This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of givi...This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students＇ ability and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by means of reading a lot, thus improving the students＇ language competence, enlarging their cultural and language field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.展开更多
This study is concerned with the possible relationship between language anxiety and language learning strategies in reading process among the students of English as a foreign language （EFL）. Participants consist of ...This study is concerned with the possible relationship between language anxiety and language learning strategies in reading process among the students of English as a foreign language （EFL）. Participants consist of a volunteer pool of 120 sophomore non-English majors. Versions of previously published measurement scales, the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scales （FLRAS） and the Survey of the Reading Strategies （SOR）, were administered to the subjects as measures of foreign language anxiety and foreign language learning strategy preferences. Based on the collected data, the statistics descriptions were performed to investigate the students＇ anxiety state and strategy use level. The analyses suggest that most of students have the anxiety level above the mean, and the anxiety regarding the reading confidence is mainly responsible for the students＇ reading anxiety, and meanwhile, students use more cognitive strategies in their reading and the level of their language learning strategies are relatively low. Results indicate no significant differences between males and females on their anxiety level, as well as their strategy use. Furthermore, a Pearson correlation analysis reveals that, for the most learners, the anxiety state do hinder them from choosing effective strategies in their reading. The study explores the relationship between the reading anxiety and the reading strategy, demonstrates the effects of the anxiety reduction training on the strategy use, provides the implications for foreign language teachers that in reading comprehension teaching they should focus more on students＇ anxiety, especially their reading confidence anxiety, and encourage them more.展开更多
Understanding discipline-specific texts in English is a basic requirement for science students, who must develop their content knowledge and language skills. Particularly, interesting is the fact that the language of ...Understanding discipline-specific texts in English is a basic requirement for science students, who must develop their content knowledge and language skills. Particularly, interesting is the fact that the language of science is characterized by the use of figurative language, which appeals to the common knowledge of the world, mainly to explain, clarify, and describe intricate concepts. Metaphors are helpful for lexicalizing new concepts and meanings or extending the meanings of pre-existing words. The analysis of tropes as a means to improve foreign language learners＇ reading competence is a rather novel teaching practice in ESP （English for Specific Purposes）, implemented at the University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explain the theoretical basis for teaching and developing metaphorical competence in ESP classes as a means of providing an intellectually stimulating alternative approach, and to present some teaching ideas and activities designed to familiarize students with the use of metaphorical language in scientific discourse in order to enhance their reading competence.展开更多
WORI is the Production-Oriented Approach to reading in the TEFL context of China. It is intended to enhance English learners＇ proficiency in writing and reading. By asking questions to draw learners＇ attention to th...WORI is the Production-Oriented Approach to reading in the TEFL context of China. It is intended to enhance English learners＇ proficiency in writing and reading. By asking questions to draw learners＇ attention to the professional writers＇ choices concerning organization, development, style, and diction, teachers explicitly guide learners to observe, analyze, study, apperceive, so as to learn about their writing thinking and strategies. By designing a variety of reading-to-write tasks, teachers endeavour to activate learners＇ writing thinking developed in writing-oriented reading activities to have such writing thinking fixed in mind and internalized. The WORI also fosters English learners＇ autonomy of sustaining development in reading, writing, as well as their English learning.展开更多
Schema is known to play an important role in reading comprehension. The schema embodying the learners background knowledge of cultural familiar materials facilitates the understanding of the text （Pritchard, 1990）. ...Schema is known to play an important role in reading comprehension. The schema embodying the learners background knowledge of cultural familiar materials facilitates the understanding of the text （Pritchard, 1990）. Also Steffensen, Joag-Dev, and Anderson （1979） and Nelson （1987） proposed that the schemata embodying background knowledge influenced how well the text would be comprehended. However, Hudson （1982） and Carrell （1984） found there was no significant background effect in advanced level learners. From those studies, it seems that background effect is different at different language proficiency levels. Thus, the present study examines the interaction between background knowledge and language proficiency in reading comprehension. The participants were freshmen of National Chiayi University. They were divided into three language proficiency levels based on the General English Proficiency Test. Four reading comprehension tests were constructed to assess their reading comprehension： cultural familiar/unfamiliar text and topic familiar/unfamiliar text. The results of this study showed that participants had better performance on the culture/topic familiar text than the culture/topic unfamiliar text. Thus the findings suggest that the teacher can use teaching activities, such as pre-reading activities or vocabulary teaching to increase the background knowledge when teaching readings to EFL （English as a foreign language） learners展开更多
General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate ...General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate need analysis. The materials applied in this course are mainly focused on reading comprehension. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to improve General English university students＇ main sub-skills of reading comprehension and see the effect of the possible changes in terms of time and the fields of study of the students. To do this, 168 university students taking General English course at university of Bojnord, including humanities, engineering, physical education, and sciences, received instruction on the main sub-skills of reading comprehension after taking a pre-test sample TOELF section of reading comprehension. After 16 sessions of 90 minute instruction, they took the post-test section of TOEFL sample of reading comprehension. Mixed between within subject analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of instruction for the four groups of students from pre-test to post-test. The findings of the study indicated that the effect of instruction in terms of time, from pre-test to post-test, and the interaction of time and fields of study were significant. Besides, changes for 10 sub-skills were the same among the four fields of study.展开更多
Language, reading, and reading-related tasks were administered to 148 children from lower primary （Standard 1, 2, and 3） in Kenyan schools. The aim was to investigate the literacy developmental trends across the yea...Language, reading, and reading-related tasks were administered to 148 children from lower primary （Standard 1, 2, and 3） in Kenyan schools. The aim was to investigate the literacy developmental trends across the years and establish which of the two variables, word identification skills or target language oral proficiency influenced reading comprehension performance. The results indicated that word identification skills independently influenced reading comprehension performance in both standard 2 and standard 3 classes, but target language oral skills did not. Further, the analysis of invented spelling task performance revealed evidence of transfer of alphabetic coding skills of first language to English orthography. The spelling errors reflected letter-sound patterns not found in English orthography. Analysis of the miscues in the spelling task revealed that children rely on first language phonological processes to spell target language unfamiliar words as long the languages have a common alphabetic system.展开更多
文摘This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students＇ ability and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by means of reading a lot, thus improving the students＇ language competence, enlarging their cultural and language field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.
文摘This study is concerned with the possible relationship between language anxiety and language learning strategies in reading process among the students of English as a foreign language （EFL）. Participants consist of a volunteer pool of 120 sophomore non-English majors. Versions of previously published measurement scales, the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scales （FLRAS） and the Survey of the Reading Strategies （SOR）, were administered to the subjects as measures of foreign language anxiety and foreign language learning strategy preferences. Based on the collected data, the statistics descriptions were performed to investigate the students＇ anxiety state and strategy use level. The analyses suggest that most of students have the anxiety level above the mean, and the anxiety regarding the reading confidence is mainly responsible for the students＇ reading anxiety, and meanwhile, students use more cognitive strategies in their reading and the level of their language learning strategies are relatively low. Results indicate no significant differences between males and females on their anxiety level, as well as their strategy use. Furthermore, a Pearson correlation analysis reveals that, for the most learners, the anxiety state do hinder them from choosing effective strategies in their reading. The study explores the relationship between the reading anxiety and the reading strategy, demonstrates the effects of the anxiety reduction training on the strategy use, provides the implications for foreign language teachers that in reading comprehension teaching they should focus more on students＇ anxiety, especially their reading confidence anxiety, and encourage them more.
文摘Understanding discipline-specific texts in English is a basic requirement for science students, who must develop their content knowledge and language skills. Particularly, interesting is the fact that the language of science is characterized by the use of figurative language, which appeals to the common knowledge of the world, mainly to explain, clarify, and describe intricate concepts. Metaphors are helpful for lexicalizing new concepts and meanings or extending the meanings of pre-existing words. The analysis of tropes as a means to improve foreign language learners＇ reading competence is a rather novel teaching practice in ESP （English for Specific Purposes）, implemented at the University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explain the theoretical basis for teaching and developing metaphorical competence in ESP classes as a means of providing an intellectually stimulating alternative approach, and to present some teaching ideas and activities designed to familiarize students with the use of metaphorical language in scientific discourse in order to enhance their reading competence.
文摘WORI is the Production-Oriented Approach to reading in the TEFL context of China. It is intended to enhance English learners＇ proficiency in writing and reading. By asking questions to draw learners＇ attention to the professional writers＇ choices concerning organization, development, style, and diction, teachers explicitly guide learners to observe, analyze, study, apperceive, so as to learn about their writing thinking and strategies. By designing a variety of reading-to-write tasks, teachers endeavour to activate learners＇ writing thinking developed in writing-oriented reading activities to have such writing thinking fixed in mind and internalized. The WORI also fosters English learners＇ autonomy of sustaining development in reading, writing, as well as their English learning.
文摘Schema is known to play an important role in reading comprehension. The schema embodying the learners background knowledge of cultural familiar materials facilitates the understanding of the text （Pritchard, 1990）. Also Steffensen, Joag-Dev, and Anderson （1979） and Nelson （1987） proposed that the schemata embodying background knowledge influenced how well the text would be comprehended. However, Hudson （1982） and Carrell （1984） found there was no significant background effect in advanced level learners. From those studies, it seems that background effect is different at different language proficiency levels. Thus, the present study examines the interaction between background knowledge and language proficiency in reading comprehension. The participants were freshmen of National Chiayi University. They were divided into three language proficiency levels based on the General English Proficiency Test. Four reading comprehension tests were constructed to assess their reading comprehension： cultural familiar/unfamiliar text and topic familiar/unfamiliar text. The results of this study showed that participants had better performance on the culture/topic familiar text than the culture/topic unfamiliar text. Thus the findings suggest that the teacher can use teaching activities, such as pre-reading activities or vocabulary teaching to increase the background knowledge when teaching readings to EFL （English as a foreign language） learners
文摘General English course at Iranian universities has always been a controversial issue since the students taking this course are rather weak in English proficiency and need more authentic instructions based on accurate need analysis. The materials applied in this course are mainly focused on reading comprehension. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to improve General English university students＇ main sub-skills of reading comprehension and see the effect of the possible changes in terms of time and the fields of study of the students. To do this, 168 university students taking General English course at university of Bojnord, including humanities, engineering, physical education, and sciences, received instruction on the main sub-skills of reading comprehension after taking a pre-test sample TOELF section of reading comprehension. After 16 sessions of 90 minute instruction, they took the post-test section of TOEFL sample of reading comprehension. Mixed between within subject analysis of variance was used to assess the impact of instruction for the four groups of students from pre-test to post-test. The findings of the study indicated that the effect of instruction in terms of time, from pre-test to post-test, and the interaction of time and fields of study were significant. Besides, changes for 10 sub-skills were the same among the four fields of study.
文摘Language, reading, and reading-related tasks were administered to 148 children from lower primary （Standard 1, 2, and 3） in Kenyan schools. The aim was to investigate the literacy developmental trends across the years and establish which of the two variables, word identification skills or target language oral proficiency influenced reading comprehension performance. The results indicated that word identification skills independently influenced reading comprehension performance in both standard 2 and standard 3 classes, but target language oral skills did not. Further, the analysis of invented spelling task performance revealed evidence of transfer of alphabetic coding skills of first language to English orthography. The spelling errors reflected letter-sound patterns not found in English orthography. Analysis of the miscues in the spelling task revealed that children rely on first language phonological processes to spell target language unfamiliar words as long the languages have a common alphabetic system.
