My view on reading teaching in high school

Reading is one of the major means for people to get knowledge and information. For language learners, reading is by so far one of the most important language skills. It can improve their linguistic competence. The main problem of English teaching in high school is how to develop the students’ reading ability and language skill. I will discuss three factors that affect students’ reading from my own reaching experience.

Firstly, traditional teaching of reading in high school is centered on teachers with vocabulary and grammars in large portion. Therefore, students can only master the vocabulary or words, but can hardly get the idea of the whole text, which results in students’ poor reading ability. Secondly, traditional reading teaching pays little attention to the students’ feelings. It only emphasizes the importance of teachers’ teaching but neglects the students’ function of learning. The students seldom play a part in the reading class. Therefore, the result is not satisfying.

As reading is not a process of passive acceptance of process, but more of making sense of words, sentences and connected text, which involves both perception and thought. Therefore, It is a good idea that teachers ask the students to preview the text in advance. In this process, students can learn to grasp the main idea and most of the words as well as the grammars of the text. While the students are previewing, teachers should tell them to underline the key points and the confusing parts, which not only helps the students to better understand the text, but also helps them to form a good reading habit.

Background input is of key importance for a successful reading lesson. It is encouraged to play some short videos related to the reading topic before the reading. It can raise students’ interest and stimulate them to discuss and activate their related knowledge reserves. For example, If the text is telling about the Second War of the world, the teachers had better show them some related short videos. In a word, the introduction of the background information is helpful to the students’ enlargement of knowledge as well as the understanding of the text.

Encouraging the students to think is very necessary in reading class. As reading is a learners-centered activity and a positive process, teachers should try to guide the students to think about the material. After reading a text, students may have a general idea of the whole text. At this moment, the teachers should encourage them to raise some questions about the passage and try to solve. In this way teachers can help the students think about the passage further and clearly. It is a good way to cultivate the students’ creative thinking. After reading a text, the teachers should also raise some questions to lead the students to think. Besides, the teachers should not criticize the students even if the students come up with an idea that is not in accordance with the writer’s opinion. Teachers are supposed to encourage the students to get some new ideas and take a criticize attitude to the writer’s opinion. Only in this way can teachers help students be interested in reading and form a good habit of reading.   

Out-class reading is also a great plus for increasing students’ eyesight. And it is also a good way for students to put what they have learnt to practical use. Only by using what they have learnt in the text can they better grasp the knowledge. But the teachers should emphasize that out-class reading can be scanned instead of being read carefully. Out-class reading only requires understanding the main idea. In addition, the out-class reading materials need to be carefully chose. The English reading should be casual and not be too difficult to read. Such as newspapers like China Daily and some magazines or some other Medias. Moreover, the reading need to involve all kinds of materials such as in the field of culture, education, politics, and economics, which can open the students’ eyes to the world.

   To sum up, it is very important to have a good design for   reading lesson. Background input, students independent thinking, and out-class extensive reading are very useful methods to improve student’s reading abilities.