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摘要
阅读是人们获取信息的重要手段之一。在我国外语教学中历来受到重视。因为在日常的工作中，大多数人需要通过直接阅读外语文字材料，来了解外国的情况、学习外国的经验；时代需要人们广泛而有效地进行外文阅读。我们生活在信息时代，人们每天都要进行读书看报的活动。另外，从语言习得的理论角度来说，我们掌握的语言材料越多，使用外语的能力提高得就越快。在目前学生缺乏听、说外语机会的语言环境下，通过阅读接触外语，吸收语言材料，获得信息是一种重要的学习外语的途径。本文总结了一些教师对学生进行阅读技巧提高的方法，并通过实例来详细说明运用有效阅读方法体现出如何培养学生的阅读技巧，指出正确地采用有效阅读方法，对培养学生的阅读技巧，对改进和提高中学阅读教学水平是至关重要的。语言学家把阅读看作最重要的语言技能，因为阅读不仅有助于提高听、说、写、译能力的发展，而且是人们获得多种知识和信息的主要渠道。无论是母语学习还是外语学习都是如此。正因为阅读理解能力直接影响和限制一个人的听、说、写的能力的发展，因此它也使高中英语教学的主要目标。新课程标准对此也提出了明确的要求。对中国学生来说，它也是学习外语的有效方法。但是传统的以教师为中心讲解语句课文的教学方式仍在阅读教学中广泛使用。
随着教育改革的进行，英语教学的目的是培养学生终身学习的能力，教育家越来越重视提高英语阅读技能的研究。因此如何提高高中学生的阅读能力是高中英语教师值得思考的课题。特别是高三学生。
本文以克拉申的输入理论为依托，把阅读策略引入高三课堂，作为提高阅读能力的有效途径进行探讨。
本文由六部分组成。第一部分对本研究的目的和重要性进行了详述。第二部分对阅读研究的理论文献进行了回顾。第三部分详细阐述了阅读策略概念和方法。第四部分主要阐明了阅读策略可行性的理论依据。第五部分实验论证阅读策略的可行性，得出实验结论并进行了相关讨论。第六部分阐述了实验带来的启示及其局限性。
关键词：阅读策略； 语言学习； 输入； 高中； 高三学生
Abstract
People read every day. They read newspapers, magazines, advertisements, letters and even tickets and menus. Reading is more important than the other language skills because reading can not only assist and promote the development of other language skills (listening, speaking, writing, translating), but also function as an important means of getting all kinds knowledge and information. This is true not only for native speakers, but also for non-English speakers who use English as a foreign language. Reading comprehension ability directly affects and restricts the form and development of a person's ability in listening, speaking and writing. Therefore it is the main goal and requirement of the senior high school English teaching to improve the senior high school students' reading comprehension ability that requested by National Curriculum Standards. For Chinese students, reading has become the most important skill in English learning because it is the most common way through which the students are exposed to the target language, so it is the most and effective way to study foreign language. The traditional Sentence-Text-Analysis method or the teacher-centered method is sti1l widely used in the teaching of reading.#p#分页标题#e#
Along with the education reform, the purpose of English education is changed into teaching the students how to learn, how to develop, and how to acquire the ability of life-long learning, more and more educators pay great attention to research of improving the reading skills. Therefore, the question of how to use the reading materials properly to improve students' reading skill and reading ability in senior middle school is worth considering.
There are various reading methods for students to read. 'The paper introduces some effective reading methods to illustrate how to train reading skills and the reading ability.
The present study, taking Krashen's Input Hypothesis as its theoretical bases, by means of empirical study, researches FL reading teaching to test whether the teaching of input-based reading can effectively improve FL learners' reading competence.
This thesis consists of six parts. Chapter One is an introduction focusing on the aims and significance of the study. This study attempts to carry out empirical research to effectively improve learners' target language reading ability. Chapter Two deals with literature review on theoretical and empirical researches on reading. Chapter Three introduces Input Hypothesis in details, and discusses the relationship between the theories and the present study, which construct a theoretical frame for the study. Chapter Four elaborates on the experiment itself, mainly including the hypothesis of the present study, the procedures of the experiments, data collection and analyses. The experiments in the present study were carried out. The data of the experiments came from three tests and one interview with the subjects in the experimental group, and all the data were entered into SPSS 12 for analysis. The discussion and the results come in Chapter Five , which shows that reading strategies are effective and significant in improving students' reading abilities. Chapter Six mainly presents the conclusion, the implications and the limitations of the present study.
The findings of the study demonstrate that English reading strategy training is an effective way in improving English learners' reading ability, thus indicating the theoretical and pedagogical significance of the study.
Key Words: reading strategies, language learning, input, senior high school, Senior 3 students
Contents
Chapter I Introduction 1
1.1 Definition of reading……………………………………………………………1
1.2 Background of the study………………………………………………………..2
1.3 The students' problems or difficulties in English reading…
1.4 The importance of English reading in English study…………………………...3#p#分页标题#e#
1.5 Significance of the study………………………………………………………..3
Chapter II Literature review
2.1 Review on reading research
2.1.1 Historical perspectives in foreign language reading research
2.1.2 Reading components approach
2.1.3 Metaphor approach
2.2 The interactive perspectives
2.3 A survey of studies on reading
2.3.1 Studies abroad
2.3.2 Researches on Reading in China
Chapter III The concept of learning strategies and their classification
3.1 Definitions of learning strategies
3.2 Classifications of language learning strategies
3.3 The relationship between learning strategy use and ESL/EFL proficiency
3.4 Some potentially useful interactive strategies and skills
3.5 Three modes in the process of reading comprehension
Chapter IV Theoretical Bases
4.1 Krashen's Input Hypothesis
4. 2 The schema theory
Chapter V The practical study
5.1 Methodology
5.1.1 Subjects
5.2 Experimental Method:Formal Schemata Method
5.3 Activation of Formal Schemata (Techniques Applied)
5.4 Materials Used in Experiment: Textbook 1993 Edition (SEFC, Book 1 B)
5.5 Instruments and data collecting procedures
5.6 Data analysis
5.7 Results and discussion
5.7.1 The impact of SBI on strategy-choosing
5.7.2 The impact of SBI on the EFL reading test scores
5.8 Summary of the research findings
Chapter VI Conclusion
6.1 Practical implications
6.2 Implications for NMET reading for Grade Three students in senior high
school
6.3 Limitations of the investigation and suggestion for further research
Bibliography
Appendix I Strategy Inventory for Reading
Appendix II The testing paper (Pre-test)
Appendix III The testing paper (Mid-test)
Appendix IV The testing paper (Posttest)
Appendix V The reading scores of EG and CG in pre-, mid- and posttest
Chapter I Introduction指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
In China English should be taught as a foreign language and therefore top priority should be given to reading and writing (Wen,1993). Furthermore, in this information era, the ability of reading plays a vital role in one's future careers. Reading is not only valuable, it is necessary for adequate functioning (Shu Dingfang & Zhuang Zhixiang), and it is no exception to Chinese students. For most Chinese students, their use of English is still to acquire information through English reading rather than communicating with native speakers or foreigners. Therefore, enhancing students reading ability in a foreign language is of great importance and also appears greatly urgent.#p#分页标题#e#
At the same time, reformation of education is developing all over the country. In order to improve the efficiency of teaching English, experts on English teaching methodology have done much research on English teaching, and they have put forward many teaching methods, such as communicative language teaching, total physical response, the silent way, community language learning and so on. English teachers in high schools are also groping after teaching approaches which are suitable to the students in high schools. The author realizes that while teaching English, teachers can never ignore the important part that students' ability of reading plays in English learning. Thus teachers have to guide students to cultivate their ability of reading. Because as we all know, reading is a very important skill in the foreign language learning, but many senior school students find it difficult to improve their reading. The author thinks the reason is that they haven't done enough reading. "Practice makes perfect". This paper mainly discusses the importance of reading, the current problems with reading.
To sum up, it is very important to apply effective reading methods in the reading. The research of reading methods contributes not only to the teaching of theoretical development of language teaching, but also to improvement of the quantity of teaching and reading skills. As teachers, we should size the key contents of the reading, apply the learning contents to the real application, and merge language form and language function into an integral whole. As a consequence, teachers can help students to improve the reading skills and comprehensive ability.
1.1 Definition of reading
What is reading? According to Wedell (Wede11&Liu,1995), reading is a psycholinguistic process. Readers start with a set of linguistic symbols that have been chosen by writers to represent the thoughts that they wish to express. The reading process ends when the readers have interpreted as much of the writer's intended meaning as is relevant to them. So the writers put their meanings into language and the readers reconvert the language into meanings. A support is from Nuttall (Nuttall, 2002, p4) who claims: "Reading means getting out of the text as nearly as possible the message the writer puts into it." Widdowson (1986) defined reading as a communicative activity, in which the `speaker' does not exist but the reader is required to reconstruct encoded message to `hear' in their minds what the writer `says'.
As early as in 1971, Goodman (1971) pointed out that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game, which involves an interaction between thoughts and language. The writer encodes thoughts as language and the reader decodes language to thoughts. Efficient reading results from skills in selecting the fewest, most productive clues necessary to produce right guesses.
Clarifying in other words, reading is not a passive but an active process, in which the reader incorporates his or her knowledge with the textual information, managing to interpret what the writer wishes him or her to understand by recognizing, guessing, inferring and so on. Thus, efficient reading requires readers to be aware of effective reading strategies and use them properly to promote their reading efficiency.#p#分页标题#e#
1.2 Background of the study
Nearly forty years ago, researches on ESL/ EFL focused on how to teach. Since the 1970s, with the development of cognitive psychology the focus has shifted from teachers' teaching to students' learning. In the last two decades or so, considerable researches have been done on language learning strategies, such as Rubin, 1975; Wenden and Rubin,1987; Oxford,1989; Oxford,1990; Porte,1988; Lawson and Hogben, 1996; Rees-Miller, 1993; O'Malley and Chamot, 2001; White, 1995.
In the early 1970s, the literature on learning strategies in second language acquisition emerged from a concern for identifying the characteristics of effective learners. The representatives were Rubin, Stern, Naiman et al. They concentrated their efforts on the good language learners and demonstrated that students do apply learning strategies while learning a second language and that these strategies can be described and classified (O'Malley&Chamot, 2001, p3; Cohen, 2000, in Wen Qiufang's guiding words). In1975, Rubin's famous paper What the Good Language Learner Can Teach Us appeared in TESOL Quarterly. In 1975 the great book The
Good Language Learner by Naiman et al was published (Cheng &Zhen, 2002).
In the 1980s, more researchers joined in the study of learning strategies and started to explore the relationship between the language learning strategy use (LLSU) and the language proficiency learners reached. At the same time they paid much attention to the differences in strategy use between more effcient learners and less efficient ones. The representatives were O'Malley&Chamot(1985), Wenden&Rubin(1987), Politzer& McGroarty(1985), Huang&Van Naerssen(1985), Chesterfield(1985). Learner Strategies in Language Learning (1987) by Wenden&Rubin is a famous collection of papers on language learning strategies (Cheng Xiaotang& Zhen Min, 2002).
Since the 1990s, focus of the research in learning strategies has shifted from the early identification and description to learning strategies training. For the world is developing so fast that everyone should learn to learn and learning has become life-long. Research efforts concentrate on the models of strategy instruction. The representatives are O'Malley&Chamot (1990), Oxford (1990), (1991), Rubin & Thompson (1994), Cohen (2000) and Ernesto Macaro (2001)...A lot of great books in the following list have been published.: Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition by O'Malley&Chamot (1990), Language Learning strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know by Oxford (1990), Learner Strategies for Learner Autonomy by Wenden (1991), How to Be a More Successful Teacher by Rubin&Thompson(1994),Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language by Cohen (1998), Learning Strategies in Foreign and Second Language classrooms by Ernesto Macaro (2001),and so on. (Cheng Xiaotang&Zhen Min, 2002).
To summarize, researches on language learning strategies mainly involve the following aspects: (a) the strategies used by good language learners; (b) the differences in language learning strategy use between good and poor language learners; (c) the relationship between language learning strategy use and ESL/EFL proficiency; (d) the factors affecting language learning strategy use; (e) language learning strategy instruction.#p#分页标题#e#
Today the study on language learning strategies still attracts great attention from current researchers, mostly hoping that these strategies have a causative effect upon language learning outcomes and that they can be trained in some way (Skehan, 1989: 139).
1.3 The students' problems or difficulties in English reading
On one hand reading is very important, but on the other, it seems rather difficult to improve the students' reading ability. The most important reason is that the students do not do enough reading. Teachers are busy teaching the students grammar, pronunciation, new words, and idioms in class. They must be able to teach listening, speaking, writing as well as reading within four teaching periods a week, so it is impossible for teachers to allow students to spend much time reading in class. At the same time, few students consciously read more than what their teacher tells them to. It is possible that students do not know the importance of reading. To make sure of this, the author made a questionnaire to survey students' habit of learning English. The students surveyed are the second grade senior middle school students in the No.l Middle School of Yuan Baoshan. To the question "Do you often read English articles or books besides your English text book?" 99 percent of the 200 students surveyed said "Never", and the rest said "Seldom". From the survey we can see clearly that most students are still learning English passively. Lacking reading itself adds to the difficulty to improve the reading ability.
As is known to English learners, reading can help increase one's vocabulary. Naturally, without enough reading, students cannot have a big enough vocabulary. This, in turn; slows down the improvement of their reading ability.指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
1.4 The importance of English reading in English study
Just as we have learned, reading is the key to learning. It is especially important in learning English as a foreign language, because reading is one of the main skills as well as the most important methods of learning foreign languages. First of all, as is known to us all, "Acquisition" takes place when the learner has understood the input that is a little beyond the current level of his competence i.e., the i+1 level. Input that is comprehensible to the learner will automatically be at the right level (Rod Ellis, 1985:262). Reading and listening are the two essential ways of input, and reading is perhaps the most available way of getting in touch with the language material for Chinese middle school students to obtain comprehensive input. Compared with listening materials, reading materials are much easier to get, especially for middle school students, whose time and English level are quite limited.
Secondly, the Middle School syllabus for English in China demands that senior middle school students should be able to read articles in English at a speed of 60 words per minute. The students should have read more than 360,000 words besides what they read in their textbooks before they graduate from high school. The students should be able to understand long or difficult sentences by analyzing the sentence structures. What is more, they should be able to appreciate literatures with the help of their teachers. They should be able to gain information from the Internet and deal with it. In a word, the syllabus considers reading very important in foreign language learning.#p#分页标题#e#
At the same time, reading takes up a very large percentage in various kinds of foreign language tests. Take the University Entrance Examination for example. First of all, if you can't understand the questions, you will never be able to answer them. In other words, you must be able to read English if you are to attend the examination. What is more, reading comprehension and cloze test takes up 70 scores,the rate is 46.79 percent in the whole paper. This also proves the importance of reading in a way.
1.5 Significance of the study
One phenomenon that has been noticed by some researchers (Huang and Uan-Naersen,1987; Gu and Johnson,1996; Wen and Johnson,1997; Kouraogo,1993) is that the majority of the research studies have been carried out in English-speaking countries in the West, such as USA, where ESL learners are mainly concerned and where there exists natural English learning environment. However, in China, the situation is quite different because English is learned as a foreign language and there's no good EFL learning environment. Most researches on EFL learning strategies are investigations which are static studies and which concentrate on strategy descriptions. But how are the effective strategies to be instructed? Dynamic empirical studies on the above problem are scarce, and even fewer are studies about SBI (strategies-based instruction) which is quite new even in the USA. So the present study intends to focus on the impact of the model of language learning strategy instruction SBI.
There is a Chinese saying like this: give a man a fish and he eats for a day but teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime. In this sense, the study to be undertaken is of great significance.
Chapter II Literature review:
2.1 Review on reading research
2.1.1 Historical perspectives in foreign language reading research
From a historical perspective, our understanding of reading in second or foreign language has changed considerably in the last several decades which was based on the research of first language reading research. It is only recently that reading has been viewed as an active rather than a passive process. Prior to 1960s, reading was defined as a decoding process of building symbols into words, words into sentences, and sentences into overall meaning. Which was known as Gough model. And so reading was modeled as an accumulation of discrete skills and the reading process was viewed as strict letter-by-letter, word-by-word analysis of the input strings. This passive view of reading was called bottom-up model and it viewed the learner as an "empty" vessel to be filled with knowledge from external sources. In the mid-to-late 1960s, reading was considered a skill for learners to acquire, mainly to reinforce oral language, many theorists and specialists believed that reading comprehension was the end product of decoding (Silberstein,1987 as in 2002). It was believed that if students could pronounce words, comprehension would automatically occur. Consequently, teaching practices at that time emphasized the development of this component of the reading process. Under the influence of audiolingualism, most efforts to "teach" reading were centered on the use of reading to examine grammar and vocabulary, or to practice pronunciation (Silberstein). In the 1970s researchers argued that greater importance should be placed on reading and advocated a psycholingustic model or theory of reading (Goodman,I967; Smith, 1971, 1979 as in Zhang Biyin, 1992).Goodman's research led him to propose that reading is not primarily a process of picking up information from the page in a letter-by-letter, word-by-word manner. Rather he argued that reading is a selective process. Since it did not seem likely that fluent readers had the time to look at all the words on a page and still read at a rapid rate, it made sense that goad readers used knowledge they brought to the reading and then read by prediction information, sampling the text, and confirming the prediction. Smith concurred with Goodman's arguments that reading was an imprecise, hypothesis-driven process which was based on the review that normal reading seems to begin, proceed and end in meaning, and the source of meaningfulness must be the prior knowledge in the reader's head. Nothing is comprehended if it does not reflect or elaborate on what the reader already knows. He further argued that sampling was effective because of the extensive redundancy built into natural language as well as the abilities of readers to make the necessary inferences from their background knowledge. In effect, for Smith and other researchers, the reader contributed more than did the visual symbols on the page. Reading was characterized as an active process of comprehending; and students needed to be taught strategies to read more eff ciently (e.g., guess from context, define expectations, make inferences about the text, skim ahead to fill in the context, etc.). For teachers the goal of reading instruction was to provide students with a range of effective approaches to texts---- including helping students define goals and strategies for reading, to use pre-reading activities to enhance concepteal readiness, and to provide students strategies to deal with difficult syntax, vocabulary, and organizational structure(top-down model).It should be noted that many of these instructional implications still remain as important guidelines though no longer motivated by the psycholinguistic model explanation.#p#分页标题#e#
Coady (1979 as in Cai Lanzhen, 2001)reinterpreted Gaodman's psycholinguistic model into a model more specifically suited to second language learners. Coady argued that a conceptualization of the reading process requires three ?: process strategies, background knowledge, and conceptual abilities. By conceptual ability, Coady means general intellectual capacity. By processing strategies, Coady means various of reading ability, including many which are also more general language processing skills, which also apply to oral language (e.g., grapheme-morphophonemiccorrespondences, syllable-morpheme information, syntactic指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 information, lexical meat, and contextual meaning). And Beginning readers focus on the more concrete process strategies (e.g., word identification), whereas more proficient readers shifts attention to more abstract conceptual abilities and make better use of background knowledge, using only as much textual information as needed for confirming and predicting the information in the text. In accounting for foreign language reading, Coady emphasized that background knowledge may be able to compensate for certain syntactic deficiencies.
During the 1980s the perspectives of Goodman and Smith were extended. Currently, there are two overlapping approaches to viewing and describing reading that reflect, in part, the development of reading research. The first might be termed a "reading components" perspective in that many researchers attempt to understand and explain the fluent reading process by analyzing the process into a set of component skills (e.g., Carpenter& Just,1986;Carr Levy, 1990; Rayner&Pollatsek, 1989 as in Joseph, 2002). The effort to subdivide reading into component skills has led researchers to propose at least six general component skills and knowledge areas. This approach goes well beyond viewing reading as a simple collection of skills or knowledge in that it also focused on the cognitive processes involved in reading in general. This demonstrated in the description of reading that account for the notions that "fluent reading is rapid, purposeful, interactive, comprehending, flexible, and gradually developing" (Grabe, 1991). The second approach to describing reading is in terms of metaphors. The most prevalent metaphors in the literature are the bottom-up approaches, the top-down approaches, and the interactive approaches.
2.1.2 Reading components approach
Briefly, the view of reading from a so-called "reading components" perspective proposes to subdivide reading into six general comment skills and knowledge areas:
1) automatic recognition skills;
2) vocabulary and structural knowledge;
3) foririal discourse structure knowledge;#p#分页标题#e#
4) content/world background knowledge;
5) synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies;
6) metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring.
As my study concerns readers need a good knowledge of formal discourse structure (formal schemata). There is considerable evidence that knowing how a text is organized influences the comprehension of the text. For example, (Carrell, 1984)good readers appear to make better use of text organization than do poor readers, write better recalls by recognizing and using the same organizational structure as the text studied, and, generally, recall information better from certain types of text organization such as comparison-contrast (Nist&Mealey, 1991;Richgels, McGee, Lomax&Sheard, l 987. as in Grabe, l 991). Similar research in second language context has replicated the major findings while also revealing interesting specific difference. For example, Carrell (1984) has shown that more specific logical patterns of organization, such as cause-effect, compare-contrast, and problem-solution, improve recall compared to texts organized loosely around a collection of facts.
2.1.3 Metaphor approach
The three popular metaphors to dominate reading refer generally to reading processes: bottom-up (primary emphasis in textual decoding), top-down (primary emphasis on reader interpretation and prior knowledge), and interactive processing.
Bottom-up processing models place primary emphasis on textual decoding. They can be seen as data-driven and emphasize the priority of the text as input and; hence, lower-level processes such as letter and word recognition.
In contrast; top-down models place primary emphasis on reader interpretation and prior knowledge. They are seen as concept-driven, in the sense that the text is "sampled"(sample is used to imply that the reader does not read every feature of every letter of every word, but rather focuses on certain features, certain words, perhaps certain phrases in order to get a sense of the meaning of the text)and predictions are made on the basis of the reader's prior syntactic and semantic knowledge (Grabe, 1991).
Interactive approaches can refer to two different conceptions. First, it can refer to the general interaction which takes place between the reader and the text. The basic concept is that the reader (re)constructs the text information based in part on the knowledge drawn from the text and in part from the knowledge available to the reader (Carrell，1983). Second, the term interactive approaches refer to the it}eraetion of many component skills potentially in simultaneous operation; the interaction of these cognitive skills leads to fluent reading comprehension. Simply stated, reading involves bath an array of lower-level rapid, automatic identification skills and an array of high-level comprehension interpretation skills. The two perspectives are complementary, though discussions in the literature tend to stress one perspective over the other, or ignore one of the two perspectives altogether.#p#分页标题#e#
In interactive processing, bottom-up or text-based information processing occurs when linguistic input from the text is mapped against the reader's previous knowledge. This process is also termed data driven because it is evoked by the incoming data. Students relied on text-based processing as they returned to text to read and reread, calling attention to specific sections of the text. Bottom-up reading requires language processing at all levels: word, sentence, and discourse. Top-down or knowledge-based information processing occurs when readers use prior knowledge to make predictions about the data they will find in a text. This process is also termed as concept driven because it is evoked by the information stored in readers mind. Activities that assist students in gaining or accessing background knowledge facilitate top-down processing. In fact, most cognitive psychologists and education psychologists stress the interaction-of-skills arrays; in contrast, most second language researchers stress the interaction between the ruder and the text.
2.2 The interactive perspectives
In the last ten years, reading theorists have shifted from a purely textual focus to framework that accounts for readers, text and context (Spiro 1980; Wilson&Anderson 1986). They have argued for the interactive nature of the reading process.
The interactive perspectives on reading have evolved out of the psycholinguistic model of reading by Goodman (1970&1979) and Smith (1982) as well as from the development of the schema theory (Adams&Collons 1979; Anderson&Person 1984). The psycholinguistic model and the schema theory have suggested promoting higher-order cognitive skills, like prediction based on knowledge of both language and the world, as the means of achieving true fluency in reading, while downgrading the perception dimension of reading and the simple decoding of the language of the text. But in the past few decades, there have been a number of studies in reading, especially in ESL reading that note linguistic deficiencies as inhibiting factors in reading. For Example, evidences from first language Researches indicate that good readers are not good simply because they are better predictions, or make better use of context (e.g. Stanovich&West 1983; Perfetti 1985). Good readers, as Allington has observed, are more reliant on context for fluency and poor reader more reliant on context for accuracy (Stanovich 1980:51).
Therefore, these studies suggested that rapid and accurate de-coding of language was important to first language reading and especially important to second or foreign language reading. Good decoding skills are one of the causes and not merely a result, as Goodman has argued of fluent (both rapid and accurate) reading. Based on these studies many researchers, beginning with Rumel hart, have proposed interactive models of reading which argue that lower-level and higher-level processes of reading work together interactively as parts of the reading process. According to this theory, the data that are needed to instantiate schemata become available through lower-level processing; higher-level processing facilitates their assimilation if they are anticipated by or consistent with the reader's conceptual expectations. Also lower-level processing ensures that the readers are sensitive to information that is novel or that does not fit their ongoing hypotheses about the content or structure of the text; higher-level processing helps the readers resolve ambiguities or select between alter-native possible interpretations of the incoming data. Good reading-that is, fluent and accurate reading can result only from a constant interaction between these two processes.#p#分页标题#e#
Interactive strategy training in first language reading (e.g. Goodman, 1973&1979; Rumelhart, 1977; and these studies yield consistently positive results. And in terms of interactive training in second language reading, the same results have been produced by many studies (Carrell, Devine&Eskey,1988; Pearson,1993; Rivers, 2000;Brown, 2001) For instance, the experiment's results of Carrell et al. in 1989 show that Interactive strategy training in semantic mapping and the experience-text-relationship method are effective in enhancing second language reading.
2.3 A survey of studies on reading
2.3.1 Studies abroad
Gorden (1980) randomly divided fifth grade children of average and above average reading ability in one school into three treatment groups: content and structure, inference-awareness, and control. The inference-awareness group was given training in the指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 use of metacognitive strategies designed to improve their ability to make text-based inference and to relate prior knowledge (this group might also be referred to as a content group). The control group received different instruction in language-related literature appreciation of creative activities related to story-reading. Gordon reports that the content and structure group significantly exceeded both the other groups in overall written recall on the final test. Therefore, the experimental group taught with text structure and content strategies for comprehending narrative text did better than the control group.
2.3.2 Researches on Reading in China
Researches on Interaction are relatively few although as is mentioned above that Interaction has a long history in China and Chinese scholars focus their attention mainly on the introduction and the description of the theories of Interaction. As to the empirical study in English language learning, Wen Qiufang's study (1993) holds a prominent position. She classified elements of English learning into conception and strategies. In fact, her conception of learning is Interaction knowledge and strategy of learning is Interaction regulation. And her conclusion drawn from the experiment confirmed the fact aforementioned that differences between more proficient student and less proficient student consist in their differences in Interaction It is evident that more proficient student is superior to the less proficient one in Interaction. As far as Interaction and foreign language reading are concerned, there are only a few articles and they are still about the introduction and description of the theories. Recent empirical studies on Interaction are mainly about Interaction and foreign language learning (Gui Shehun, 1985; Palincsar n, 1986 Rod Ellis,1994. Brown, 1996. Su&Zhuang ,1996. Liu Runqing&Hu Zhuanglin, 1999; Rivers, 2000)#p#分页标题#e#
Zhang Sizhong(王裕泽，1998) worked out an English teaching method which emphasizes "gathering properly, recycling continuously, reading in the original, and teaching according to the level of the students".In 1992, Wang Sunze applied the method in a middle school in Guizhou province. The students in the experimental class, after learning about 1,000 words in two months, began to have intensive reading of the texts in class and extensive reading of original English works after class, "pushing into the sea to learn swimming"(王裕泽，1998). Large quantities of comprehensible input broadened the students' scope of knowledge, consolidated the language points learned in intensive reading, and motivated their studies and developed the ability of teaching themselves.
Sha Jianhua(沙建华，2000) reported a comprehensive reform of English teaching in Gaomi No. 1 Middle School, Shandong Province. The subjects were senior middle school grade three from 36 classes. The experiment lasted from July 1996 to July 1999. Besides the normal teaching of Senior English for China in class, three extra lessons were added to train students' listening and reading abilities. An English Reading Room was set up with the reading materials for middle school students published in China and English newspapers and magazines. During the three years the subjects enlarged their comprehensible input, consolidated their basic knowledge of English and exploited intelligence.
Besides the two mentioned above in China, there are many other researches on English reading, for example, The Application of Schemata Theory in the Teaching of English Reading(汪精铃，2001), A Research on English Reading(刘国平，2001) and others. During the last ten years there have been about 50 articles published on English reading concerning the topics of Schemata and English reading, on English reading teaching, English reading strategies, how to improve students' reading ability, the factors influencing English reading, Krashen's Input Hypothesis and English reading teaching. However, almost all of the studies on reading are only documental research and not systematic. There has been little empirical research.
Chapter III The concept of learning strategies and their classification
3.1 Definitions of learning strategies
The definition of learning strategies has been a disputed point. Different experts have different ideas. The following list (Ellis, R., 1994: 531) shows their disputations:
Stern(1983): In our view strategy is best reserved for general tendencies or overall characteristics of the approach employed by the language learner, leaving techniques as the term to refer to particular forms of observable learning behaviors.
Weinstein&May- (1986): Learning strategies are the behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning and that are intended to influence the learner's encoding process.
Chamot (1987): Learning strategies are techniques, approaches or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning, recall of both linguistic and content area information.#p#分页标题#e#
Rubin (1987): Learning strategies are strategies which contribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and affect learning directly.
Oxford (1989): Language learning strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable.
Cohen (1990): Learning strategies are “learning processes which consciously selected by the learner. The element of choice is important here because this is what gives a strategy its character. These are also moves which the learner is at least particularly aware of, even if full attention is not given to them (Cohen, 2000).
Nunan (2001): Learning strategies are the mental and communicative procedures learner use in order to learn and use language. Underlying every learning task is at least one strategy.
Rod Ellis (1994) argues that there is no comprehensive definition of learning strategies. Each takes a somewhat different perspective. He holds such a view as "the best approach to defining learning strategies is to list their main characteristics" (Ellis, R., 1994:532). The following is the list of eight characteristics:
(1) Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn an LZ.
(2) Strategies are problem-orientated- the learner employs a strategy to overcome some particular learning problem.
(3) Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they are doing or thinking.
(4) Strategies involve linguistic behavior and non-linguistic behavior.
(5) Linguistic strategies can be performed in the Lland L2.
(6) Some strategies are behavioral while others are mental. Thus some strategies are directly observable, while others are not.
(7) In the main, strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the L2 which they can then process. However, some strategies may also contribute directly to learning.
(8) Strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is engaged in and individual learner preferences.
The above literature makes us understand learning strategies better and be more aware of their important influence on becoming a successful language learner.
3.2 Classifications of language learning strategies
Just as in different ways researchers define learning strategies, according to different criteria they classify language learning strategies. The following are the major classifications of language learning strategies:
O'Malley and Chamot (2001): Based on the information-processing theory, they classify LLS into three types, that is, meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. Meta-cognitive strategies, which are subdivided into seven items, involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring the learning task, and evaluating how well one has learned. Cognitive strategies, which are subdivided into eleven items, involve interacting with the materials to be learned, manipulating them mentally or physically, or applying a specific technique to a learning task. Social and affective strategies, which are subdivided into four items, involve interacting with another person to assist learning or using affective control to assist a learning task. Among the three main types, meta-cognitive strategies are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring or evaluating the success of a learning activity and applicable to a variey of learning tasks. O'Malley claimed: "students without meta-cognitive strategies approaches are essentially learners without direction and ability to review their. progress, accomplishment, and future learning directions"(O'Malley et al.1985).#p#分页标题#e#
Oxford (1990): According to the relationship between strategies and reading materials, she groups learning strategies into two types, direct strategies and indirect strategies. The direct strategies which include cognitive, memory and compensation strategies are for dealing with the new learning materials while the indirect ones including meta-cognitive, affective and social strategies are for general management of learning. As can be seen, Oxford's classification is similar to O'Malley and Chamot's, only except that, in Oxford's opinion, the strategies are equal.
Cohen (2000): According to the purpose of applying strategies, Cohen divides strategies into two broad types, language learning strategies and using strategies. The former are for identifying the learning materials, including strategies such as (a) identifying the material for learning, (b) distinguishing it from other materials, (c) grouping it for easier learning, (d) repeatedly engaging oneself in contact with the material and (e) remembering it with efforts. The latter are for using the language, including four subsets of strategies: (a) retrieval strategies, (b) rehearsal strategies, (c) cover strategies and (d) communicational strategies.
Wen Qiufang (1993, see Cohen 2000): Synthesizing the several指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 researchers' classification schemes, Wen divides the strategies into?, management strategies and language learning strategies. The former involves the learning process, for instance, setting learning goals, planning study, strategy selection, self-monitoring, self- evaluation and affective control. The latter has direct relation with the learning material. It is subdivided into traditional one which includes form-focused strategies, accuracy strategies, using-mother-tongue strategies, and non-traditional one which includes meaning-focused strategies, fluency strategies, and mother-tongue-avoidance strategies.
It seems that "O'Malley and Chamot's three-way distinction between cognitive, meta-cognitive, and social/affective strategies is useful and has been generally accepted" (Ellis, 1994:558). Of course none of the classifications is perfect, but each one has its strong point and is impressive in some way. Since the research on LLS is not mature yet, controversies are inevitable, just as Oxford explains that any existing system of strategies is a proposal to be tested through practical classroom use and through research. (Oxford, 1990).
The Classification of strategies by Oxford
Direct strategies
1. Memory strategies
a. Creating mental linkages
b. Applying images and sounds#p#分页标题#e#
c. Reviewing well
d Employing actions
2. Cognitive strategies
a. Practicing
b. Receiving and sending massages
c. Analyzing and reasoning
d. Creating structure for input and output
3. Compensation strategies
a. Guessing intelligently
b. Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing
Indirect Strategies
1. Meta-cognitive strategies
a. Centering your learning
b. Arranging and planning your learning
c. Evaluating your learning
2. Affective strategies
a. Lowering your anxiety
b. Encouraging yourself
c. Taking your emotional temperature
3. Social strategies
a. Asking questions
b. Cooperating with others
c. Empathizing with others
Reading strategies
Reading strategies include predicting, skimming; scanning, detailed rearing, guessing unknown words, understanding main ideas, inferring, understanding text organization, assessing a writer’s purpose, and evaluating a writer’s attitude.
3.3 The relationship between learning strategy use and ESL/EFL proficiency
Researches and theories in second language learning strongly suggest that good language learners use a variety of strategies to assist them in gaining command over new language skills (O'Malley et al., 1985). In other words, using language learning strategies may help ESL/EFL learners improve their language proficiency.
And in fact SEFC is a good example to teach and train these reading strategies. However, in practice, most teachers are used to the following steps: first teach the new words in the text, and then ask students to read the text once to get ready to answer questions, and finally spend most of the time explaining structure, grammar and some phrases that they think important. This process seems to be a top-down model. In fact, this kind of classes don't train students' reading strategies, because teachers have taught the new words and expressions and students haven't got any obstacle while reading. On the other hand, although the textbook has prepared practice on reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, inferring and so on, few teachers really make full use of it to train reading strategies systematically. So we think in order to develop the students' self-access reading, teachers should change the way of organiang reading classes. Teachers should pay more attention to training students' reading strategies instead of explaining the text word by word.
There are really many reading strategies. The teachers should help the students to learn them designedly: First, teachers should have a general plan. Teachers should know what strategies they will inform students. And they also need to plan when and how long each strategy is to be taught and practiced. We think all the strategies should be taught in class in order to lighten students' burden on study. As a result, teachers should focus on reading strategies in reading classes.#p#分页标题#e#
3.4 Some potentially useful interactive strategies and skills
In the interactive reading model, there are two simultaneous and complementary ways of processing; readers use their prior knowledge to make predictions about the text. In the bottom-up processing, readers rely on their knowledge of language to recognize linguistic elements-letters, words, and sentence structure-for the construction of meaning. Brown (1996) has found that effective readers continually adopt a top-down approach to predict the probable theme and then move to bottom-up approach to check their assumption by reading details. So in teaching reading, teachers should instruct students to start their reading by using a top--down approach and later switch between the two approaches, as each kind of interpretation supports the other.
In English class, the training of the 13 basic reading skills (Table 4.2) required by the Senior English Syllabus elaborates the application of interactive reading strategies to some degree.
Table 2.1: the 13 basic English skills required by the Senior English Syllabus
1. Understanding the Topic and Main Idea
2. Recognizing Primary Supporting Detail
3. Distinguishing Between Facts and Opinions
4. Making Inferences
5. Drawing Conclusions
6. Skimming to Get the Gist of a Reading Material
7. Scanning to Find a Particular Piece of Information
8. Guessing the Meaning of Unknown Words (Through contextual clues; Through word-formation)
9. Guessing the Meaning of Unknown Phrases Through Contextual Clues
10. Understanding the Relationships Within Sentences (Cause and effect; Comparison and Contrast; Definition; Classification; Exemplification)
11. Using Reference skills (Understanding graphic representation, Understanding and utilizing; Understanding cross-reference
12. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
13. Infer situations, participants, goals using real world knowledge.
3.5 Three modes in the process of reading comprehension
Researchers (e.g., Wedell, M.&Liu Rongqin, 1995; Brown&Yule, 2000; Nunan, 2001; Nuttall, 2002) have come to the consensus that, from the psycholinguistic perspective, there are three basic modes in the process of reading comprehension:
1) Bottom-up processing: Readers build up the meaning of the text letter by letter, word by word and sentence by sentence. Not until one level of processing is finished can the next begin. In such a way, they build up the meaning of the parts step by step and eventually arrive at that of the whole text.
2) Top-down processing: Readers begin with a set of hypothesis or predictions about the meaning of the text by using their general knowledge of the world, the language and the topic, then selectively samples the text to determine whether or not one's predictions are correct. They use the context to guess the meaning of any unfamiliar items.#p#分页标题#e#
3) Interactive processing: As a matter of fact, readers constantly shuttle between bottom-up and top-down processes, now adopting a top-down approach to predict the probable meaning, then moving to the bottom-up approach to check whether that is really what the writer says. This has become known as interactive processing.
Nuttall (Nuttall, 2002, p 16) compares the top-down approach to an eagle's eye view of the landscape}: "From a great height, the eagle can see a wide area spread out below; it understands the nature of the whole terrain, its general pattern and the relationship between various parts of it, far better than an observer on the ground." At the same time, he gives us an image of bottom-up processing that a scientist is examining the ecology of a transect--a tiny part of the landscape the eagle surveys. In `real life' reading, both approaches can be mobilized by conscious choice, and both are important strategies for readers. Efficient reading can result only from a constant interaction between top-down interpretation and bottom-up recognition.
Chapter IV Theoretical Bases
4.1 Krashen's Input Hypothesis
Input Hypothesis was first put forward by Krashen(]982) during the late 1970s. The theory consists of five linked "hypotheses": input, acquisition/learning, monitor, natural order, and affective filter. The Input Hypothesis is simply stated: "humans acquire language in only one way-by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input" (Krashen, 1985).
According to the Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1985), only when language learners or acquirers deal with comprehensible input, which is slightly high beyond the learners' or acquirers' level of competence (i+1), and "a necessary (but not sufficient) condition to move from stage i to stage 1 is that acquirer understands input that contains i+1, then learning or acquisition may occurs". That is to language acquisition depends upon trying to comprehend what other people are saying. Provided the learner hears meaningful speech and endeavors to understand it, acquisition will occur. L2 acquisition fails to occur when the learner is deprived of meaningful language, say by classroom activities that concentrate on the form of language rather than on meaning, or by a psychological block that prevents otherwise useful language from gaining access to the learner's mind.
This understanding is possible due to using the context of the language we are hearing or reading and our knowledge of the world. However, instead of aiming to receive input that is exactly at our i+1 level, or instead of having a teacher aim to teach us grammatical structure that is at our i+1 level, we should instead just focus on communication that is understandable. If we do this, and if we get enough of that kind of input, then we will in effect be receiving and thus acquiring our i+1. Evidences for the input hypothesis can be found in the effectiveness of caretaker speech from an adult to a child, of teacher-talk from a teacher to a language student, and of foreigner-talk from a sympathetic conversation partner to a language learner/acquirer.#p#分页标题#e#
Krashen's (1985) Input Hypothesis makes the following claims:
(1) Learners progress along the natural order by understanding input that contains structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence.
(2) Although comprehensible input is necessary for acquisition to take place, it is not sufficient, as learners also need to be affectively disposed to "let in" the input they comprehend.
(3) Input becomes comprehensible as a result of simplification and with the help of contextual and extralinguistic clues; "fine-tuning" (i.e. ensuring that learners receive input rich in the specific linguistic property they are due to acquire next) is not necessary.
(4) Speaking is the result of acquisition, not its cause; learner production does not contribute directly to acquisition.
Long (1982) summarizes the main assumptions of the Input Hypothesis as follows: (1) access to comprehensible input is characteristic of all cases of successful language acquisition, in both first and second language acquisition; (2) greater quantities of comprehensible input seem to result in better (or faster) L2 acquisition; and (3) lack of access to comprehensible input results in little or no acquisition. How, then, is input made comprehensible? Long (1982) suggests four ways that input can be made comprehensible: (1)by modifying speech; (2)by providing linguistic and extralinguistic context; (3) by orienting the communication to the "here and now;" and (4) by modifying the interactional structure of the conversation.
According to Input Hypothesis, only when language learners or acquirers deal with comprehensible input, which is slightly high beyond the learners' or acquirers' level of competence, learning or acquisition may occur. Therefore, the crucial factor in language learning or acquisition is comprehensible input. Input takes the form of reception and can be fulfilled by receptive skills. In language learning or acquisition, reading and listening are two receptive skills. For Chinese learners, English is their foreign language, that is to say, there is no linguistic environment for them in their daily life to acquire the target language. Their learning can only be achieved through classroom instruction and reading among the other skills (listening, speaking, reading writing and translating) is the main channel for their English learning. In order to guarantee comprehensible input in reading, learners must read under the guidance of the teacher because reading under guidance of the teacher is more effective and more comprehensible. However, reading under guidance can only happen in the classroom, and reading in the classroom alone is far from enough. A learner will not become a proficient reader simply by attending a reading course or working through a reading textbook. It takes time before they make distinctive progress in reading. They should be required to read both in class and out of class.#p#分页标题#e#
4. 2 The schema theory
The Schema Theory is a theory employed by cognitive psychologists to explain the mental process of understanding discourse. Carrol (2000, p175) defines the schema as follows: "A schema (plural: schemata) is an abstract structure in semantic memory that specifies the general or expected arrangement of a body of information.'' The notion of a schema is not new in psychology. It is generally associated with the early work on story recall by Bartlett in 1932.指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 Bartlett's ideas were relatively unappreciated at first but have taken on new significance recently. Modern extension of his work have focused primarily on two issues: characterizing schematic knowledge more precisely and determining how this knowledge is used during discourse comprehension
As Nuttall argues (Nuttall, 2002), the kinds of assumption people make about the world depend on what they have experienced and how their minds have organized the knowledge from their experiences. A useful way of thinking about this is provided by schema theory. The schema is a useful concept in understanding how readers are able to interpret texts. The way they interpret depends on the schema activated by the text; and whether they interpret successfully depends on whether their schemata are sufficiently similar to the writers Schemata are also dynamic because new experiences, including those schemata. That is why readers can learn something from their reading. from reading, change existing
There are three types of schemata (Carrell et al., 1988):
1) linguistic schema which refers to the reader's linguistic knowledge of the language in which the reading material is written.
2) formal schema which refers to the reader's background knowledge of the formal, rhetorical organizational structures of different genres of texts like news reports, simple stories, poetry, and so on.
3) content schema which refers to the reader's background knowledge of the content area of the reading material, such as driving, having a wedding pa你the world's history and so forth.
Lots of efforts have been concentrated on the function of schema theory. Even in China, great interest has been shown in it and a considerable number of articles and papers have appeared in different journals (Zhang Weiyou, 1995; Lin Ting, 1996; Wu Heping, 1997; Yuan Bo, 1997; Gao Jili, 2002; Zhang Siyou, 2002; Yi Qianhong, 2003;Tan Ying, 2003; Xiao Su, 2003).
Inferring from the above, the reader's schemata play a critical role in his/her reading comprehension. "We have difficulty understanding passages when we do dot have or cannot activate the appropriate schemata." claimed Carroll and Gui Shichun (Carroll, 2000, p183; Gui Shichun, 2000; p445).#p#分页标题#e#
Chapter V The practical study
This study employed an experiment primarily to examine the impact of the strategies-based instruction on high school students' EFL reading efficiency. So the research question is to be answered:
Does the Strategies-based Instruction (SBI) affect high school students' EFL reading efficiency?
5.1 Methodology
5.1.1 Subjects
The subjects consisted of 60 students of about 19 years old from two natural intact classes in Senior Three at a high school. Either class had 30 students. One class was chosen as the experimental group (EG) and received three-month Strategies-based Instruction while the other as the comparison group (CG) receiving three-month regular English course. The two groups were very similar in many aspects, with roughly the same level of English proficiency on average, the same class hours of English, the same textbook, even with similar English teachers of the same gender, similar age, similar educational background and other personal qualities. Besides, neither group had had the strategies-based instruction before. Thus they were suitable for the experiment. The researcher taught EG while the other teacher who had no knowledge about SBI taught CG.
To make sure that the two groups did not differ significantly on their English reading efficiency a pre-test was held and then analysis of mean difference between EG and CG was made by using t-tests.
5.2 Experimental Method: Formal Schemata Method
What is a formal schemata in my study? The formal schemata method in my study is to facilitate text comprehension by activating formal schema in pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities which is a schemata method three-step model is just as the following three-phrase model. The forma illustrated in Table 1
Table 1 Three-step Model of Formal Schemata Method
Pre-reading activities While-reading activities Post-reading activities
Identify and predict the style of the text and review the writing principles with the aim to grasp the direction of reading Pay attention to characteristics of the style with the aim to find out the main idea Expand the text style with the aim to extend reading process
In pre-reading activities activating formal schema include reviewing text form and its conventions which students have learnt in their Chinese classes, predicting type and content of the text according to the title of the text，the first and last sentences-of each paragraphs, or pre-reading questions. In while-reading activities text-mapping strategies were used to help students form the connections between the ideas which displayed in the text. Text-mapping involves selecting key content from the text and representing it in some sort of visual display (e.g., tables, connecting Lines, boxes, ?, and so on) in which the relations among the key ideas are made explicit.#p#分页标题#e#
The following are some samples of top-down organization of texts in textbook which were demonstrated for students in while-reading activities:
In my study，the experiment was conducted without choosing the materials but dealing with the texts designed in students textbook based on the syllabus. The texts are arranged in the forms of narration (story, biography), description(causation, contrast and comparison). Here are some examples which display the texts top-Level organization in the form of tables.
Style of the text: Exposition (Causation)
Senior English Book, Book 1B P34 (1993) Title: Rescue the Temple
In post-reading some activities conducted are retelling the text and abridging the text based on the structure displayed above, or writing something following the examples of the texts.
Implications of schema theory have proven to be very useful指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 in improving reading instruction. There is some consensus concerning the manner in which schemata guide the comprehension process. The process of schema utilization has both data-driven and conceptually-driven elements(as we know from the literature review)，the initial part of the process is data-driven. Incoming information activates low-level schemata which then activate those higher-level schemata which on probabilistic grounds provide the best fit to the information. Subschemata are then activated by these higher-level schemata in order to determine goodness of fit. If a fit is found then the relevant schemata are applied in a conceptually-driven fashion to generate expectations for a search for predicted input. If no fit is found, then the activated higher-level schemata and their subschemata are rejected. There is a growing consensus that if the learners have greater conscious awareness of the strategies that they select, this awareness can lead them to genuine gains in reading comprehension. An efficient reading needs discourse knowledge. For example if we want to know the writer and the date of a letter written in Chinese, we'll turn to the last page of the letter. But if what we read is a letter written in English, we need to turn to the front page to find the writer and the date. When we want to get the gist of a newspaper, we need to know the content of the sections and then find the section we are interested in, then read the outline first and then decide whether we are really going to read. In my study, the discourse knowledge was made clear from the writing perspective. As to some extent, writing knowledge is a social rule writers must obey. Compare with Chinese, English writing is stricter in stylization( Hu Chundong, 2001).The three-step/phase model was used to activate students' awareness of using formal knowledge in reading: pre-reading activities; while-reading activities; post-reading activities. In pre-reading activities relevant formal schema was activated through reviewing rhetorical knowledge of the text by letting students recall plus teacher complement: identify the text style, review the form and conventions of this style. From the paragraph character(e.g. unity, cohesion, transition)and topic sentence perspective students were helped to find the outline of the text by finding/ reading the first/last sentences (topic sentence)of the paragraphs. In while-reading activities text mapping approach was used to reveal a visual expression of the connection between the ideas and leave certain notes to be filled in by students and in this manner help students interpret text superstructure and thus to understand the text. In this step students form the new structure about the text. And in post-reading activities students were asked to summarize the writing characteristics and try to retell the text based on the text structure. Students were told that people have knowledge structures for text style simply because we are aware of different form conventions. And we need organized background knowledge in order to extract information from text, but in addition the text itself must be organized in such a way that information can be readily encoded. So from the writing perspective students’ difficulty in understanding text structure decreased than from reading perspective.#p#分页标题#e#
5.3 Activation of Formal Schemata (Techniques Applied)
In experimental class, three-step model (pre-readig, while-reading, post-reading) was used to activate the students’ formal schemata of the texts. Students were told to learn a new strategy for improving their reading comprehension. That is to pay attention to text structure and the ideas relation of the text was presented in a table or a flowchart. In control class, conventional teaching method would be applied to students. More specifically, first, students were presented the new words and expressions, then the difficult sentences appeared in the text were explained, and finally they were asked to do exercises. These students were told to do more grammar exercises (This method was used in both control class and experimental class before experiment) and they were also told that this would improve their reading achievements. From my interview and questionnaire I believe that both classes were motivated by their methods.
5.4 Materials Used in Experiment: Textbook 2003 Edition (SEFC, Book 3 )
Procedures: both control class and experimental class was measured two times. The first measurement served as the pretest (3.1.2008) before the different instruction began, which was used to check whether the two classes were really similar even after half a year of study in senior middle school under the instruction of conventional method. The posttest was given to both classes after four months instruction.
5.5 Instruments and data collecting procedures
1) The strategy Inventory for reading
A questionnaire Strategy Inventory for Reading was designed with reference to Oxford's SILL一 Strategy Inventory for Language Learning version 7.0 and Salataci, R&A.Akyel's (2002) reading strategies coding scheme, which had been a modified version of Davis&Bistodeu's basic coding scheme (1993), another modified version of Block's (1986) coding scheme. There were totally 32 statements in the questionnaire. No.l-21 were direct strategies concerning reading habits and techniques, while No.22-32 were indirect strategies concerning meta-cognitive, social, and affective strategies. Among the 32 statements, No.3, 6, 8, 15 and 25 were designed from the reverse side on purpose to test the reliability of the participants' response. Each statement contained five choices ranging from "never or almost never true to me" to "always or almost always true to me", marked with 1,2,3,4, or 5 according to "1-5 Likert-Scale".
This questionnaire was completed by all the subjects immediately after both the pre-test and the posttest to determine whether there existed difference between the two groups in strategy use, and to help diagnose what strategies students had already used so as to select strategies to be trained.
2) Reading task batteries
The reading materials were all adapted from PET (the Preliminary English Tests) which had high reliability and validity. All subjects from the experimental and comparison groups were asked to complete the tasks on a pre-, mid- and post-test basis to determine whether there would be gains in reading efficiency and listening comprehension.#p#分页标题#e#
3) Students' learning diaries and interviews
Volunteers among the students in the experimental group were asked to write learning diaries. Furthermore, ten of the subjects were interviewed. Such data were used to learn about their thoughts, feelings, achievements, and problems about strategy use and introduction.
4) The implementation of SBI
First, all of the subjects took part in the pre-test. They had a listening test first, and then read five passages and answered the total 20 questions within forty-five minutes. The test materials were adapted from PET (the Preliminary English Tests). Following that, they were asked to complete the pre-treatment questionnaire.
Secondly, the scores of the pre-test and the results of the pre-treatment questionnaire were analyzed to see if there was significant difference between the two groups and, on the other hand, to find out what strategies they had already used so as to identify the strategies to be trained.
Thirdly, the study conducted by Wen Quiufang (1996) about two university students, Wang Hong and Li Hua, was told to the subjects of EG in order to make them aware of the benefit of strategies and motivate them to get strategy training.
Fourthly, the subjects of EG were organized to discuss what strategies they had used while reading the passages in the pre-test, and two participants were interviewed.
Fifthly, the effective identified reading strategies were introduced and demonstrated to the subjects explicitly, and of course they were informed of the value and purpose of employing these strategies, and the ways to transfer the strategies to other learning tasks, such as listening. Additionally, they were trained to select, monitor, and evaluate the strategies they used.
Sixthly, the strategies were explicitly or implicitly embedded into the regular language course work, thus providing the students with contextualized strategy practice, and in addition, to encourage learner autonomy using the strategies spontaneously.
Seventhly, the subjects of EG were guided to evaluate the strategy training and one's own strategy use, for example, improved performance across language tasks and skills, general learning skill improvement (including enhanced problem-solving skills), maintenance of the new strategies over time, effective transfer of strategies to other learning tasks, and a positive change in learner attitudes toward the training program and the language course itself.
Finally, all of the subjects of both EG and CG had a mid-test and a posttest in the same way as in the pre-test except that the time of reading was reduced from forty-five minutes to forty minutes- Then they filled a post-treatment questionnaire immediately after the posttest. The data were analyzed by using SPSS.
In the end the training program was revised after it had been completed, based on the feedback of the subjects. This step naturally led back to the first, in which the learners' specific needs were taken into consideration, thus fully completing the instructional cycle.#p#分页标题#e#
5.6 Data analysis
As for the statistical analyses of the data obtained, the Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 12.0) was used.
The results of the questionnaires were analyzed by using t-tests to see if significant differences existed between the experimental group and the comparison group in strategy use before and after the treatment.
Data obtained from the pre-, mid-test and post-test reading tasks were used to determine students' improvement in reading efficiency .The statistical method used for analyzing the data was analysis of Mean and SD using SPSS. Mid-test and post-test means were compared, adjusting for initial differences on the pre-test means.
The self-report data were analyzed and categorized into two sets: insights about strategy use and feedback on the strategy instruction.
5.7 Results and discussion
5.7.1 The impact of SBI on strategy-choosing
The means and standard deviations of the use of different reading strategies for EG and CG before implementing SBI are displayed in Table 4.1
Table 4.1 Differences between EG and CG in using reading strategies before implementing SBI
Direct Strategies
Strategy Group Number Mean SD t Sig.(2-tailed)
Questioning Meanings of Words 1 30 2.534 0.572 0.798 0.433
2 30 2.434 0.505
Using the dictionary 1 30 2.184 0.501 1.101 0.277
2 30 2.001 0.755
Questioning Clauses or Sentences 1 30 2.134 0.861 0.925 0.364
2 30 1.934 0.692
Questioning Grammatical Structures 1 30 3.501 1.076 0.415 0.683
2 30 3.401 1.038
Translating 1 30 3.834 0.914 -1.394 0.175
2 30 4.101 0.804 0.774
Predicting 1 30 1.584 0.589 0.774 0.447
2 30 1.468 0.508
Confirming/ 1 30 1.468 0.508 0.001 1.001
Modifying Predictions 2 30 1.468 0.508
Inferences 1 30 1.534 0.508 0.466 0.646
2 30 1.468 0.508
Prior knowledge 1 30 2.834 0.792 1.141 0.265
2 30 2.634 0.670
Text Order 1 30 1.634 0.616 -0.676 0.506
2 30 1.901 1.972
Skimming/ Scanning 1 30 1.902 0.713 -1.470 0.154
2 30 2.201 0.714
Reference 1 30 2.034 0.719 0.849 0.408
2 30 1.868 0.731 #p#分页标题#e#
Visualizing 1 30 1.701 0.652 -0.388 0.703
2 30 1.768 0.678
Summarizing 1 30 1.234 0.431 0.298 0.770
2 30 1.201 0.408
Indirect Strategies
Strategy Gruop Number Mean SD t Sig.(2-tailed)
Meta-cognitive Strategies 1 30 1.568 0.569 0.627 0.537
2 30 1.501 0.509
Affective Strategies 1 30 2.301 0.652 -0.422 0.678
2 30 2.368 0.616
Social Strategies 1 30 1.568 0.569 0.572 0.573
2 30 1.501 0.501
As shown in Table 4.1, there is little difference between the two groups in strategy use, with the highest =1.470 and the lowest t=0.298,.which are of no statistical significance
Table 4.1 further shows that, neither the subjects of EG nor those of CG made good use of effective reading strategies, for the mean scores are all lower than 2; but both of them used the inefficient strategies like Questioning grammatical structures and Translating a lot, with the mean scores over 3.401. That is to say, strategy training was badly needed. Table 4.1 also helps diagnose the strategies to be trained, which include direct strategies such as Guessing the meaning from the context, Predicting; Confirming/Modifying the predictions, Inferences, Text Order, Skimming/Scanning, Reference, Visualizing, Summarizing and indirect strategies such as Meta-cognitive Strategies, Affective strategies and Social Strategies.
The means and standard deviations of the use of different reading strategies by EG and CG after training are displayed in Table 4.2
Table 4.2 Difference between EG and CG in using reading strategies after implementing SBI
Direct Strategies
Strategy Group Number Mean SD t Sig.(2-tailed)
Questioning 1 30 4.01 0.984 7.168 0.000
Meanings of Words 2 30 2.601 0.499
Using the dictionary 1 30 1.734 0.869 -6.280 0.000
2 30 3.201 0.962
Questioning Clauses or Sentences 1 30 4.368 0.719 13.404 0.000
2 30 1.901 0.663
Questioning Grammatical Strucures 1 30 2.534 0.508 -4.673 0.000
2 30 3.568 1.041 指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
Translating 1 30 1.701 0.703 -11.742 0.000
2 30 4.134 0.777
Predicting 1 30 4.334 0.759 18.251 0.000#p#分页标题#e#
2 30 1.468 0.508
Confirming/ Modifying Predictions 1 30 4.501 0.510 18.670 0.000
2 30 1.468 0.508
Inferences 1 30 4.301 0.751 13.463 0.000
2 30 1.568 0.505
Prior Knowledge 1 30 3.968 0.851 5.217 0.000
2 30 2.868 0.777
Text Order 1 30 4.234 0.818 17.880 0.000
2 30 1.701 0.467
Skimming/ Scanning 1 30 4.201 0.848 7.993 0.000
2 30 2.334 0.662
Reference 1 30 4.368 0.670 11.181 0.000
2 30 1.868 0.731
Visualizing 1 30 4.334 0.712 11.933 0.000
2 30 1.934 0.692
Summarizing 1 30 3.778 0.729 14.251 0.000
2 30 1.334 0.480
Indirect Strategies
Strategy Group Number Mean SD t Sig.(2-tailed)
Meta-cognitive Strategies 1 30 3.668 0.662 13.615 0.000
2 30 1.568 0.505
Affective Strategies 1 30 3.501 0.573 6.902 0.000
2 30 2.368 0.616
Social Strategies 1 30 3.601 0.622 14.084 0.000
2 30 1.634 0.493
Table 4.2 reveals that after training EG and CG significantly differed in using reading strategies. With respect to the three inefficient strategies for reading, such as Using the Dictionary, Questioning Grammatical Structures and Translating, CG's mean scores 3.201, 3.568 and 4.134 are higher than EG's 1.734, 2.534 and 1.701 with minus t-values -6.280，-4.763 and-11.742. On the contrary, the mean scores of the responses to all the trained strategies by EG are much higher than those by CG The t-values also indicate the significant difference. The highest t-value equals 18.670 while the lowest t-value 5.217. That means the subjects of EG used much more effective reading strategies more frequently than the ones of CGS however, the subjects of CG still used the inefficient strategies for reading a lot, much more than the subjects of EG Such a result might have come from different instructions: the three-month Strategies-based Instruction that the subjects of EG received and the three-month regular language course that the subjects of CG received. The finding proved that SBI had great impact on the subjects of EG choosing strategies.
Comparing Table 4.1 and Table 4.2, it can also be seen that, EG's mean scores in Table 4.2 are much higher than those in Table 4.1. At the same time, CG's mean scores in Table 4.2 are a little higher than those in table 4.1, too, although without statistically significance. In other words, when the subjects of EG learned to use effective reading strategies, those of CG also learned a little.#p#分页标题#e#
The explanation is that, before implementing the Strategies-based Instruction, both the subjects of the two groups completed the questionnaire of strategy inventory for reading. It is possible that some intelligent subjects of CG learned some strategies from the questionnaire, for after completing the questionnaire, some subjects of CG asked for extra sheets because they thought the strategies useful to them. However, they just got to know the strategies with nobody giving them training afterwards. Such a case further indicates that SBI did help subjects of EG learn to use effective strategies, for they were given sufficient repeated opportunities for practice.
The finding supported the theory: Learning strategies as cognitive skills, which was mentioned in 3.1. That is, Learning strategies not as declarative knowledge but as procedural knowledge which is more easily learned by using repetition and practice (Gogne,1985, cited in O'Malley and Chamot,2001). The finding also strengthened the idea that SBI had great impact on EG's using effective reading strategies.
5.7.2 The impact of SBI on the EFL reading test scores指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
Table 4.3 The analysis of the reading scores of EG and CG in pre-, mid- and posttest
Test Version Group Number Mean SD t df Sig.(2-tailed)
Pre-test 1 30 13.134 2.766 -0.072 29 -0.945
2 30 13.201 2.657
Mid-test 1 30 16.401 4.883 3.651 29 0.002
2 30 13.201 5.082
Post-test 1 30 23.201 5.840 6.963 29 0.001
2 30 14.201 5.905
As revealed in Table 4.3 and Figure the subjects of EG and CG were rather close in reading in the pretest, although EG's mean score 13.134 slightly lower than CG's 13.201,but they differed some in the mid-test with EG's mean score 16.401 a little higher than CG's 13.201 and even significantly differed in the posttest with EG's mean score 23.201 that was much higher than CG's 14.201. It can be seen that CG made some progress, but the progress made by EG was much greater. Besides, EG's reading efficiency seemed to be getting better both in the mid-test and in the post-test.
5.8 Summary of the research findings
In this study 60 students of senior three in a high school were either participants receiving a three-month strategies-based instruction or comparison subjects receiving the regular three-month language course. Both of the experimental group and the comparison group filled out a pre-treatment questionaire and a post-treatment questionnaire. Besides, all of the subjects took the pre-test, mid-test and post-test.The scores were statistically analyzed by using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 12.0). In addition, some subjects were interviewed before and after implementing the strategies-based instruction.#p#分页标题#e#
Here is the research question:
Does the strategies-based instruction (SBI) affect high school students' EFL reading efficiency?
In response to the first question, the strategies-based instruction (SBI) does affect high school students' EFL reading efficiency. The results of statistical analyses showed that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group on reading in the mid- and posttests, after adjusting for pre-test difference. For one thing, the goal of strategy training is to facilitate students' learning; when receiving the strategies-based instruction, the students can get sufficient chances for repeated cued practice to internalize the effective strategies, and at the same time they can develop both their strategy and language proficiency. For another, evidences indicate that strategy use can improve learners' performance. Further more, students' motivation will be increased, just as O'Malley and Chamot claim (O'Malley&Chamot, 2000): "With a classroom of unmotivated students, it seems too facile to indicate that if the students begin to use strategies they will become more motivated", and "strategy training should be most effective in enhancing learning outcomes and transfer when meta-cognitive and cognitive strategies are combined during instruction." As for the third question, with regard to the transfer of effectiveness of reading strategies to listening comprehension, the finding was positive.
Chapter VI Conclusion
Generally speaking, the result of the experiment was as good as expected. According to the findings, the three-month strategies-based in swction had a positive impact on the use of effective reading strategies and positive effect on improving the subjects' reading efficiency and listening ability.
To answer why there was such an expected result, the researcher listed the reasons as follows:
First, the strategies-based instruction has been proved to be an effective model of strategy instruction in the pre-researches such as the one conducted by Cohen et al. in the University of Minnesota (Cohen, 2000).
Secondly, in this study, implementing the Strategies-based Instruction just met the students' needs, because the students in senior three strongly desired to get more scores in the Entrance Exam, in which reading comprehension (40 scores) and Listening comprehension (30 scores) play very important roles. They did dream of getting some shortcut to improve their reading efficiency and listening ability magically. Thus, in this study, the subjects of EG were greatly motivated when getting aware of the advantages of the effective reading strategies and the strategies-based instruction. Assessing students' strategy needs and motivating the participants enough, which are necessary parts of strategy instruction (Chamot&Kupper, 1989; Cohen,2000; O'Malley& Chamot,2000; Oxford,2000), played important part in the success of the experiment. Evidences reveal that students tend to use strategies most frequently when they should be most needed (O'Malley et al. 1985). Thirdly, in this study, the subjects of EG benefited from the richness of strategies and the way of combined strategy use, both of which can strengthen the effect of strategy instruction (O'Malley et al., 1985) Theoretically, the result of the study echoed the previous researches mentioned in Literature Review, and once again proved the reading theories such as Learning Strategies as Cognitive Skills. Additionally, in this study, the strategy instruction was successfully conducted in a natural classroom, and the findings indicated that classroom instruction on learning strategies with integrative learning skills can facilitate learning. Hence, this study has some practical significance, that is, SBI can be expanded into other classrooms where English is being learned as a Foreign Language. Besides reading, SBI can also be used on other language aspects like listening, speaking, writing and vocabulary. And SBI can even be used in other subjects such as physics, biology, etc.#p#分页标题#e#
6.1 Practical implications
1. The strategy instruction must meet the students' needs. For example, before implementing the instruction the teacher must assess the students' strategy needs so as to help motivate them enough. The teacher in this kind of instruction assumes the role of a diagnostician, guide, model, stimulator, coordinator and helper and even researcher rather than the provider of the correct answers to comprehension questions.
2. The teacher should increase his/her awareness of the potential applications of learning strategies in the classroom. Classroom instruction has the potential to influence a wide range of skills to which the strategies can be applied, including production as well as comprehension skills. In this view, the teacher should try to create circumstances in which students become acquainted with and apply strategies that are appropriate for the type of learning activities being presented. Further, the teacher should encourage and assist students in applying the strategies to an expanded range of language activities and materials so that the strategies would transfer to new activities and be used by students independently without the teacher's help.
3. If learning strategies practiced in the classroom could be applied successfully in an acquisition environment outside the classroom, there may be potential transferability between the two settings once students experience success in using learning strategies effectively. In that case, the responsibility of studying can be really shifted from the shoulders of the teacher onto those of the students. That is what SBI benefits students most and the very significance for which SBI should exist and be carried out.
6.2 Implications for NMET reading for Grade Three students in senior high school
1. English teachers should pay special attention to the reading teaching. In the course of the reading teachers should make good use of the different learning strategies to instruct students how to do reading, making their reading more scientific and correct. In the teaching of reading special attention should be paid to teaching students to learn to use some strategies, such as meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and affective strategies
At present English teachers should try hard to improve students' English reading ability. As the helpers of the students, the teachers have to learn more about the reading strategies and skills. They should keep an eye on what are happening both at home and abroad to enrich their background knowledge.
2. Foreign Language teachers should learn the importance of the strategies of learning foreign language.
If only teaching, not learning is studied, and if only teachers, not students are paid attention to, language teaching is not expected to be successful. All of the successful teaching depends on the students' learning. Teachers usually do not know why learners learn and how learners learn. Teaching methods are often made for teacher show to teach, but not for students how to learn. Up till now, teaching methods have been emphasized and learning methods have been ignored in most of the schools. Only when teachers have known about the foreign language learning strategies systematically can teachers instruct students how to use the strategies.#p#分页标题#e#
Develop the students' lifelong learning strategies. Nowadays knowledge is being refreshed very quickly. Education is being challenged. In the new century students are required not only to master knowledge and skill, but also to have the lifelong learning strategies. Society, organization and individual all must learn in order to exist in this society where lifelong learning is required. In the new century teachers are not only instructors who teach students knowledge and skill but also the trainer of the learning strategies. They have changed themselves into diagnostician, trainers, coaches, coordinators, language learners, researchers from managers, controllers and teachers (Wen Qiufang).指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
Learning strategies help to improve the independent ability of the foreign language learners. With the development of science and technology, senior high school students today have the independent ability, coming to realize whether his learning is successful or not. Foreign language teachers should encourage students to choose something by themselves, develop their self-duty and improve their abilities in many other ways, not only in learning language. In the course of the language teaching teachers should keep on excavating the strategies suitable for their students in order to develop their independent learning ability, and let students know which strategies they can use and offer them the special train about the meta cognitive strategies. Only when teachers have learned the spirit of foreign language learning strategies, can they instruct and help students in their English learning.
6.3 Limitations of the investigation and suggestion for further research
Needless to say, what has been presented in this paper is only a tiny part of the constellation of the research into reading. Moreover, although all possible efforts have been made to improve it, due to some subjective and objective factors, the present investigation is far from being perfect in the real academic sense. Looking back an the whole process of the investigation, two limitations should be minted out for improvement in future studies:
First, reading is complicated activity affected by many factors, yet only two criteria are involved in our reading test: speed and accuracy. For the convenience of operation, in most test practice, the subject's reading competence is measured by his comprehension accuracy within a given time. In this case, there must be a scientifically worked out time limit within which certain percentage of subjects can finish their reading task. Second, no regression has been made to find out what kind of correlation there are between reading strategies and NMET reading score, between style and NMET reading achievements.
In conclusion, this investigation only deals with a small part of the reading problem of our senior high- school students. With more and more studies devoted to this subject and the improvement of the research methodology, it is likely to have a better and deeper understanding of the issue of the NMET reading.#p#分页标题#e#
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AppendixI Strategy Inventory for Reading
Directions:
This form of Strategy Inventory for Reading is for high school students who learn English as a foreign language. You will find statements about English reading. Please read each statement carefully. On the separate work sheet, write the response (1,2,3,4 or 5) that tells how true of you the statement is.
1. Never or almost never true of me.
2. Usually not true of me.
3. Some what true of me.
4. Usually true of me.
5. Always or almost always tnie of me.
NEVER OR ALMOST NEVER TRUE OF ME means that the statement is very rarely true of you.
USUALLY NOT TRUE OF I} means that the statement is true less than half the time
SOMEWHAT TRUE OF ME means that the statement is true about half the time.
USUALLY TRUE OF ME means that the statement is true more than half the time.
ALWAYS OR ALMOST ALWAYS TRUE OF ME means that the statement is true of you almost always.
Answer in terms of how well the student describes you. Do not answer how you should be, or what other people do. There are no right or wrong answers to these statements. Put your answers on the separate worksheet. Work as quickly as you can without being careless. This usually takes about 20-30 minutes to complete. If you have any question, please let the teacher know right away.
Remember, answer 1,2,3,4 or S as described above指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
School_____________ class_________ Name_____________#p#分页标题#e#
Individual Word Focus:
a) Questioning Meanings of Words:
1. I guess the meanings of new words from the context……………1 2 3 4 5
(我从上下文中猜测生词的意思。)
2. I apply grammatical rules to identify the meaning of unknown words……………....
……………………………………………………………………1 2 3 4 5
(我应用语法规则分析词的形式断定生词的意思.)
b) Using the Dictionary
3. If I feel uncertain of a word, I always look it up in a dictionary……………………
……………………………………………………………………1 2 3 4 5
(如果不能确定词义，我就查词典.)
Individual Sentence Focus:
a) Questioning Clauses or Sentences:
4. When reading a new text, I prefer to guess the meaning of a sentence rather than make a grammatical analysis……………………………………….1 2 3 4 5
(读一篇新的文章时，我宁愿去猜测句子的意思，而不愿进行语法分析。)
b)Question Grammatical Structures
5. I make grammatical analysis of sentences when I cannot understand……………...
……………………………………………………………………1 2 3 4 5
(当我不能理解一个句子的意思时，我就对它进行语法分析。)
Translating:
6. When reading a text I translate it to help me understand the meaning...………….
…………………………………………………………………….1 2 3 4 5
(读一篇文章时，我把它翻译成汉语以帮助理解。)
Predicting:
7. I always make prediction before reading a passage…………….1 2 3 4 5
(读一篇文章前，我总是先进行预测.)
8. I always make predictions while reading a passage………… 1 2 3 4 5
(我总是边读边预测下文。)
Confirming./Modifying the Predictions:
9. While reading, I confirm or reject the predictions....................1 2 3 4 5#p#分页标题#e#
(阅读时，我确定或否定预测。)
Inferences:
10. During reading, I look for the topic sentence of each paragraph...……………….
…………………………………………………………………….1 2 3 4 5
(阅读时，我寻找每一段的主题句.)
11. I draw conclusions while reading…………………………..1 2 3 4 5
(我边读边得出结论。)
Prior Knowledge:
12. I use prior knowledge to help make decisions about probable meanings.
(我利用已有的知识帮助确定文章可能的意思.)
Text Order:
13.I distinguish between the main points and supporting details and comment on the organization of the ideas………………………………………………1 2 3 4 5
(我辨别主要论点和支持它的细节论据，并评论文章的组织结构.)
Skimming / Scanning:
14. I first skim/ scan the whole or some portion of a passage for
a general understanding and then go back and read carefully....……1 2 3 4 5
(我先浏览或跳读全文或部分文章了解大意，然后返回仔细阅读。)
l5. I always read a passage from the beginning to the end…………….1 2 3 4 5
(我总是将一篇文章从头读到尾.)
Reference:
l6. I connect new information with the previously stated content……..l 2 3 4 5
(我将新的信.息与上文阐述的内容联系起来思考。)
Summarizing:
18. I summarize the main idea of each paragraph..................................1 2 3 4 5
(我总结出每一段的主题。)
19. I summarize the main points of the passage after reading... ..…….1 2 3 4 5
(读后，我总结出全文的主题。)指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
20. I make summaries of structures of a certain style in the English passage
I read..……………………………………………………………….1 2 3 4 5
(我总结所读英文文章的类型结构。)
21. I summarize words or expressions on a topic after finishing
reading and try to keep them in mind...........................……………..1 2 3 4 5#p#分页标题#e#
(读后，我总结有关某一话题的词汇及表达法。)
Indirect Strategies
Meta-cognitive strategies:
22. I look for opportunities to read as much as possible in English…1 2 3 4 5
(我寻找机会尽可能多地用英语阅读。)
23. I have a clear goal for my English reading………………………1 2 3 4 5
(对自己的英语阅读我有明确的目标。)
24. I think about my progress in reading English…………………….1 2 3 4 5
(我考虑自己在英语阅读方面的进步。)
25. I read texts of all kinds of styles in the same way………………1 2 3 4 5
(我用同一种方法阅读各种类型的文章。)
26. I use different strategies in reading different texts……………….1 2 3 4 5
(我使用不同的策略阅读不同的文章。)
Affective strategies:
27. I try to relax when I feel afraid of using English…………………1 2 3 4 5
(当我感觉害怕使用英语时，就努力让自己放松。)
28. I encourage myself to read English more…………………………1 2 3 4 5
(我鼓励自己多阅读英文。)
29. I give myself a reward when I do well in English reading. ……….1 2 3 4 5
(当我在英语阅读方面做的好时，就给自己一份奖赏.)
Social strategies:
30. If there is anything I don't understand, I prefer to discuss
with others………………………………………………………..1 2 3 4 5
(如果有不懂的地方，我喜欢与他人商量。)
31. I enjoy checking understanding with my classmates……………..1 2 3 4 5
(我喜欢跟同学核对理解的情况。)
32. I talk to someone else about how I feet when I am learning
English…………………………………………………………….1 2 3 4 5
(我把自己学英语时的感受告诉别人。)
Appendix II The testing paper (Pre-test)
2005年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试
英 语
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）#p#分页标题#e#
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Pet owners are being encouraged to take their animals to work , a move scientists say can be good for productivity , workplace morale (士气), and the well-being of animals .
A study found that 25% of Australian women would like to keep an office pet . Sue Chaseling of Petcare information Service said the practice of keeping office pets was good both for the people and the pets . “On the pets’ side , They are not left on their own and won’t feel lonely and unhappy,” she said . A study of major US companies showed that 73% found office pets beneficial (有益的) , while 27% experienced a drop in absenteeism (缺勤).
Xarni Riggs has two cats walking around her Global Hair Salon in Paddington . “My customers love them . they are their favorites ,” she said . “They are not troublesome . They know when to go and have a sleep in the sun .”
Little black BJ has spent nearly all his two years “working” at Punch Gallery in Balmain . Owner Iain Powell said he had had cats at the gallery for 15 years . “BJ often lies in the shop window and people walking past tap on the glass ,” he said .指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041
Ms Chaseling said cats were popular in service industries because they enabled a point of conversation . But she said owners had to make sure both their co-workers and the cats were comfortable .
56．The percentage of American companies that are in favor of keeping office pets is .
A．73% B．27% C．25% D．15%
57．We know from the text that “BJ”
A．works in the Global Hair Salon B．often greets the passers-by
C．likes to sleep in the sun D．is a two-year-old cat
58．The best title for this text would be .
A．Pets Help Attract Customers B．Your Favorite Office Pets
C．Pets Join the Workforce D．Busy Life for Pets
B
MONTREAL (Reuters) – Crossing the US-Canada border（边界）to go to church on a Sunday cost a US citizen ＄10,000 for breaking Washington’s strict new security（安全）rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Like the other half-dozen people of Township 15, crossing the border is a daily occurrence for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church.
There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US-which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.#p#分页标题#e#
As a result, Albert says he did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual. The US customs（海关）station in this area is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later. Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on carnera crossing the border illegally（非法）.
Ottawa has given out special passes to some 300 US citizens in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-mile detour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint.
Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. “I feel like I’m living in a prison,” he said.
59．We learn from the text that Richard Albert is .
A．an American living in Township 15
B．a Canadian living in a Quebec village
C．a Canadian working in a customs station
D．an American working in a Canadian church
60．Albert was fined because he .
A．failed to obey traffic rules B．broke the American security rules
C．worked in St. Pamphile without a pass D．damaged the gate of the customs office
61．The underlined word “detour” in paragraph 5 means .
A．a drive through the town B．a race across the fields
C．a roundabout way of travelling D．a journey in the mountain area
62．What would be the best title for the text?
A．A Cross-country Trip B．A Special Border Pass
C．An Unguarded Border D．An Expensive Church Visit
C
Welcome to Adventureland!
Everyone loves Adventureland! The Parks and Exhibitions were built for you to explore（探索）, enjoy, and admire their wonders. Every visit will be an unforgettable experience. You will go away enriched, longing to come back. What are you going to do this time?
The Travel Pavilion
Explore places you have never been to before, and experience different ways of life.
Visit the Amazon jungle（丛林）village, the Turkish market, the Tai floating market, the Berber mountain house and others. Talk to the people there who will tell you about their lives, and things they make. You can try making a carpet, making nets, fishing…
The Future Tower
This exhibition shows how progress will touch our lives. It allows us to look into the future and explore the cities of the next century and the way we’ll be living then. Spend some time in our space station and climb into our simulator（模拟装置）for the Journey to Mars!#p#分页标题#e#
The Nature Park
This is not really one park but several.
In the Safari Park you can drive among African animals in one of our Range Cruisers: see lions, giraffes, elephants in the wild. Move on to the Ocean Park to watch the dolphins and whales. And then there is still the Aviary to see…
The Pyramid
This is the center of Adventureland. Run out of film, need some postcards and stamps? For all these things and many more, visit our underground shopping center. Come here for information and ideas too.
63．The Travel Pavilion is built to help visitors .
A．realize the importance of travelling
B．become familiar with mountain countries
C．learn how to make things such as fishing nets
D．learn something about different places in the world
64．If you are interested in指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 knowing about what people’s life will be, you may visit .
A．the Travel Pavilion B．the Future Tower
C．the Safari Park D．the Pyramid
65．If you want to get a toy lion to take home, where will you most likely go?
A．The Pyramid. B．The Nature Park.
C．The Future Tower. D．The Travel Parvilion.
D
As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.
Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping(录像) the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents’ efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. “In general the more question-asking the parents do, the higher the children’s IQ scores,” Lewis says. “And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is.”
The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their siblings(兄弟姐妹). Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention. “Middle children are invisible,” says Lewis. “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, chances are it’s the middle child.” There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: “When the TV is on,” Lewis says, “dinner is a non-event.”#p#分页标题#e#
66．The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to _________.
A．show the relationship between parents and children
B．teach parents ways to keep order at the dinner table
C．report on the findings of a study
D．give information about family problems
67．Parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner because ____________.
A．they are busy serving food to their children
B．they are busy keeping order at the dinner table
C．they have to pay more attention to younger children
D．they are tired out having prepared food for the whole family
68．By saying “Middle children are invisible” in paragraph 3, Lewis means that middle children _________.
A．have to help their parents to serve dinner
B．get the least attention from the family
C．are often kept away from the dinner table
D．find it hard to keep up with other children
69．Lewis’ research provides an answer to the question _________.
A．why TV is important in family life
B．why parents should keep good order
C．why children in small families seem to be quieter
D．why middle children seem to have more difficulties in life
70．Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?
A．It is important to have the right food for children.
B．It is a good idea to have the TV on during dinner.
C．Parents should talk to each of their children frequently.
D．Elder children should help the younger ones at dinner
E
“Soon, you’re going to have to move out!” cried my neighbor upon seeing the largest tomato plant known to mankind, or at least known in my neighborhood.
One tiny 9-inch plant, bought for $1.25 in the spring, has already taken over much of my rose bed, covering much of other plants, and is well on its way to the front door.
Roses require a good deal of care, and if it weren’t for the pleasure they give, it wouldn’t be worth the work. As it is, I have a garden full of sweet-smelling roses for most of the year. bushes must be pruned(剪枝) in early spring, leaving ugly woody branches until the new growth appears a few weeks later. It was the space available(可用的) in the garden that led me into planting just one little tomato plant. A big mistake.
Soil conditions made just perfect for roses turn out to be even more perfect for tomatoes. The daily watering coupled with full sun and regular fertilizing(施肥) have turned the little plant into a tall bush. The cage I placed around it as the plant grew has long since disappeared under the thick leaves.
Now the task I face in harvesting the fruit is twofold; First, I have to find the red ones among the leaves, which means I almost have to stand on my head, and once found I have to reach down and under, pick the tomatoes and withdraw(缩回) my full fist without dropping the prize so dearly won. I found two full-blown white roses completely hidden as I picked tomatoes in June, but they were weak and the leaves already yellow for lack of light.#p#分页标题#e#
Here I am faced with a painful small decision: To tear up a wonderful and productive tomato plant that offers up between ten and twenty ripe sweet tomatoes each day or say goodbye to several expensive and treasured roses. Like Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, I’ll think about that tomorrow.
71．What ate the requirements for the healthy growth of roses ?
A．A lot of care and the right soil.
B．Frequent pruning and fertilizing.
C．Tomato plants grown alongside.
D．Cages placed around the roots.
72．The writer planted the tomato because _________.
A．it cost only $1.25
B．the soil was just right for it
C．there was room for it in the garden
D．the roses’ branches needed to be covered
73．This year the writer’s roses were __________.
A．removed from the rose bed
B．picked along with the tomatoes
C．mostly damaged by too much sunlight
D．largely hidden under the tomato plant
74．By saying “the prize so dearly won” in paragraph 5, the writer wants to ________.
A．show the difficulty in picking the指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 tomatoes
B．show the hardship of growing the roses
C．express her liking for the roses
D．express her care for the tomatoes
75．In the situation described in the text, one good thing is that ________.
A．the roses cost the writer little money
B．the writer has a daily harvest of tomatoes
C．someone will help the writer make the decision
D．the writer can now enjoy both the roses and tomatoes
Keys: 56—60 ADCAB 61—65 CDDBA 66—70 CBBDC 71—75 ACDAB
AppendixIII The testing paper (Mid-test)
2006年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（一）
A
Most people think of racing when they see greyhounds（灰狗）and believe they need lots of exercise. They can actually be quite lazy! Greyhounds are good at fast races but not long-distance running. They do need regular exercise but they like to run for a short burst and then get back on the bed or a comfortable seat. Another misunderstanding is that greyhounds must be aggressive（好斗的）because they are big in size. In fact greyhounds love people and are gentle with children.
Greyhounds can live for 12-14 years but usually only race for two or three years, and after that they make great pets. They don’t need a lot of space, don’t make a lot of noise, and don’t eat a lot for their size.
Normally, greyhounds can be as tall as 90 cm. There is, however, a small-sized greyhound, which stands only 33 cm. Greyhounds come in a variety of colors. Grey and yellowish-brown are the most common. Others include black, white, blue, red and brown or a mix of these.#p#分页标题#e#
Greyhounds have smooth body coats, low body fat and are very healthy. Because they’re slim（苗条的）they don’t have the leg problems like other dogs the same height. But they do feel the cold. Especially since they would much rather be at home in bed than walking around outside.
56.The text is written mainly .
A.to tell people how to raise greyhounds B.to let people know more about greyhounds
C.to explain why greyhounds are aggressive D.to describe greyhounds of different colors
57.It can be inferred that greyhounds .
A.love big doghouses B.like staying in bed all day
C.make the best guard dogs D.need some exercise outdoors
58.Why does the author say that greyhounds make great pets?
A.They are big in size. B.They live a very long life.
C.They can run races for some time. D.They are quiet and easy to look after.
59.If you keep a pet greyhound,it is important .
A.to keep it stim B.to keep it warm
C.to take special care of its legs D.to take it to animal doetors rcgularly
B
Many years ago,when I was fresh out of school and working in Danver,I was driving to my parents’ home in Messouri for Christmas.I stopped at a gas station（加油站）about 50 miles from Okiahoma City,where I was planning to stop and visit a friend.While I was standing in.line at the cash register（收款台）,I said hello to an older couple who were also paying for gas.
I took off,but had gone only a few miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car.I stopped and wondered what I should do.A car pulled up behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station.They said they would take me to my friend’s.We chatted on the way into the city,and when I get out of the car,the husband gave me his business card.
I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me.Soon afterward.I received a Christmas present from them.Their note that came with it said that helping me had made their holidays meaningful.
Years later,I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning,In late afternoon I returned to my car and found that I’d left the lights on all day,and the battery（电池）was dead.Then I noticed that the Friendly ford dealershop-a shop selling cars-was right next door.I walked over and found two salesmen in the showroom.#p#分页标题#e#
“Just how friendly is Friendly Ford?”I asked and explained my trouble.They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it.They would accept no payment;so when I got home;I wrote them a note to say thanks,I received a letter back from one of the salesmen,No one had ever taken the time to write him and say thank you ,and it meant a lot,he said.
“Thank you”- two powerful words.They’re easy to say and mean so much.
60.The author planned to stop at Oklahoma City .
A.to visit a frend B.to see his parents
C.to pay or the cash register D.to have more gas for his car
61.The words“took off”underlined in Paragraph 2 mean“ ”
A.turned off B.moved off C.put up 指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 D.set up
62.What happened when the author found smoke coming out of his car?
A.He had it pulled back to the gas station. B.The coupls sent him a business card.
C.The couple offered to help him. D.He called his friend for help.
63.The battery of the author’s car was dead because .
A.something went wrong with the lights B.the meeting lasted a whole day
C.he forgot to turn off the lights D.he drove too long a sistance
64.By telling his own experiences,the author tries to show .
A.how to write a thank-you letter B.how to deal with car problems
C.the kindheartedness of older people D.the importance of expressing thanks
C
A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students.It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problern on arrival.This was followed by speaking,Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in.Reading remained as a signifioant（显著的）problem.
The information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course.Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonnble motivation（动机）,we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest.Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country.To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation,especially if it has failed in the past.Therefore a different method may help because it is different.#p#分页标题#e#
Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintsining（保持）or incressing motivation.Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout,but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest by about halfway through the ten weeks.This led up to a major re-think,so finally we thought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.
65.What is the text mainly about?
A.Foreign students have more problems.
B.There are many ways to improve English.
C.Tesching should meet students’needs.
D.English learning probles should be studied again.
66.Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students .
A.had to write their papers B.became better at speaking
C.became less interested in reading D.had fewer problems with listening
67.We may infer from the last two paragraphs that .
A.different teaching methods should be used
B.grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging
C.English courses are necessary for foreign students
D.teaching content（内容） should be changed halfway
68.The word“it” underlined in the last paragraph refers to“ ”.
A.re-think B.activity C.molivation D.timetable
D
Since my retirement（退休）from teaching music in 2001,I have epent a good deal of time paintingas an artist.I aotually beagan drawing again in the summer of 1995 when my lather died.so perhaps I was trying to recover from the loss of my father,or maybe it was just that it brought back memories of him.In any case,I drew pen and ink animals and landscapes（风景画）much influenced（影响）by krenkel and St. John for five years.
For some strange reason, I had been waiting until my retirement to start doing walereolors again, but as soon as I walked out of the school door for the last time I picked up my brushes and rediscovered Andrew Wyeth, who quickly became my favorite artist. I had looked through all the art books I had on my shelves and found his watercolors to be the closest to how I thought good watercolors should look. So I painted landscapes around Minnesota for three years and tried out many other types of painting. However, watercolors remained my first choice, and I think I did my best work there, showing my paintings at a number of art exhibitions.
Art is now together with my piano playing and reading. There is a time for everything in my world, and it is wonderful to have some time doing what I want to do. As Confucius once said,“At seventy I can follow my heart’s desire.”
69.What is the text mainly about?
A.Learning to paint in later life. B.How to paint watercolors.#p#分页标题#e#
C.An artist-turned teacher. D.Life after retiroment.
70.The author started drawing again in 1995 because .
A.he hoped to draw a picture of his father
B.he couldn’t stop missing his father
C.he had more time after retirement
D.he liked animals and landscapes
71.We can infer from the text that the author .
A.had been taught by Krenkel and St. John
B.painted landscapes in Minnesota for 5 years
C.believed Wyeth to be the best in watercolors
D.started his retirement life at the age of seventy
72.How does the author probably feel about his life as an artist?
A.Very enjoyable. B.A bit regretful.
C.Rather busy. D.Fairly dull.
E
Phillip Island Penguins（企鹅）
The Little Penguin has called Phillip Island home for untold generations. Get to Phillip Island in plenty of time to watch a summer sunset at Summerland Beach-the stage is attractively set to see the Little Penguin leave water and step onto land.
•Leave Melbournc at 5:30pm for a direct journey to Phillip Island
•Sec the Gippsland area-Guinness Book of Records place for the world’s longest earthoworm（蚯蚓）
•Journey along the coastal highway around the Bay with French Island and Churchill Island in the distance
•Cross the bridge at San Remo to enter Phillip Island-natural home for Little Penguins and many animals
•Take your place in special viewing stands（看台） to watch the daily evening performance of the wild Little Penguins
Ultimate Penguins（+U）
Join a group of up to 15. This guided tour goes to an attractive, quiet beach to see Little Penguins. You can see penguins at night by wearing a special pair of glasses.
Adult（成人） $60.00 Child $30.00
Viewing Platform Penguin Plus（+V）
More personalized wildlife viewing limited to 130 people providing closer viewing of the penguin arrival than the main viewing stands.
Adult $25.00 Child $12.50
Penguin Skybox（+S）
Join a group of only 5 in the comfort of a special, higher-up viewing tower. Gain an excellent overview of Summerland Beach.
Adult Isyrs+$50.00
73.What kind of people is the text mainly written for?
A.Scientists. B.Students. C.Tourists. D.Artists.
74.What can learn from the text that Little penguins .#p#分页标题#e#
A.have been on Phillip Island for years
B.keep a Guinness record for their size
C.are trained to practice diving for visitors
D.live in large groups to protect themselves
75.How much would a couple with one child pay for a closer viewing tour?
A.$37.50. B.$62.50. C.$180.00. 指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 D.$150.00.
Key: 56-60 B D D B A 61-65 B C C D C 66-70 A A D D B 71-75 C A C A B
Appendix IV The testing paper (Post-test)
2007年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试全国I卷 英语
英语
第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题；每小题 2 分，满分 40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货），saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole. And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.
56. Why was the bike so important to the couple?
A. The man’s job was bike racing. B. It was their only possession.
C. It was a nice Kona 18 speed. D. They used it for work and daily life.#p#分页标题#e#
57. We can infer from the text that ____________.
A. the couple worked 60 hours a week. B. people were busy before Christmas
C. the stranger brought over the bike D. life was hard for the young family.
58. How did people get to know the couple’s problem?
A. From radio broadcasts. B. From a newspaper.
C. From TV news. D. From a stranger.
59. What do the couple learn from their experience?
A. Strangers are usually of little help. B. One should take care of their bike.
C. News reports make people famous. D. An act of kindness can mean a lot.
B
Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells good or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use different senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.
Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their lives eating only one type. The giant panda（大熊猫）eats only one particular type of bamboo（竹子）. Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly（蝴蝶）will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet（多样化饮食）. The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season.
Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life.
60. We can infer from the text that humans and animals _________.
A. depend on one sense in choosing food B. are not satisfied with their food
C. choose food in similar ways D. eat entirely different food
61. Which of the following eats only one type of food?#p#分页标题#e#
A. The white butterfly. B. The small bird.
C. The bear. D. The fox.
62. Certain animals change their choice of food when ___________.
A. the season changes B. the food color changes
C. they move to different places D. they are attracted by different smells
63. We can learn from the last paragraph that __________.
A. food is chosen for a good reason B. French and British food is good
C. some people have few choices of food D. some people care little about healthy diet
C
Our “Mommy and Me” time began two years ago. My next-door neighbor and fellow mother, Christie, and I were out in our front yards, watching seven children of age 6 and under ride their bikes up and down. “I wish I could take one of my children out alone,” said Christie.
Then we worked out a plan: When Christie takes one of her children out, I’ll watch her other three. And when she watches two of mine, I’ll take someone out.
The children were extremely quick to accept the idea of “Mommy and Me” time. Christie’s daughter, McKenzie, went first. When she returned, the other children showered her with tons of questions. McKenzie was smiling broadly. Christie looked refreshed and happy. “She’s like a different child when there’s no one else around,” Christie shared with me quickly. With her mother all to herself, McKenzie didn’t have to make an effort to gain attention.
Just as Christie had noticed changes in McKenzie, I also discovered something different in each of my children during our alone times. For example, I am always surprised when my daughter, who is seldom close to me, holds my hand frequently. My stuttering（口吃的）son, Tom, doesn’t stutter once during our activities since he doesn’t have to struggle for a chance to speak. And the other son, Sam, who’s always a follower when around other children shines as a leader during our times together.
The “Mommy and Me” time allows us to be simply alone and away with each child ---talking, sharing, and laughing, which has been the biggest gain. Every child deserves（应得到）to be an only child at least once in a while.
64. What is the text mainly about?
A. The experience of the only child being with mother.
B. The advantage of spending time with one child at a time. #p#分页标题#e#
C. The happy life of two families.
D. The basic needs of children.
65. Right after McKenzie came back, the other children were _____________.
A. happy B. curious C. regretful D. friendly
66. What is one of the changes the author finds in her children?
A. The daughter acts like a leader. B. Sam holds her hand more often.
C. The boys become better followers. D. Tom has less difficulty in speaking.
67. The author seems to believe that ___________.
A. having brothers and sisters is fun
B. it’s tiring to look after three children
C. every child needs parents’ full attention
D. parents should watch others’ children
D
Anyone who cares about what schools and colleges teach and how their students learn will be interested in the memoir（回忆录）of Ralph W. Tyler, who is one of the most famous men in American education.
Born in Chicago in 1902, brought up and schooled in Nebraska, the 19-year-old college graduate Ralph Tyler became hooked on teaching while teaching as a science teacher in South Dakota and changed his major from medicine to education.
Graduate work at the University of Chicago found him connected with honorable educators Charles Judd and W. W. Charters, whose ideas of teaching and testing had an effect on his later work. In 1927, he became a teacher of Ohio State University where he further developed a new method of testing.
Tyler became well-known nationality in 1938, when he carried his work with the Eight-Year Study from Ohio State University to the University of Chicago at the invitation of Robert Hutchins.
Tyler was the first director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a position he held for fourteen years. There, he firmly believed that researchers should be free to seek an independent（独立的）spirit in their work.
Although Tyler officially retired in 1967, he never actually retired. He served on a long list of educational organizations in the United States and abroad. Even in his 80s he traveled across the country to advise teachers and management people on how to set objectives（目标）that develop the best teaching and learning within their schools.
68. Who are most probably interested in Ralph W. Tyler’s memoir?
A. Top managers. B. Language learners.
C. Serious educators. D. Science organizations.
69. The words “hooked oh teaching” underlined in Paragraph 2 probably mean ________. #p#分页标题#e#
A. attracted to teaching B. tired of teaching
C. satisfied with teaching D. unhappy about teaching
70. Where did Tyler work as the leader of a research center for over 10 years?
A. The University of Chicago. B. Stanford University.
C. Ohio State University. D. Nebraska University.
71. Tyler is said to have never actually retired because ____________.
A. he developed a new method of testing B. he called for free spirit in research
C. he was still active in giving advice D. he still led the Eight-Year Study
E
Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time (DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.
In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought（干旱）. The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.
Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals（节日）. For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended（延长）daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major differences, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television.
72. Daylight Saving Time was introduced in Tasmania指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041 _______________.
A. to stop the drought in 1967 B. to support government officials
C. to pass a special law in the state D. to save water and electricity#p#分页标题#e#
73. According to the text, which state was the last to use DST?
A. Victoria. B. Queensland.
C. South Australia. D. New South Wales.
74. What can we learn about DST in some Australian states?
A. It doesn’t have fixed dates. B. It is not used in festivals.
C. Its plan was changed in 2000. D. It lasts for two weeks.
75. What do we know about the use of DST from the last paragraph?
A. There exist some undesirable effects. B. It helps little to save energy.
C. It brings about longer working days. D. Radio and TV programs become different.
Keys: 56---60 DDBDC 61---65 AADBB 66---70 DCCAB 71---75 CDBAA
Appendix V The reading scores of EG and CG in pre-, mid- and posttest
No. Pre-test Mid-test Post-test
EG CG EG CG EG CG
1 14.00 20.00 24.00 20.00 30.00 20.00
2 12.00 4.00 24.00 24.00 36.00 24.00
3 16.00 24.00 22.00 20.00 24.00 26.00
4 16.00 14.00 20.00 16.00 34.00 16.00
5 16.00 8.00 22.00 16.00 28.00 18.00
6 6.00 8.00 20.00 18.00 18.00 24.00
7 10.00 14.00 28.00 20.00 32.00 18.00
8 14.00 12.00 10.00 6.00 16.00 12.00
9 10.00 14.00 20.00 12.00 24.00 10.00
10 12.00 14.00 12.00 14.00 18.00 18.00
11 10.00 12.00 16.00 16.00 26.00 20.00
12 14.00 14.00 12.00 8.00 20.00 10.00
13 12.00 18.00 18.00 18.00 20.00 24.00
14 10.00 12.00 12.00 12.00 22.00 10.00
15 12.00 8.00 20.00 6.00 30.00 6.00
16 14.00 14.00 16.00 10.00 18.00 8.00
17 10.00 14.00 22.00 16.00 32.00 10.00
18 14.00 10.00 10.00 12.00 22.00 14.00
19 16.00 18.00 12.00 16.00 18.00 18.00
20 16.00 14.00 16.00 14.00 18.00 12.00
21 20.00 10.00 12.00 6.00 24.00 8.00
22 14.00 18.00 16.00 4.00 16.00 10.00
23 10.00 22.00 12.00 14.00 18.00 10.00#p#分页标题#e#
24 14.00 14.00 12.00 18.00 26.00 16.00
25 12.00 10.00 16.00 10.00 22.00 14.00
26 16.00 14.00 18.00 8.00 18.00 10.00
27 14.00 18.00 10.00 14.00 28.00 18.00
28 12.00 10.00 12.00 10.00 16.00 8.00
29 14.00 6.00 14.00 12.00 18.00 10.00
30 14.00 8.00 14.00 6.00 24.00 4.00
Acknowledgements
I want to thank many people for their help. Without their precious help, this thesis would not have been finished.
First of all, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor, Prof. Li Surong, who took great pain to proofread the whole manuscript and provide insightful comments as well as suggestions. In the process of writing the thesis. Ms.Li revised the manuscript of the thesis proposal and the thesis for many times respectively by email far away in Jinzhou. Her carefulness and strictness impressed me deeply and will be beneficial to me in all my life.
Many thanks should go to my leaders in my workplace. It was they who encouraged me to further my educational master’s degree. They cared for my family and my life now and then, so that I can devoted myself into my study and research work whole-heartedly.
I am also grateful to my warm-hearted colleagues, Xu Xinyi, Wang Hongyan, Gou Xinmei and Gong zhiwei, who gave me a lot of help in my teaching work. And also my collegue Meng Fanjie, who gave me a lot of help in my experimental design and data analysis.
I would also like to thank my teachers in Bohai University, who gave me helpful advice to solve my problems in the study.
I wish to thank my good friend Wang Hongjun指导留学作业提供指导Essay，指导Assignment，请联系QQ：949925041, who helped me search for the useful materials for the literature review and offered me other useful information.
Many thanks also go to my classmates and friends who helped me a lot during the writing of the thesis and my study at Bohai University.
In addition, my special thanks go to my wife who relieved me from daily housework, and endured late nights and lost weekends, and even to my daughter who gave me so much support together with her mother.
Last but not least, I am thankful to my students for their cooperation in the research.
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