How to Improve Students’ Reading Ability More Effectively

1、how to improve students reading ability more effectively abstractas everyone knows, the classroom teaching is one of the most important ways that the students learn english. as far as the english teaching in the middle schools is concerned, teachers have to arouse the students interests so that they

2、 can learn better. there are many ways to arouse the students interests and help them to learn better, reading teaching is one of them. the article presents a detailed report of a project implemented to solve the problem that most of my students are interested in reading. i have adopted various teac

3、hings, such as group work、pair work、personal work、role play、retell the text and discussion in class.this hypothesis is verified by a four-week practice of well-organized english class. among the methods of scientific investigation used are the analytic method, cause analysis and brainstorming activa

4、tion.key words:reading, design, interest, ability.main headings of the project report1. introduction2. summary of the preliminary research2.1 problem2.2 project objective 2.3 problem analysis2.4 project hypothesis2.5 project rationale3. reading teaching design4. control and target groups5.project im

5、plementation6.data analysis7.project evaluation8.conclusionreferencesappendixesa. questionnaire on reading practiceb. the timetable of the projectc. teaching notesd. teaching diariese. students handoutsf. audio-recording1. introductioni am an english teacher in nanan middle school in wuwei. this mid

6、dle school is located in a small town shuangcheng and all my students are peasants children. when the students were in primary school, they mainly studied chinese and maths. so they had less chance to know more about other knowledge. it was almost the first time for them to touch english when they g

7、ot into middle school. most of them thought it is very difficult and boring for them to learn english well. so they dont like it and dont like reading better. now my students are in their third year of studying english. they still dont like reading and cant realize the importance of english reading.

8、 in the past years, i have also paid more attention to arousing their interests in english and spent much too long time on reading teaching. but the effect is still very poor. the most difficult thing is how to improve their reading ability. just i have such an opportunity to do the project. in orde

9、r to make more effective i should adopt various communicative ways in different steps of reading teaching. i hope i can solve it better that how to improve students reading ability through the action research so that i can apply my knowledge and theory into practice, which i learned from gansu tv un

10、iversity.2. summary of the preliminary researchthis part of my study was conducted during march1,2010-may27, 2010.2.1 problemthe problem is based on my teaching experience. that is: most of my students do not like reading teaching because they think it is difficult and boring.2.2 project objective h

11、ow to improve students reading ability more effectively.2.3 problem analysisa. the analytic methodthere are more than 50 students in my class, and i cant give each student the opportunity to practice their reading ability. therefore, its in common that the students can not get high marks in reading

12、exercises in exams, but the others can be done well. the problem made me thinks the other side of the issue: some of my students do well in reading. but most of other students are poor in reading practice, this situation make me think of these.why some students do well in reading practice, while oth

13、ers dont?who are the some that do well in reading practice? and who are the others that dont do well in reading practice.moreover, my students are in contrast with my colleagues students. this inspired me to make a chain of refractions what about my colleagues students? is it also the causes that ar

14、e poor in reading practice? if on the other hand all of my colleagues students like reading practice, then my problem is actually caused by myself, not by students. probably that the style of reading practice. i asked my students to do was poorly designed and the form was inflexible.so after problem

15、 analysis, i have reached this conclusion. the problem that my students dont like to do reading practice. so i designed the objective to research how to solve the problem.b. cause analysisi think that it will be much better to use cause analysis to analyze my problem. in this situation, i asked myse

16、lf a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them. why did most of my students not do reading work？ in order to know more about this issue, i designed a cause exploration procedures like this: the teachers side the students side the task design the class size the classroom managemen

17、t tentative conclusion 1).the teachers side-that is my -self.i wasnt enthusiastic myself.i failed to give instructions clearly.i failed to dig out students interest in doing this or doing that.2).the students side. some students are not interested in english, so they dont like reading, too. some stu

18、dents are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at by their partners. they have the idea of “l(fā)osing face” if they have mistakes. some students are troubled for remembering new words and useful expressions, because of no strong will and desire.3).the task design the task is poorly designed and

19、the form was inflexible.4).the class size.there are more than 50 students in my class, so i cant give each student the opportunity to practice their reading ability.5).the classroom management. the classroom is perhaps getting too noisy. students may not be properly grouped.6). tentative conclusioni

20、f i change my teaching method of the reading activities. my students will have great interest to do reading activities. if i present clearly to my students and they know how to do it. they will like to do it.c. brainstormingwhen i was engaged in the problem analysis, i often talked to my colleagues

21、about all the problems i met. they gave me a lot of advice and help so that i pondered the problem more deeply and carefully.after a lengthy problem analysis, i determined to launch a project to overcome this problem.2.4 project hypothesis it is hypothesized that students will do reading activities

22、by better-designed teaching, such as the group work、pair work、personal work、role play and discussion etc.2.5 project rationaleafter ive read english language teaching methodology (part i and part), i found its very helpful. the unit on speaking is particularly useful. after some reading and thinking

23、, i have worked out four reasons on which my project will be based. they are-1) the role of reading in class and its purpose- first, reading serves as a tool in teaching all language skills. it can be integrated with the teaching of listening comprehension, oral presentation, and writing skills. sec

24、ond, reading may be a good in itself. since reading is often required for passing a particular examination, from reading an simple article at an elementary level to composing essays at an advanced level. third, reading has its practical value and can be used as stimulus in motivating students to lea

25、rn the language. for example, students may stories or famous books they like in english. if they have access to internet, they may be able to communicate with the world because most of webs are in english.2) the role of the students- i would like the students to feel that learning is a collaborative

26、 endeavour and not a competitive one. they should come to realize that they can learn from each other and help each other, especially in speaking as it is not a skill they can practice on their own.3) the role of the teacher-students should realize that the teacher has many roles in the classroom, n

27、ot just that of evaluator. i would like to demonstrate these different roles so that students realize when the teacher takes a major instructional role in class and when she takes only a minor helping role. i would like students to get used to being responsible for their own learning and not depend

28、on the teacher all the time.4) the type of classroom tasks used- i think all of the above can be dealt with by designing and using appropriate tasks in the lesson. if students have to do information-gap tasks, which require them to gain information from their partner by means of questioning and list

29、ening and to give information to their partner by listening and responding adequately to questions, then i feel they can be shown the value of communicating with their peers.3. reading teaching designon the basis of the project rationale above, i need to design some reading activities that can prove

30、 my project hypothesis. (refer to appendix c) in order to prove the hypothesis, i must fulfill one condition, that is reading activities must be better designed than the existing ones. the problem with the existing reading activities is that they have little information value, and that students have

31、 no real communicative purpose when doing them. so my new reading activities should have a real information gap, so that the students have a real purpose to communicate.i have designed four activities to be tried out in four weeks. and these activities are reported as follows.week 1 activity 1. for

32、use with learning english 5 unit2 lesson15titlelesson15: push that productteaching aims and demandsknowledge aims1.get ss master some important words, phrases and sentence structures.2. understand the meaning of the text.ability aimsimprove the students reading ability.feeling aimsmake ss feel easy

33、and funny to learn english across group-work.key pointsimprove the students reading ability.puzzle pointshow to understand the meaning of the text.imagination1.lead in 2.presentation 3. practice 4. sum upteaching methodsgroup-workteaching toolspush-pins and blackboardteaching stepsstep1: greeting st

34、ep2: lead-in: the teacher brings a push-pin to the class, then ask a few questions like below: what are they in english? what can we use them to do in our life?whats the price of a box of one hundred push-pins?step3: presentation 1. let ss read the first paragraph and answer: what would edwin moore

35、make for people in 1900?2. let ss read the whole text loudly and quickly.3. read the questions on the blackboard and find the answers in the text, then discuss in groups to make sure the answers are correct.questions:1. who would make anything useful that people would want to buy? and what was it ?2

36、.where did he live?3.did he made his first push-pins by himself?4.what was the price of his first push-pins?5.what was his first big success?6. when did he begin adverting his product across the us.?7.does the moore push-pin company still make push-pins today?8.what else does it made?9.does it sell

37、thousands of push-pins all over the world?10. how mush is a push-pin today? is it expensive than in 1900?4. ask some ss to answer their questions in class.5. show some phrases on the blackboard and let them to pick up them in the text step4: do exercises on the blackboard. step5: sum upaccording to

38、the knowledge aims to summary.step6: homework finish the exercises on the ex book.week 2 activity 2. for use with learning english 5 unit3 lesson20titlelesson 20: lets learn geography!teaching aims knowledge aims1.get ss master the new words, phrases and sentence structures.2. understand the meaning

39、 of the text.3. learn something about the foreign countries.ability aimsimprove the students reading ability.feeling aimsarouse the students feelings that they love travelling.teaching importancetalk about the geography.teaching difficultiesimprove the students reading abilityteaching methods1. warm

40、ing up to arouse the students interest in travel2. listening activity to improve the students listening comprehension3. pair work, group work to make every student work in classteaching toolsa computerteaching stepsstep1: greeting step2. lead-in:.1. show the video of new york to the students, then a

41、sk some questions to lead in : what is it about? where is it ?do you like traveling?2.tell the students: if you really like traveling, you must work hard at geography. 3.show the title and teach the word geography by the pictures of a globe and a map of the world.step3. warming up (speaking)make up

42、a dialogue with the following sentences.have you ever been to.?where have you ever been?the teacher show the students a picture of fuji in japan and talk with them to arouse their interest in travel. then the teacher ask the students:1.have you ever travelled?2.where have you ever been?step4. show t

43、he teaching produces to the students.step5. learn the new words step6 listen and answer the following questions:1. has danny ever been abroad ?where?2. where would danny love to go ?step7. read and answer in groups.1.whats the geography?2.what would danny like to do ? 3.has danny ever been to other

44、countries in asia? 4.where would danny love to go ? why?5.what language does japanese speak ?6.has brian ever been abroad ? 7.has brian ever visited any other countries?8. where did brains father travel when he was younger ?9.do you know the meaning of “pen pal”? 10.where does jennys mothers pen pal

45、 live?step6. show and explain the language points.1. population2. have/has gone/been to have/has been in step7. retell the text. step8. summarystep9. homework: choose a country and try to write sth. about it.week3. activity3. for use with learning english 5 unit3 lesson23titlelesson 23: the fox and

46、the storkteaching aims knowledge aims1.master the key words, phrases and sentence structures.2. understand the meaning of the text.ability aimsimprove the students reading abilityfeeling aimsknow how to understand and respect others.teaching importanceimprove the students reading ability.teaching di

47、fficultiesknow how to understand and respect others.teaching methods1. personal work, pair work, group work to make every student work in class.2. asking and answering, expository teaching, discussion method, practice method and so on.teaching toolsmultimediateaching stepsstep1: greeting step2. warm

48、-upby the class, teach them a life manner about greeting when meeting teachers somewhere in order to make them know that respecting others is to respect ourselves.step3. show teaching goals and procedures.step4. lead-in: 1. show the two animals : a fox and a stork. with the teachers help, describe t

49、hem in english, including looks, features and likes. at the same time, teach some new words. finish it by group work.2. introduce the main idea of the story in chinese to arouse the students interests.step5 listening task.(personal work)let the students listen to the tape and answer the following qu

50、estions:1. what did the fox make for the stork?2. what did the stork make for the fox?step6. reading task.1. skim the text and fill in the blanks.(personal work)2. scan the text and answer the questions.(pair work)step7. discussion(group work)ask the students to discuss the questions according to th

51、e text: 1.why would the fox love the stork to have dinner with him? 2. why didnt the stork feel sorry to the fox? 3.when your friends were invited to your home, what would you serve for your friends? would you choose the best foods and drinks or the foods and drinks that your friends like? why? how

52、do you do that? politely or rudely?step8. retell the text.(group work)first ,teach the ways to retell the text(with the key words and the key sentences). then, let them have try in groups. finally, a member of the group come to the front to retell the text.step9. deal with the language points. (help

53、 work)complete the part by helping each other by turns. but the teacher explain to the class the key language points.step10. practicestep11. summarystep10. homework1. remember the key words and phrases.2. the next reading in the student book.week4 activity4. for use with learning english 5 unit4 les

54、son26titlelesson 26: cookies, please!teaching aims knowledge aims1.master the key words, phrases and sentence structures.2. understand the meaning of the text.ability aimsimprove the students reading abilityfeeling aimsknow how to understand and respect others.teaching importanceimprove the students

55、 reading ability.teaching difficulties1. how to introduce your products to the customers.teaching methods3. personal work, pair work, group work to make every student work in class.4. asking and answering, expository teaching, discussion method, practice method and so on.teaching toolsmultimediateac

56、hing stepsstep 1.come to “think about it”.talk about the questions in groups of three or four. then let one of the students in the group reports to the class. when the students are give their reports, the others can ask questions if they like or if they have any questions.step2.read and answer the f

57、ollowing questions:1. when are brian and danny selling their products?2. who buy cookies from brian?3. does anybody buy dannys product?step 3. analyze the text in details.encourage them to ask more questions about the text. such as: what do you think of dannys product?what do you think brians cookies made of? do you want to make some cookies by yourself/step 4.listen to the tape and let the students imitate after it.