minimizedependence on visual details” by recognizing background knowledge to makepredictions and checking these against the text (Goodman, 1975:12). According to Pang Yaling (2004:111) in foreign language learning.,reading strategies and skills are indispensable. However, Students’ ability toread English rapidly and accurately depends upon careful instruction and purposefulpractice.  Liu Yanhua(2003) suggests that the speed of reading will not influence the comprehension,and to improve the comprehension and speed of students’ reading, scientificstrategies in English reading should be adopted, such as expanding vocabulary,skimming, scanning and so on. Besides comprehension and vocabulary basicallyinfluence reader’s speed, there are lots of factors affecting one’s readingspeed, such as reading habits( vocalization, pointing, etc.) or selectivereading methods (skimming and scanning).

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3. Research Methodology

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3.1 The Subjects

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In the study, the subjects areall students from No.2 Middle School at Qiaojia.There are ten classes in Grade 1 and two classes of the ten are experimentalclasses which composed of students with higher marks and the rest are thenormal classes which composed of students with lower marks. This study surveystwo classes of them. Class 89 is one of the experimental classes, while Class93is one class among the normal classes. The students are in the different levelsof English competence and their English reading habits and strategies are alsodifferent.

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The reason to choose the first year students is that thisyear is important for the students who just start their senior high schoollife. English is one of the main subjects of high school study, and Englishreading as one of the language skills is very important for their Englishlearning. It affects the cultivation of interest in English. This year is alsoa transitional period. Mastering reading skills and strategies plays a key rolefor their future reading, and lays a solid foundation for their future Englishstudy.

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3.2 The ResearchInstruments

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Two kinds of research methods are taken to collect data for thesake of studying the current reading problems of first-year students of No.2Middle School at Qiaojia County.The research methods are questionnaire and interview.

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3.3Procedures and Data Collection

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Firstly, the questionnaires ,each consistsof 21 questions, are given to the subjects, and then they are asked to readeach question and give their answer according to their own situation. They areencouraged to finish the questionnaire honestly. And then, the researcher communicate with them about their problems in readingcomprehension, for a further understanding about the students’ reading problemsand their English reading comprehension level.

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3.3.1 Questionnaire

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Questionnaire (see Appendix1)is adopted here to investigate the usage of reading strategies and readinghabits related to reading efficiency. The questionnaires, each with 21 closed-questionsare completed in 20 minutes by 60 students and they are required to respondhonestly according to their reading habits and their own ideas about reading. In order to letparticipants understand clearly, all the questions have been translated into Chinese.

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3.3.2 Interview

Interview is another important way indata collection. The interview with students is given during the break or afterclass. This kind of interview is just to learn about students’ English readingproblems. There are seven main questions about their biggest problems inEnglish study and their own ideas about how to improve their English readingcomprehension.

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4. Data Analysis and Results

                          TheStudents’ Reading Efficiency

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      Time

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Right answer

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<15mins

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15-19mins

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20-24mins

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25-30mins

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>30mins

≥15

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0

0

0

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0

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0

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10-14

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0

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4(6.7%)

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3（5%）

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2（3.3%）

0

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5-9

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10(60%)

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8(10.3%)

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12(20%)

2（3.3%）

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5（8.3%）

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<5

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6(10%)

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4(6.7%)

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0

0

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3（5%）

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Table 4.1.1

Fromthe data above, the findings from questionnaire (Q2 and Q3), provide evidencethat students’ English reading efficiency isn’t good. Generally, about 80%students can finish their reading comprehension in 25mins, but get a low rateof right answer. And nearly 15% of students will spend more than 30minsfinishing the reading part, but have less right answer. So it is important toimprove their reading efficiency, not only pay attention to their reading speedin certain time, but also improve their reading comprehension and get thehigher rate of right answer.

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The Students’ Reading Strategies

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Strategies students used to improve reading efficiency(Q stands for question number in the Appendix)

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Number of students

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Percentages

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Q5 Reading questions before reading

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48

80%

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Q13 Reading with a purpose

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36

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60%

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Q10 Using context clues

40

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67%

Q9 Using table and pictures,

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41

68%

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Q7Underlining and circling information

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46

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77%

Q11Guess the meaning of unknown words

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42

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70%

Table4.1.2

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As the first year students ofsenior high school, the questionnaire provided evidence that they have already known some strategies and also can use them in theirreading process. From the percentage above, it is easily to find that thestudents usually adopted some reading strategies such asreading questions before reading; reading with a purpose; using context clues; using table andpictures; underlining and circling information; guessing words.

However, the following aspects dominated some mainproblems that the students have in their process of English reading: vocabulary,reading habits and reading strategies.

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The statistics of general point for vocabularyof reading

Questions

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Number of students chose 3

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Percentages of students chose 3

Number of students chose 2 

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Percentages of students chose 2 

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Number of students chose 1 

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Percentages of students chose 1

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Q4

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49

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82%

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6

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10%

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5

8%

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Table 4.1.3

FromTable4.1.3 we can see that most studentsdo not have enough vocabularies, because they always meet large unfamiliarwords in reading.

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The Result of Students’ Reading Habits

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Questions

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Number of students chose 3  

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Percentages of students chose 3 

Number of students chose 2 

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Percentages of students chose 2 

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Number of students chose 1

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Percentages of students chose 1 

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Q8

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12

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20%

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15

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25%

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33

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55%

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Q6

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19

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31.7%

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32

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53.3%

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9

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15%

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Q14

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11

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18.3%

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11

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18.3%

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38

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63.3%

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Q15

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38

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63.3%

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15

25%

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7

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11.7%

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Q12

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37

61.7%

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14

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23.3%

9

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15%

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Q16

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9

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15%

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16

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26.7%

35

58.35

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Q17

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7

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11．6%

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9

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15%

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44

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73.3%

Q18

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10

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16.6%

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14

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23.3%

36

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60%

Table 4.1.4

Fromthe data showed in table 4.1.4, readingspeed is also a factor that influences the students, reading. Mostof the students don’t know what to read closely and what to ignore, so theyread slowly and carefully to make sure clearly understand what they arereading. What’s more they usually read at the same speed and in order tounderstand the reading materials, most of them are always used to translatingEnglish into their native language. And another problem is they don’t payattention to the structure or organization of the material, which alwayscontain important information for them in their reading. These factors of theirreading habits always influence their reading speed and reading comprehension.Therefore, it could be found that they don’t pay attention to the adoption ofeffective strategies in reading, especially skimming and scanning,background information to help understand the text (see table 4.1.4)

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The Results of the Interview with Students

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Questions

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Percentages of the Answers

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Yes

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No

1. Do you think vocabulary will influence your reading comprehension?

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85%

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15%

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2. Do you think the lack of cultural knowledge may affect the rate of reading comprehension?

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65%

35%

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Do you think the reading strategies will be helpful to your English reading comprehension?

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60%

40%

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3. In the process of English reading, have you made a good knowledge of reading skills?

35%

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65%

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4. In the process of English reading, do you know how to use effective strategies to do it?

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20%

80%

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Accordingto the interview with the first year students of No. 2 Senior High School of Qiaojia, 85% of them believe that vocabulary influences their readingcomprehension. They said that they had many difficulties inreading: especially in vocabulary. They said they didn’t master enoughvocabulary and so they often met large unfamiliar words in reading and couldnot understand the meaning of passages completely; they also cannot finishreading in certain times. Some of them just finish the reading comprehensionaccording to feelings, others said they couldn’t finish all of the readingcomprehension in certain time; the rest of the reading comprehension task werefinished by guessing the answer. So, the lack of vocabulary and slow readingspeeds are the two main reasons why they could not do reading comprehension well.Meanwhile, they show that they think reading strategies are helpful to theirreading comprehension. But about 80% of them don’t know how to useeffective strategies to do reading comprehension, and they hope to know more strategies to improve their readingcomprehension.

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5. Suggestions of Improving Reading Efficiency

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“Students will never read efficiently unless they can adapt their reading speed and techniques to their aim when reading. By reading all texts in the same way, students would waste time and fail to remember points of importance to them because they would absorb too much non-essential information.”(Dai Junxia &Chen Zonglun, 2008-214)

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Reading is veryimportant for students, and it is very necessary to master some efficientreading skills. According to the result of the investigation,the first year students of Qiaojia No.2 Middle Schoolhave difficulties in English reading. The lack of vocabulary always results inmisunderstanding the reading material. It not only slows down their readingspeed, but also influences their comprehension. What’s more, they ignore thestructure or organization of the material which may contain some importantinformation. The other main problem is that they have no idea to chooseefficient reading strategies according to their need in reading. To improvetheir English reading comprehension as well as speed, it is necessary to findout the right ways for all of their difficulties.

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5.1Expanding students’ English vocabulary

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“The lack of such vocabulary may be the greatestsingle impediment of fluent reading”（Grabe,1988:63）Adequate vocabulary and the ability to decode wordsare very important in reading comprehension.”(Yangyang,2008) Accordingto the problem that most students in Grade1，No.2 Middle School of Qiaojia do not have enough vocabularies, as a result theycan’t understand the reading materials clearly and they also spend more timethinking about or guessing the meaning of the word. On one hand that will wastetheir time in English reading; on the other hand they can’t understand thereading materials completely. However, if they know the meaning of the words orsentence, they could read fluently and have a clear idea about what thematerial tells them and where they can find the main information. Therefore,expanding students’ vocabulary is a necessary and important way for effectivereading comprehension.

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5.2Learning the culture in which the target language is used

According to Yangyang(2008:113), proficient readers use background knowledge----information fromtheir lives and Knowledge of other selections they have read or their worldknowledge to enhance their understanding. If students are familiar with thecontent of the material, they can use their own experience about the world orculture to help them understand it quickly instead of time-consuming detailreading. It is evident that cultural knowledge inputshould be important in improving students’ reading comprehension ability. Agood understanding of the culture of English-speaking countries and also nativecountry can help students know the language expressions and the writing styleswhich are crucial to help them understand the words and sentences well in theprocess of reading.  One of the mostimportant purposes of English reading education is to open the students’ eyesthrough the introduction to western culture. To understand the Englishmaterials well, first of all, students should learn the culture of English andsometimes also know their native culture. Having a good knowledge about culture knowledge, students can see avivid picture with a background of their reading materials. That will help themunderstand what they have read. And English teachers should provide moreculture interferences in language teaching when it is possible, and add morecontent on this aspect in their teaching. Well-trained teachers with a lot ofcultural experience can give lectures on western culture and can compareChinese culture with western culture. This can arouse students’ interest andthirst for knowledge and can enliven the atmosphere of learning English.

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5.3 Reading strategies

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5.3.1 Previewing

As Liu Naiyin (2002:7)points out: “Previewing means looking ahead and checking for information inadvance. Before you read a book in details, you could learn a bit about it bypreviewing. You can preview or examine specific parts of it first.” It isparticularly useful when do fast reading in English examination. As forpreviewing, students may know what the material talk about and what they expectto read. This way will be helpful for them to get a quick understand orprediction about what is to come or where the required information is likely tobe. For example, before reading the content, students should pay attention tothe title, which usually tells them what the material will talk about, andgives students a chance to think or imagine something that related to thecontent.

5.3.2 Skimming

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“Skimmingis a particular style of reading. It refers to running the eyes over quickly;to get the gist. It is a way of gathering as much information as possible fromtext in the shortest time possible. Skimming is a visual activity and is usedfor getting the gist or impression of a chapter/section of text”(Dai Junxia & Chen Zonglun, 2008：215) Generally, in English examinationstudents are required to finish some certain materials in limited time, andcheck or give the right answers. So, the students need not to read itcarefully. They need not to know the meaning of each word, if these words arenot important, the students can omit them; if there are really words that maketheir understanding difficult, they can only guess the meaning according to thecontents. By reading through the headlines, titles, subtitles, students quicklyget a general idea about what is written in the materials and find out the requiredin formations, and it will not costs too much time in reading somethingunimportant.

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.  Therefore, to improve the readingefficiency, students are required to master this skill. http://www.paper51.com

5.3.3Scanning

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“Scanning isanother style of reading. It refers to looking for a particular piece ofinformation.” (Dai Junxia & Chen Zonglun,2008:216)

Inexamination, Students do not have to read every word, instead they can glancequickly through a text to find the specific information and details they need.Just by analyzing it carefully, they can get the right answer quickly. It is nodoubt that   scanning will savetheir time and energy in reading comprehension.

5.3.4 Inferring

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Gu Yueguo(1998:116) indicates: “Inferring means making use of syntactic, logical andculture clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements. These may be thewriter’s opinions and attitudes, which are not directly stated in the text. Thewriter’s specific choice of words or language types may reflect his realmeaning. We often call this skill “reading between the lines”.

In the examination, students willfind some inferring questions, it needs thinking further with the informationin a passage. However, the students must control the depth of thinking to getthe right answer. When using inferring skill, students should skim the wholepassage, if they remember where they can find out the answer, they will focuson that part, and then know on which the answer bases, and then think aboutthem carefully, finally get the correct answers. This means that the studentscan not use inferring skill to read the passage very slowly. When they meetinferring question, first of all, they should preview and skim the material andhave a general idea about it, then by scanning, try to find the specificinformation to help them infer. Sometimes, they can use their own knowledge orexperiences to do it, but they should remember that the result of inferring isbased on the material. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com

6. Discussion

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The purpose of this study is toinvestigate reading habits and strategies of first year students of Qiaojia No.2 Senior High School. It focus on analyzingtheir reading problems, and giving some suggestions to help them improve theirreading efficiency and also to develop their good reading habit for theirfurther study.

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 The study finds that the students’reading efficiency isn’t good enough. English reading is the most important andalso difficult part, but most of the students can’t deal with it well becauseof their slow reading and the lack of some effective strategies that canfacilitate their reading comprehension and save their energy and time. Thefindings from questionnaire provide evidence for the strategies the studentsare used to improve reading efficiency: reading with a purpose; readingquestions before text; using context clues; using tables and pictures;underlining and circling information and guessing words. But the most seriousproblem is that they don’t have enough vocabulary, which makes them confusedabout what they read completely and spend more time in guessing the meaning.And most of them seldom use background information to help them understand thematerials. However, background information sometimes influences students’reading comprehension. They should learn more about the culture of Englishcountries as well as their native country, and the English teachers should alsoprovide moreculture interferences in language teaching when it is possible, and add morecontent on this aspect in their teaching. Learning English, students should notonly learn the language knowledge, but also learn about the culture of thelanguage, and then they can communicate with others in English correctly andappropriately. However, they also ignore some importantstrategies which are very useful in fast reading: preview, skimming and scanningand inferring.To senior students and English learners, they have to read every day to improvetheir English; on the other hand they also should know how to read efficiently.As reading is probably the most important skill students need for the successin their English study, students have to read regularly. Thus, it is necessaryfor them to apply or learn some reading strategies or skills according to theirneeds.  According to their mainproblem, the study emphasizes some strategies which are ignored by them but arevery useful for them to improve their English reading efficiency. As for previewing, it is helpful for them to predict what is to come orwhere the required information is likely to be, and also pay attention to thestructure or organization of the material, which always provide importantinformation for them in their reading. And instead of readingsomething unimportant, skimming will save much time and help them quicklyunderstand the general idea of the reading materials andfind out the required in- formation. It can improve their reading speed andcomprehension. In examination, studentshave to read some materials, and check or give the right answers. But sometimethe questions are asked about the details of the materials, it is a problem forthem to balance the speed and their understanding. At this time, scanning is essential,which makes them glance quicklythrough a text and find the specific information and details they need. Whenthey meet inferring questions, they need to use inferring skill. It must be themost difficult skill for them, because Inferring means making use ofsyntactic, logical and culture clues to discover the meaning of unknownelements. Sometimes it also needs the help of students’ own knowledge andexperience. These strategies above are very helpful for them to improve theirreading efficiency. However, efficient reading is a process, it is achievedgradually, and students should persist in reading regularly and form goodreading habits and choose appropriate reading strategies. Thereare many efficient reading strategies, not only the strategies the researchermentioned above. Students can use different kinds of strategies which areeffective for them to improve their reading speed and comprehension paper51.com

.

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7. Conclusion

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Reading isimportant for students, and it is very necessary to master some efficientreading skills, which can save much time and energy, and help students to finduseful information in a short time. According to thefindings of the paper, the students should accumulate vocabulary and also learnthe background culture; secondly, the students should not ignore some usefulreading strategies, such as: previewing,skimming, scanning and inferring reading. However, the students should learn tochoose proper strategies according to the need of their reading. If studentslearn some effective reading strategies and master them, their readingefficiency will be improved than ever and it is good for their future Englishstudy. http://www.paper51.com

However, this study is conducted in a limited scope. Only a fewof the first- year students of No.2 Middle School of Qiaojiaare investigated in the research. It certainly does not state out all Englishreading problems of them and all solutions to solve these problems. Exactly, thispaper just focuses on some main common English reading problems. Perhaps there areother English reading strategies that have not been involved in this study.Nevertheless, the author still hopes it can shed some light on the strategy useof middle school teachers and students.

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Appendix1：

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Appendix: Survey of readingstrategies and reading efficiency

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Name:___    Grade :___    class:___

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Your currentsituation of your English reading

1．  What is your attitude aboutEnglish?

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A. I like it very much    B. just so-so     C. I don’t likeit      D. I don’tlike it at all

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2. In generally, how many questions can youdo correctly in your English test?

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  A. more than 15        B.10-15         C.5-9        D. less than 5

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3. How many minutes do you usually spenddoing the reading comprehension part in English examination?

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  A. less than 15mins   B.14-20mins        C.21-25mins      D. 26-30mins       

E.more than 30mins

Your reading habits and strategies

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Instruction:The purpose of this survey is to collect information about various strategiesyou use to improve your reading efficiency when you are reading in English.

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Allthe items below refer to your reading materials. Each statement is followed bythree numbers (3.2.1.) and each number means thefollowing

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“3”means that I always do this or I agree thatvery much.

“2” means that I sometimes do this

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“1”means that I never or almost never do this.

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Afterreading each statement, put a tick in the box that shows the number (3 2 1)which applied to you. Note that there is no right or wrongresponses to any of the items on this survey.

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Statement

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3

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2

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1

4.I always meet large unfamiliar words in reading

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5.I always read questions before reading

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6.I read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I am reading

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7.I underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it

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8. When reading, I decide what to read closely and what to ignore.

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9.I use tables, and picture in text to increase my understanding

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10.I use context clues to help me better understand what I am reading.

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11.When I read, I guess the meaning of unknown words or phrase from the text

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12. When reading, I translate from English into my native language.

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13.Reading with a purpose is more effective than reading without a phrases

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14.I read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word.

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15.We read everything with same speed

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16.The lack of cultural knowledge may affect the rate of reading comprehension

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17. I have and use background information to help understand the text.

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18.I pay attention to the structure (noticing the length and organization)

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Appendix2

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Interview Question:

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1. Do you think vocabulary willinfluence your reading comprehension, what’s your opinion?

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2. Do you think the lack ofcultural knowledge may affect the rate of reading comprehension, what’s youropinion?

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3. In the process of English reading,do you make a good knowledge of reading skills and know how to use it?

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4. In the process of Englishreading, do you know how to use effective strategies to do it?

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5. Do you think the reading strategieswill be helpful to your English reading comprehension?

6. What’s thebiggest problem in your English study?

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7. What’s youropinion about how to improve your English reading comprehension?

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References

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Carrell andEisterhold, Schematheory and ESL reading pedagogy[C]∥M.H Long, J.C. Richards. Methodology in TESOL: A Book of Reading.Newbury House Publisher,1983.

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Day, R.R. &J. Bamford. Extensive Readingin the Second Language Classroom [M]. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Goodman,The Reading Process[C] ∥P.L.,Devine,J. Eskey, Interactive Approaches toSecond Language Reading.Cambridge:CUP,1998

Grabe, Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1988

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Harris, The Literacy Dictionary[M].DE: International Reading Association, 1979.

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戴俊霞，陈宗伦，, 2008，《当代英语教学理论与实践》。合肥：中国科学技术大学出版社。

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顾曰国，1998，《英语教学法》。北京：外语教学与研究出版社。

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刘乃银，2002，《英语泛读教程2》。北京: 高等教育出版社。

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刘炎华，2003，《快速阅读四大法则》。北京：北京科学技术出版社。

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潘亚玲，2004，《外语学习策略与方法》。上海：外语教学与研究出版社。

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田金平，2006，《英语教育学引论》。北京： 中国科学技术出版社。

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肖红武, 《 阅读习惯对阅读效率的制约性分析》, 《科教文汇》 2008第11期4页

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杨阳，2008，《英语教学法—技能与技巧》。北京： 高等教育出版社。

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