On Obstacles of English Reading Comprehension to Senior High School Students and Reading Strategies

王誠(chéng)剛

【Abstract】 The English reading comprehension plays an important part not only in senior high school students English examination but also in their comprehensive quality in English. In this thesis， the author did a survey related to the reading problems among the senior high school students， put up with some reading strategies and skills for improving the ability of English reading comprehension efficiently.

【Key words】 senior high school students； English reading comprehension； strategies

Introduction

For Chinese students， English is a language that students who accept the education from a primary school to a college are supposed to master and use skillfully. In the study of English， reading comprehension is paid more attention in the English learning classes by both teachers and students. But what is unfortunate， the results of these efforts are not particularly satisfactory.

1. The Current Situation of English Reading Comprehension among High School Students

To find out the effective ways to improve efficiency of reading comprehension， we must know the the problems existing among students in our level. Therefore， a simple research about the current situation of the English reading comprehension among the high school students was made by the author in this thesis. The author have interviewed 12 students about their difficulties they met in the process of English reading comprehension， and after that， I summarized their problems as follows.

1.1 Lack of Interest in Reading English， Ambiguous Reading Purpose

In the current survey， six students definitely showed that they did not like English reading comprehension at all. On the other hand， 3 students clearly said that they were interested in reading the English articles or books. In addition， the rest 3 students take indifferent attitude toward English reading comprehension， and 2 students answered with “neither like nor dislike”. And finally， only one student showed his attitude depends on the genre of reading text.

1.2 Too Many Strange Words in Reading Passage with Inappropriate Methods

In the investigation， 10 students showed that the most difficult problem they came across in English reading comprehension is that there are too many strange words. But in terms of methods of dealing with the difficulty， 5 students among the ten refer to choose to skip the strange words and sentences， 3 students would guess the word meaning in accordance with the the context， while other 2 students choose to give up the reading task. 1 student said that she is not clear of the correct sentence structure， and her way to deal with it is also guess the word meaning according to the context. The rest 1 student think that he is easily to forget what he has read when he reads the last part of the text.

1.3 Insufficient Time in Reading English with Little Reading

The author have investigate the high school students spending time on finishing the English reading comprehension. The reading proportion of the total time in the entire process of the English learning are presented as follows. From the result of the interview， 3 students showed the proportion is 1/3， 1 student showed it is 1/4， 1 student 0， 2 students 1/5， 2 students 1/10， 1 student 2/3 and 1 student is 3/5.

2. Effective English Reading Strategies for High School Students

For the various kinds of styles in passages of English reading materials， as far as the high school students concerned， the knowledge they have learned in the English class is far limited. Students are supposed to obtain the ability in a long-term reading practice. The followings are some effective strategies of reading English materials for the senior high school students.

2.1 Grasping the Main Idea

Interest can stimulate the passion of people to work in every kind of activities （Han， 1990）. In daily reading practice， students can choose some materials in accordance with their own English ability and interest. Their prediction of the main idea should be further detected by reading the passage again， or communicating with students， or giving feedback information to teachers in order to ask for help. Prediction is involved in the theme， genre， reading target and writing purpose of the passage. （Lu， 2005）. In addition to understanding the passage， students ability to induction should also be improved and trained in daily practice. Once students have some comprehensive and inductive ability， they will find it easier to grasp the main idea of the passage more clearly and exactly in the process of reading.

2.2 Speculating the Word Meaning

In the process of reading， students can not avoid to meet some strange words they havent seen before. “You cannot develop reading skills with with texts that are loaded with unfamiliar words ” （Nuttall， 2000）. Firstly， students can read some materials that can arouse their interest and maintain. Secondly， students should pay more attention to making a notice about some words that occur in different context but with different meaning. Thirdly， students are also supposed to read other materials in which they may have little interest， such as some science fictions， English books and magazines， laws， sports， politics and so on. In this way， students can learn and gathering much more technical terms in different fields and disciplines.

2.3 Improving the Rate of Reading

In viewing of the various factors influencing the rate of reading， how can we be efficient readers？ In the first place， students should enlarge their knowledge background. Reading is not a solitary activity either. It is a communication between the reader and the writer （Chen， 2003）. Therefore， enlarging the knowledge background related to the various reading materials can effectively help the students understand and read more easily so that the students can really improve the rate of reading when the certain reading comprehension is given. Whats more， the readers interest in what the passage convey is also plays an important role in finishing the reading comprehension. As a result， students should improve the interest to the materials while they are reading.

3. Conclusion

This thesis aims to investigate the obstacles of the English reading comprehension to the senior high school students， and try to put forward the effective reading strategies in order to help the high school students reduce the obstacles of English reading comprehension and improve the ability of English reading.

References：

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