A Brief Study on Improving English Reading Abilities

Abstract：The results of the present study demonstrate that reading habits influence reading ability greatly. Students， who have good reading habits such as guessing the meaning of the new words， looking for the topic sentences and key words， inference and prediction， will foster advanced reading ability. Moreover， teachers should pay more attention to help students to develop their good reading habits to improve the reading ability.

Key words：english reading abilities； Teacher； Students

中图分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711（2016）04-0061

I. An Investigation of the Reading Habits of the high school

students The study used questionnaire survey methods. The questionnaire designed description of 13 kinds of reading habits， and required students to tick “√” in front of the items which tally with his or her reading habits. Finally， there is an additional open question： Do you have any other reading habits？ So that it can make up for the deficiency of the formers. 13 kinds of reading habits can be categorized into four types： vocabulary strategy， difficult sentences strategy， skills strategy and evaluation strategy. From these four different angles and aspects， it is beneficial to get more comprehensive and profound understanding of the reading habits.

1. Subjects

It is of significance to investigate the reading habits of the university freshmen majoring in English. Subjects of the study are 100 students from Class 3（1）， 3（2）， 3（3）， 3（4） in NO.1 middle school in JingYuan The reason why senior 3 students are selected as subjects is that their reading abilities are in different levels and they mastered some reading methods， good or bad， since they have been studying English from junior high school. Therefore， they could represent the general situation of students in the northwest. Their mother tongue is Chinese and English is a second language to them.

2. Data analysis

100 questionnaires are administered， and 100 are valid for statistical analysis. The results of the questionnaire are presented in the followings：

（1）Vocabulary strategy

The survey shows that the ratios of the1st？and 2nd？habits are 86% and 62%. It indicates that most students have good vocabulary strategy in English reading. While encountering new words， they take a positive attitude and choose a reasonable strategy. It should be noted that this is closely related with teacher’s ordinary guidance of vocabulary strategy.

（2）Difficult sentence strategy

The vast majority of students have a reasonable difficult sentence strategy in English reading， They do not stick to trifles， and have ability to grasp the rhythm of reading correctly. this habit is not a good one， because it is too progressive and will influence reading fluency.

（3）Skills strategy

If vocabulary strategy and difficult sentences strategy are the two strategies of the specific issues in reading， then， skills strategy is the strategy with overall importance.

（4）Evaluation strategy

Reading comprehension is a binding， interactive， dynamic process of written information and readers’ positive thinking. There are four degrees of reading comprehension：

II. Problem analysis

The survey results show： the general situation of students’ reading habits is quite good， mainly reflected in：

Most students have good words strategy and difficult sentences tactics. They know how to handle new words and long， difficult sentences to keep reading fluently.

Some students have a variety of problem-solving skills in reading comprehension. They may encounter some difficulties in reading， but they have their own way to solve them.

But there are also some bad habits can not be ignored. They are： Some students have bad habits and inappropriate strategies when they encounter new words and difficult sentences.

Most students are used to translating in mind and reading back.

Most students did not develop the habits of understanding the gist of the text by the topic sentence.

So there are many factors preventing students from understanding a text deeply. the key reasons of affecting reading efficiency are presented as follows：

1. Misunderstanding the essence of reading comprehension

Students can’t understand a text deeply because they don’t know the essence of reading comprehension. They think that the purpose of reading for them is just to learn some words by heart and know how to use the words learned from the text， grasp the language points in a text and be able to analyses the grammatical structures of every sentence in a text. By doing so， they can’t obtain the skills to read in real world. Students usually pay more attention to the usage of new words in the reading materials. As a result， they have difficulty in knowing why the writer said so and fail to grasp the writer’s feelings， attitude and so on.

2. Using inappropriate reading methods

Students’ false beliefs are that learning a foreign language means learning grammatical rules， remembering words and memorizing structures and patterns， and that reading is a means of strengthening their knowledge. The perception about English reading influences how they deal with their learning tasks and it in turn influences their development of different language skills. For example， whenever they do some reading， they turn to dictionary for help to make sure they understand every word or every sentence. While doing this，they have no sense of time， which means they pay no attention to reading speed， because of this， they can’t understand materials well.

III. Countermeasures

Reading is improved through reading. To read efficiently involves both the partly physical strategies of reading flexibly and the study strategies of making the most of all information the text offers――titles， diagrams， index and so on. To attain the deep-level of comprehension， students need strategies of recognizing functional value， text organization of a text. They also need to find out the writer’s unstated presuppositions and implications. The following are some countermeasures for English learners to improve their reading ability：

1. Activating culturally background information

Our background knowledge is like a lens through which we may understand what we read well. When students receive a relevant China’s family planning articles， although the middle of no lack of new words they can be to read quickly and accurately.？A certain kind of cultural background acknowledgement contributes to the improvement of language proficiency. The reason mainly lies in the poor understanding the country’s religious， historical and cultural traditions， the nation's way of thinking， values and aesthetic taste and life habits. This leads to the poor understanding of the whole context.

2. Cultivating vocabulary

Vocabulary development is one of the most critical areas of foreign language reading. Some students meticulously look up every word in a bilingual dictionary when they do not understand， while others， trying to get meaning out of the text by using pictures and guessing what the author is attempting to communicate.

Two efficient ways of working out the meaning of new words can be introduced.？ The first one worth mentioning is through context. Using context clues is one way to discover the meaning of unknown words. Another way is through word formation. Some English words are formed only by attaching affixes to words or word elements. So if the reader possesses rich knowledge of word formation，he can recognize immediately some derived new words，which is very helpful to his understanding of the text.

IV. Conclusion

Reading is an active， fluent process which involves the reader and the reading materials in building meaning， which does not reside in the printed pages.

The results of the present study demonstrate that reading habits influence reading ability greatly. Students， who have good reading habits such as guessing the meaning of the new words， looking for the topic sentences and key words， inference and prediction， will foster advanced reading ability. Moreover， teachers should pay more attention to help students to develop their good reading habits to improve the reading ability. In the process of reading， teachers require students to read by reading skills. Gradually， students may foster those good reading habits.

（作者单位：甘肃省靖远一中 730600）