Communicative Approach in Teaching Reading in Chinese EFL Classrooms

How to teach reading has become a cornerstone of teachers in China as they develop overall teaching strategies in EFL classrooms.In this paper,firstly the author will introduce the context of teaching reading;thereafter clarify the concept of communicative language teaching(CLT) and its implications in EFL teaching;next illustrate the teaching context in China where CLT is encouraged to be implemented in classrooms;furthermore,reading with a purpose and the relevant teaching techniques will be introduced,in line with the important characteristics of communicative tasks.Finally the author will demonstrate some communicative tasks for purposeful reading in the EFL classroom of a senior high school in China.

Function Words Analysis——A Reading Comprehension Aid for Chinese Engineers

Background Generally speaking. Chinese college graduates in the fifties and sixties took Russian as their second language, and those who graduated in the seventies had no second language to speak of. Now, in the years of our Open Door Policy, they find they have to learn some English and learn it quickly. They try to learn from radio and TV and many take English courses of 4 to 6 months, with varying degree of success. Their chief stumbling blocks

Encouraging Reading Habit among Chinese University Students

University and college curriculum in China is increasing placing more emphasis on producing and developing graduates with comprehensive qualities in recent years.One of the main factors that affects the development of high quality college graduate is the students’active reading habit.However,recent statistics on Chinese college students have shown that the number of students who read habitually is not ideal nor encouraging.Campaigns launched to promote reading habits in the university have only minimal effects on the students.In this work,some of the problems faced in promoting reading habit among college students in China and the potential solution for solving these problems are discussed.It is hoped that the content in this article would provide some insights for college administrators to encourage reading habits among college students.

L2 Chinese Reading Comprehension among BeginningLevel, K-12 Learners: A Literature Review

This review focuses on beginning-level,K-12,L1 English learners,and considers their reading comprehension of texts written in Chinese characters and literacy development.Instructional approaches,materials design,and teaching and learning strategies related to reading texts in Chinese characters in these settings are reviewed.This review includes both empirical studies and think pieces that appeal to prior empirical work in L2 Chinese reading to understand what Chinese as a Second Language scholars research,discuss,and advocate about reading comprehension for L2 learners mainly at beginning levels of K-12 education.This literature review therefore includes a variety of source materials:empirical research,research-informed advocacy and think pieces,and action research studies by Chinese language instructors.The article concludes with observations about the state of research and current recommendations in Chinese as a second language reading comprehension.

Exploring the Impact of Serious Reading of Classical Metatextuals on University Students’Learning of Traditional Culture

An important carrier of excellent Chinese traditional culture is the classic book,and university students carry the important responsibility of promoting Chinese excellent traditional culture and propagating cultural confidence.The serious reading of classical texts is an important way for university students to learn traditional culture,which has the advantages of professionalism and systematization.At the present stage,university students lack the awareness and action to read the classics,and the time for serious reading is very limited.The genre,subject matter,and extent of IP development are important factors that affect the in-depth reading of the classic metatext.

5 Chinese Classic Must Reads

The canon of Chinese literature is so huge and intimidating that it’s hard to know where to start. And thanks to the difficulty of the Chinese language, only the most serious scholars can read the classics in their original form.Luckily there are some excellent English translations of great Chinese novels,offering you the chance to widen your reading horizons and learn about the culture of the country you’re living in.Here are five classics

Analysis of Reading Features and Strategies

In Chinese EFL context,reading course is considered as the most important way to acquire linguistic skills compared with other skills such as listening,speaking and writing.In university,the students whose majors are non-English need to take part in CET 4(College English Test Band 4)which is closely relevant to bachelor degree or a promising prospect if they are able to pass the test with a high score.Therefore,a large amount of time is devoted to reading by English learners,while what most of the teachers tend to do is focusing on drills of grammatical rules,sentence analyzing and word memorization,neglecting the part that the students actually have to apply in the real context.It should be noted that reading plays a vital role in the daily life,such as"to get information,to respond to curiosity about a topic,to follow instructions,to perform a task,for pleasure,amusement,and personal enjoyment;to keep in touch with friends and colleagues;to know what is happening in the world;and to find out when and where things are"Rivers&Temperley(1978:187).Additionally,readers can get enjoyment through reading,which can be embodied in various aspects such as reading stories,novels,or poems and so on.However,to some extent,reading has become a way to gain knowledge or pass examination for EFL learners.The common reading problems of the students in my context will be identified in this essay.Meanwhile,it is generally believed that most of the students have no motivation at all in terms of reading.How can reading be taught efficiently and effectively?Considering the features of the students in Chinese university context,what kind of approaches should be the most suitable?

Working-memory training improves developmental dyslexia in Chinese children

Although plasticity in the neural system underlies working memory, and working memory can be improved by training, there is thus far no evidence that children with developmental dyslexia can benefit from working-memory training. In the present study, thirty dyslexic children aged 8-11 years were recruited from an elementary school in Wuhan, China. They received working-memory training including training in visuospatial memory, verbal memory, and central executive tasks. The difficulty of the tasks was adjusted based on the performance of each subject, and the training sessions lasted 40 minutes per day, for 5 weeks. The results showed that working-memory training significantly enhanced performance on the nontrained working memory tasks such as the visuospatial, the verbal domains, and central executive tasks in children with developmental dyslexia. More importantly, the visual rhyming task and reading fluency task were also significantly improved by training. Progress on working memory measures was related to changes in reading skills. These experimental findings indicate that working memory is a pivotal factor in reading development among children with developmental dyslexia, and interventions to improve working memory may help dyslexic children to become more proficient in reading.

Priming effects in Chinese character recognition for Chinese children with developmental dyslexia

BACKGROUND： Dyslexic children exhibit reading ability unmatched to age, although they possess normal intelligence and are well educated. OBJECTIVE： To examine the performance of dyslexic children in Chinese characters visual recognition tasks and to investigate the relationship between priming effect in character recognition and dyslexia. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING： A case-control study was performed at the Department of Children and Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology between March and June 2007. PARTICIPANTS： A total of 75 primary school students in grades 3 and 5 were selected from two primary schools in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China, and were assigned to three groups. （1） Reading disability （RD, n = 25）; （2） chronological age （CA） group （n = 25 normal readers that were intelligence quotient and age-matched to the RD group）; （3） reading level （RL） group （n = 25 normal readers that were intelligence quotient and RL-matched to the RD group）. All children were right-handed and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. METHODS： Recognition of target characters was performed in each child using a masked prime paradigm. Recognition speed and accuracy of graphic, phonological, and semantic characters were examined. Simultaneously, data, with respect to response time for each target character and error rate, were recorded to calculate facilitation values （unrelated RT-related RT）. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Response time, facilitation, and error rate in Chinese character recognition task were calculated. RESULTS： The baseline-adjusted facilitation of graphic, phonological, and semantic priming for dyslexic children was -0.010, -0.010, and 0.001, respectively. Dyslexic children displayed inhibition in graphic and phonological prime conditions. Facilitations under the three prime conditions were 0.026, 0.026, and 0.022 for the CA group. In the RL group, results were 0.062, 0.058, and 0.031 respectively. The differences of baseline-adjusted facilitation across the three groups were significant [F （2, 216） = 17.91, P 〈 0.01 ], whereas the main effect of prime condition IF （2, 216） = 0.49, P 〉 0.05] and the interaction of group x prime condition [F （4, 216） = 0.91, P 〉 0.05] were not significant. The error rate under the three prime conditions was 0.066, 0.077, and 0.079 for the RD group. As for the CA group, the results were 0.057, 0.071, and 0.074 accordingly, and in the RL group, the results were 0.119, 0.111, and 0.121, respectively. The difference of error rate across the three groups was significant （F = 6.61, P = 0.002）. The error rate was significantly greater in the RL group, compared with the CA and RD groups, while no significant difference existed between the RD and CA groups. CONCLUSION： Dyslexic children were slower to recognize target characters than normal readers, and did not exhibit significant prime effects in graphic and phonological primer condition. These results suggested that dyslexic children exhibited general deficits in phonological and graphic processing, and presented a different pattern in character recognition. These results could be interpreted by parallel-distributed processing models.

The Application of the Functional Equivalence in the Translation of Chinese Tourist Guide

In recent years,with the rapid growth of Chinese tourism,more and more foreigners come to China to travel.The translation of Chinese tourist guide has become an effective way to publicize China and promote the development of Chinese tourism.The thesis mainly analyzes the application of the functional equivalence in the translation of Chinese tourist guide from the reader’s reception and response,and suggests some different translation techniques such as conversion,recasting,analogy and creative translation to make the translation of Chinese tourist guide better accepted by the target language readers.

A Lesson Plan Incorporating Collaborative Strategic Reading

This essay is going to have an in-depth analysis of the Collaborative Strategic Reading, a four-step reading comprehension strategy popular in the Western classrooms. It will start with some brief introduction about this instructional approach in company with its theoretical rationale and research evidence for its effectiveness of improving learners' reading competence. Focused on the previewing skill, the first step of the reading instruction, a modified lesson plan is designed in the Chinese high school setting, followed by justification of the major elements of the plan, and some practical implications.

A Research on the Strategies for Improving the Teaching Level of Thai Reading in Colleges and Universities

The traditional teaching of Thai reading in colleges and universities mainly focuses on imparting knowledge,hoping to help students accumulate Thai knowledge efficiently.With the continuous attention to the instrumental and humanistic values of language,the focus of college and university teachers has gradually shifted to the training of application skills and the improvement of thinking quality[1].In order to fully demonstrate the value of its teaching,Thai reading teachers need to combine the development needs of students with practical application,constantly innovate teaching strategies,improve the teaching level of Thai reading,and comprehensively promote students’Thai literacy.Based on this and in view of various practical experiences,this paper discusses the strategies to improve the teaching level of Thai reading in colleges and universities.

On the Role of Novel-Reading in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Based on an analysis of Chinese EFL learners' problems in English learning, the present paper proposes that English novel-reading is an effective way for promoting learners' English proficiency according to its role both in the lingual and nonlingual perspectives.

On the Formation of Chinese Nation as One Community from the Perspective of Reading History——Taking the Liao,Western Xia,Jin,Yuan Dynasties as Research Focuses

The formation of the Chinese nation as one community is not only the result of the interaction of various factors such as politics,economy,culture,and natural environment,but also an inevitable trend in historical development.However,cultural identity and integration are the most important factors.Classics are the essence of national culture,and they have always played an important role in shaping,communicating,identifying,and integrating ethnic cultures.In Chinese history,regardless of whether various ethnic groups were in control of a region or entered the Central Plains,they relied on reading Chinese classics and learning Chinese culture as the basis for their survival,and identified themselves as members of the Chinese nation.This eternal historical law is particularly evident in the Liao,Western Xia,Jin,and Yuan dynasties.Summarizing the reading history of these ethnic groups and societies,learning from their historical experience,and exploring and inheriting the reading cultural resources of the Chinese nation are necessary for the formation of the Chinese nation as one community.

中文阅读中快速读者与慢速读者的知觉广度

在熟练的中文阅读中,不同阅读速度读者提取文本信息的范围(即知觉广度)是否存在差异?为解决该问题,本研究从熟练读者群体中选取快速读者与慢速读者,结合眼动技术和移动窗口范式比较两组读者在不同窗口(R0、L1R1、L1R2、L1R3、L1R4、FL)下阅读句子时的眼动模式。结果显示,在保证阅读理解准确的前提下,快速读者比慢速读者的知觉广度更大,符合E-Z读者模型的语言效率假说,支持个体差异性观点。

阅读伴随词汇学习的词切分:首、尾词素位置概率的不同作用

本研究通过两个平行实验,探讨重复学习新词时首、尾词素位置概率信息作用于词切分的变化模式。采用阅读伴随词汇学习范式,将双字假词作为新词,实验1操纵首词素位置概率高低,保证尾词素相同;实验2操纵尾词素位置概率高低,保证首词素相同。采用眼动仪记录大学生阅读时的眼动轨迹。结果显示:(1)首、尾词素位置概率信息的词切分作用随新词在阅读中学习次数的增加而逐步变小,表现出“熟悉性效应”。(2)首词素位置概率信息的“熟悉性效应”表现在回视路径时间、总注视次数两个相对晚期的眼动指标,而尾词素位置概率信息的“熟悉性效应”则从凝视时间开始,到回视路径时间,再持续到总注视时间。结果表明首、尾词素的位置概率信息均作用于阅读伴随词汇学习的词切分,但首词素的作用时程更长,更稳定,支持了首词素在双字词加工中具有优势的观点。