An Analysis of Improving Middle School Students’ Reading Ability

关于提高中学生阅读能力的分析An Analysis of Improving MiddleSchool Students Reading AbilityContentsAbstract.1Key words .1I. Introduction.2II. Literature Review.2III. Improving Comprehension Ability.31. Building up vocabulary.32. Enriching and enlarging background knowledge43. Mastering the correct thinking method5IV. Improving Reading Speed.7 1. Guessing the meanings of new words. 7 2. Developing the reading habits and methods. 9V. Some Reading Techniques 9 1. Skimming skills .9 2. Scanning skills .10 VI. Reading Strategies-SQ3R .11VII. Conclusion 12References .12An Analysis of Improving Middle School Students Reading AbilityAn Analysis of Improving Middle SchoolStudents Reading AbilityAbstract：Reading is one of the four essential skills in English learning. Today Chinese students have more opportunities to read English news than to converse with an English speaker. But, they have difficulty in understanding the long sentences, or sentences with complicated structures. Therefore, how to improve reading ability draws more and more attention. So it is very important for middle school students to have sufficient training to develop their ability to read. There is something about the way we teach students to improve their reading ability, but numerous facts have proved that many students do not really know how to read. Thus how to teach reading in a wide range and in an effective way has become a problem. This paper tells students some reading skills, reading methods and reading strategies to help students to improve their reading ability.Key words: reading comprehension ability; reading techniques; reading methods; reading strategies 摘 要: 阅读是学习英语语言四项基本技能之一,今天中国的学生阅读英语新闻比和一个英语者交流的机会多的多,但是,他们在理解长句子或者是复杂的句型结构时都很困难。因此, 如何改进阅读能力越来越受到注意,所以充足的训练开发中学生的阅读非常重要的。但是大多事实证明许多学生不知道怎么去阅读,他们没有掌握好的阅读习惯。因而如何广范围的和有效率的教阅读成了我们的问题。这篇文章告诉学生一些阅读技能,阅读方法和阅读的策略,来帮助学生提高他们的阅读能力。关键词：阅读理解能力; 阅读技能; 阅读方法; 阅读策略I. Introduction With the further development of reform and open-up policy, more and more Chinese people start to realize the importance of learning English. However, along with the enthusiasm of mastering English come confusion, frustration and even depression among the English learners and teachers. People want to learn English well since they know they should, but at the same time they hate it. They are forcing themselves through it, because they all know the benefits of learning English well, and they all see the rewards of a successful English learner. Facing this kind of awkward situation, what shall they do? Books on how to learn English well are becoming popular; all kinds of training centers emerge in large number. People are putting in more efforts. Writers, sellers and founders of training centers are making good money! What have the learners got? They feel more confused and frustrated. They still feel short whenever they try to accomplish tasks in English. Is it the time to ask why? why? They do not know the real purpose of learning English! Because of that, they never have a clear idea about what is the bottleneck for our Chinese English learners. When they are going the wrong direction, when they are focusing on the wrong point, the more efforts they put in, the further they are away from our destination. That is why we see so many confused faces. That is why they seldom see people learning English with a sense of achievement. It is high time for them to clear it all up. Knowing the purpose helps them to see clearly the aspect they shall work on.As we know, English as a second language has been accepted by many countries. Nowadays English is widely used as a global language. In order to learn English well, it is very necessary to possess the strongest English reading ability. If we possess the strongest reading ability we can learn well science and technology of foreign countries, especially the developed countries science and technology. They also need the strongest reading ability to master the development of foreign political and economical level. We surely need the strongest reading ability to know of the direction of foreign literary development. To our students, they wont pass all kinds of English examinations without the strongest reading ability. However, English reading is a very complicated precognitive process. Then, how to improve English reading ability? II. Literature ReviewIf the students want to improve their reading ability, method is very important. Reading speed is one of way to improve reading ability. It is argued that if the students reading is fast, they can get meaning well. Fast reading not only increases the students reading quantity but also can provide reading method. Speed Reading helps the students to read and understand text more quickly. The researcher think highly reading speed can improve reading ability. USA scholar Kerman says: we can get information from Radio, television, newspaper, magazine and large amount of low-priced books. That we meet a trouble is Information Overload, although it has enriched our life, it has also brought about the dangerous spiritual burden for us. The limited time is unable to read the infinite books. German futurologist Hagen also says that even a scientist day and night works, he can only read complete publication 5% in his specialty. So if a person cannot get the high speed to create new knowledge, new achievement, it will not be able to follow the times step. For most of people, everyone wants to read rapidly. But this is useless. The other researcher think make the speed suitable to the reading purpose. Guxiao says if you have enough quick speed to finish this mission, but you do not pay attention to the view, that you are wasting time. Even people who support reading rapidly people will agree with this idea. People believe reading rapidly is only to move eyes. Even reading rapidly people sit there one day, but they do not know what they are reading.( Gavin J .Fairbairn 2005)“Knowing a language is to know the grammar, vocabulary and discourse patterns and the culture rules of use that together determines how it is appropriate to use the language in a particular context”. (Zhang 2003:66) So the researcher think understand background is very important thing. It can improve your reading ability. When students do not know passage background, they often stop reading, because they do not know what they are reading. III. Improving Comprehension AbilityComprehension ability is very important, only you understand paper meaning then you can improve you reading abilty.This is a basic skill. Some methods can help students to improve comprehension. 1. Building up vocabulary One with a small vocabulary will find it very difficult in reading comprehension. Some students say they just cant remember so many words. How to solve this problem?First, learn about word formation. Students can enlarge their vocabulary by using the rules of word formation, such as prefix, suffix, conversion, and so on. For example, when you know the word “courage”, “encourage, discourage, courageous” will not be new to you.Second, collect the new words students often meet in reading. This doesnt mean encouraging them to consult the dictionary whenever they meet a new word in reading. The appropriate way is to try to guess the words meaning from context clues, from the words around it, and then students will gradually know the clear meaning of the word after meeting it often. And now, if students look it up in the dictionary, students will have a good memory of it.Third, learn a certain number of new words by heart every day. Young students have good memories. It is possible for them to memorize some words every day without much difficulty. Students can ask their teacher to choose some words for them. This is very helpful. When students meet these words in their reading, their will feel easy, “Aha, Ive known their meanings.” They will feel confident and more interested in reading.2. Enriching and enlarging background knowledge Enriching and enlarging the background knowledge are the keys to understanding the text. As one knows, students all have experiences of reading something which does not contain any new words or new structures, but they still find it difficult to understand its meaning. The reason is that reading comprehension is constituted by words structure, but they have difficult background comprehension. In other words, when students read, maybe they know each of word or structure. But they dont know what the sentence means because of lack of background knowledge. In order to know the abstruse meaning, they should have the aid of the word meaning as well as background knowledge and inference. Every English article must cover the social-cultural knowledge. Maybe the knowledge is about politics, history, values, belief, religion, moralities, geography, thoughts pattern, habit and custom, outlook on life, etc. If students dont understand the background knowledge they certainly come across lots of barriers in reading process. “Knowing a language is to know the grammar, vocabulary and discourse patterns and the culture rules of use that together determines how it is appropriate to use the language in a particular context”. (Zhang 2003:66) Learners should realize that culture is very important in language learning. As we know, reading and writing English material are often concerned with western culture. The lack of learners cultural background knowledge often hinders their comprehension in reading. For example, people mean pornographic by the word “Huang” in Chinese, but in English, “blue” is taken instead of “yellow”. If learners dont know, they will not understand what “blue film” or “blue video tapes” mean though the words seem to be quite easy. This illustrates that word connotation is the result of culture impact on language. More attention should be paid to culture background in leaning idioms and literature works; otherwise, people have no mean to understand the implication of words and passages correctly. There are some approaches to develop students cultural awareness in English reading. Firstly, teachers should seek cultural information concerned in textbooks and other study materials then sort out and present them to learners at a proper time and under proper situation. Secondly, let students read some books about English and American culture under teachers guide. Thirdly, let students have discussions about the differences between Chinese and English culture, make them know the importance of culture in English reading, analyze mistakes made by students, and then correct them one by one. Last, but not the least, people should correctly handle the contradictions between language teaching and cultural teaching. 3. Mastering the correct methods Reading is a very complicated cognitive process, including identifying the sentence, for reading ability is determined by the intelligent activity. It is consistent with sensitizing, inferring and judging. If students can recognize the topic sentence，make prediction and inference in reading ,then students can seize the central ideas , That is to say, students can fully understand the text including recognizing the patterns of organization used by writers to express their ideas such as sequential order of events, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, simple listing and related idea. 1) Identifying the topic sentence Topic sentences and central ideas are thoughts of the text. Every paragraph has a topic sentence .It is used to sum up the central idea. Topic sentence is the main part of the paragraph .So seizing the topic sentence means to seize the central idea. Students should match topic sentences with the paragraphs they come from. In addition, topic sentence is often placed at the beginning of the paragraph, the rest are expansion parts. For example: In rock music there is a distinct and almost overwhelming beat .No single beat is characteristic of the music today. But each story has an easily recognizable rhythm. As you listen to a song your foot usually starts to pick up the beat. Before long, your entire body seems to be moving with it. Your head pounds with the beat, and there is no room for thought. Only the surge of the music is important. In its own way, rock music is as dominant as the rock of Gibraltar. Its message is an overpowering emotional one. The first sentence of the paragraph: “In the rock music there is a distinct and almost overpowering beat.” it is the topic sentence. That is center sentence in the whole passage. Only understand the topic sentence, you can understand whole paper mean. 2) Prediction Predicting is the faculty of predicting or guessing what is to come next by making use of grammatical, logical and cultural clues. For example: Psychologically, we are rhythmical; we must eat, sleep, breathe, and play regularly to keep good health. Emotionally, we are rhythmical too, for psychologist says that all of us feel alternate periods of relative depression and cheer. Intellectually, we are also rhythmical for we must have periods of relaxation following periods of concentration. It naturally follows them that rhythm a fundamental aspect of our lives, must be a part of any good literary works whether poetry or prose. “ What would the next paragraph probably discuss?” A How to write poetry B How to understand rhythmical music C The kind of rhythm found in good literature D The impotence of rhythm in planning our lives At the end of the paragraph it says “It naturally follows them that rhythm a fundament aspect of our lives, must be part of any good literary words whether poetry or prose.” According to the information, we can predict that the following paragraph will discuss the kind of rhythm found in good literature. So we choose the best answer C. 3) Inferring Inferring means using of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown clement. The word-formation and derivation will also play an important part. For example: As the economic role of multinational, global corporations expands, the international economic environment will be shaped increasingly not by governments or international institutions, but by the interaction between government and global corporations, especially in the United States, Europe, and Japan. A significant factor in this shifting world economy is the trend toward region trading blocs of nations, which has a potentially large effect on the evolution of the world trading system .Two examples of this trend are the United States Canada Free Trade Agreement FIA and Europe1992, the move by the European community EC to dismantle impediments to the free flow of goods, services, capital, and labor among member states by the end of 1992. However, although numerous political and economical factors were operative in launching the move to integrate the ECs markets concern about protectionism within the EC does not appear to have been a major consideration. This is in sharp contrast to the FTA; the overwhelming reason for that bilateral initiative was fear of increasing United States protectionism. Nevertheless, although markedly different in origin and nature both region and nature, both regional developments are highly significant in that they will foster integration in the two largest and richest markets of the world, as well as provoke questions about the future direction of the world trading system. “What is the similarity between the FFA and Europe 1992 according to the passage?” A. They both overcome concerns about the role of politics in the shifting world economy. B. They both originated out of concern over unfair trade practices by other nations C. They both exemplify a trend toward regionalization of commercial markets. D. They both placed the economic needs of the trading blocs ahead of those of the member nations. The third paragraph “Two examples of this tread are the United States Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Europe 1992”. From the information, we can know the two examples “FTA” and “Europe 1992” in order to identify the world economy tendency is to build the region business group, so we choose C. IV. Improving Reading Speed In reading comprehension, we should solve two main problems. One is to understand the reading materials; the other is to read quickly to get the main meanings. Students who read slowly will easily get discouraged. They will also tend to stumble on familiar words and fail to grasp the general meaning of the passage. Then, how to speed up the reading speed? 1. Guessing the meaning of new words “Reading was a psycholinguistic guessing game.”(Goodman, 1967:108) The learners can use the word-formation strategies to guess the new word meaning. We can also guess the meaning from the context, etc. Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the meaning of the words they do not know rather than look them up in a dictionary. If they need to look at the dictionary to get a precise meaning, which is an important and necessary activity too, they should only do so after having tried to work out a solution on their own. That is vital to develop the skills of inference.1) Using the word-formation to the meaning of the new words As one knows, lots of word formations have certain patterns such as: prefix, suffix, derivative, and compound etc. Like the root of “log” (speech, speak) Lots of words are created by “log”, such as “dialogue, prologue monologue, etc.” If one know the prefix dia (between) pro (before) mono (lonely) one can understand their meanings. 2) Guessing meaning from the context “Frogs and other animals are known as amphibians because they have double life. They are at-home on land and in the water”. If you dont know the word “amphibian” you can guess the meaning of the word from “double life” and “on land and in the water”. 3) Using the relationship between paragraphs to guess the meanings of new words There are usually three methodssynonym, antonym and hyponymy. Antonyms are multiple words having the different meaning. (Zhang, 2002:209) For example: “Like the other mountain boys, Dee was taciturn. But he became talkative when I mentioned the fish king Solomon to him. If you dont know the new word “taciturn”, you can guess the meaning from “but” and “talkative”, it must have different meaning from “talkative”. Synonymword or phrase with the same meaning as another in the same language though perhaps with a different grammar style or technical ones. (Zhang, 2002:191) For example: The directors are so pleased with the progress of the business that they plan to expand, enlarge the factory. We can know the words “expand” and “enlarge” have the same meaning. Hyponymyone other kind of sense relation between words. Hyponymy is the relationship, which obtains between specific and general lexical items. (Zhang, 2002:219) For example: A cat is a hyponymy of animal, flute of instrument chair of furniture, and so on.These specific words not only add much force and clarity but also evoke vivid picture in the readers mind. For example: She likes red colors; so today she is in