北京市初中生英语阅读习惯及态度调查

北京市初中生英语阅读习惯及态度调查--以朝阳区为例摘要为调查北京地区初中生英语阅读习惯及态度，本研究采用问卷和访谈形式在朝阳区新东方课外补习班的初中生中搜集数据。

调查主要涉及英语阅读习惯、阅读态度、阅读动机、阅读技巧等方面。

调查结果显示，初中生英语阅读习惯和态度受老师和家长的影响较大；阅读的最主要动机是考高分，其次为自身兴趣；词汇、语法、背景知识的欠缺都是英语阅读中的难题；翻译法、略读和跳读是主要阅读策略和技巧。

综合受访者观点，本研究对培养初中生良好的英语阅读习惯及态度提出建议：家长树立好榜样，陪孩子一起英语阅读；老师多和学生分享阅读经验和技巧，发现学生的喜好，推荐合适的阅读书目；教育部门要求英语阅读成为学生日常生活必不可少的活动。

关键词：英语阅读，阅读习惯，阅读态度，初中生A Survey on English Reading Habits and Attitudes of Junior High School Students in Beijing:Taking Chaoyang District for ExampleAbstractWith the aim to investigate the English reading habits and attitudes of junior high school students in Beijing, this study adopts questionnaires and interviews to collect data among junior high school students in New Oriental extracurricular cram schools in Chaoyang District. It mainly includes the aspects of English reading habit, reading attitude, reading motivation and reading skills. The study finds that the English reading habits and attitudes of junior high school students are greatly influenced by teachers and parents; the most important motivation of reading English is to gain high score, and the following one is their own interests; the lack of knowledge on vocabulary, grammar, background is a difficult problem in English reading; translation, skimming and skipping are the main reading strategies and skills. Based on the respondents’ viewpoint, to encourage good reading habits and attitudes of junior high students, this study proposes some suggestions that parents need to set up a good example and read together with their children; teachers need to find out whichkind of books students are interested in and to share more experience and reading strategies with students; and the relevant offices need to set English reading as a compulsory activity in students’ daily life.Key Words: English reading, reading habits, reading attitudes, junior high school students1. IntroductionAs the saying goes, reading is a man’s bulwark against loneliness, his window on life, his unending delight. It brings yesterday and tomorrow into now. Reading which has come to hold the most significant place in education as a means of communication in a highly literate society can broaden one’s horizons of knowledge, identify, extend and intensify his interest and gain further understanding of himself, of other human beings and even of the world. It is important for students, in general, in order to cope with new knowledge in a changeable technological age. The ability of reading is the heart of self-education and lifelong learning. What’s more, it is a very vital issue which is not only about enjoyment but a necessity and the basic tool of education.Reading is a good way to help develop one’s skills and communication competence for a language as well. It is much important to stimulate students’ interest in English learning and to cultivate their positive attitude of English learning, because English is regarded as, at some degree, the second language of Chinese people and is a compulsory course that students have to learn from primary school to college. What’s more, English reading has been an indispensable part of students’ study and extracurricular activity. Therefore, English reading has been researched in recent years and it has been suggested that it plays an important role in the English learning. However, under Chinese examination-oriented education system, people just focus on gaining high scores because of the high pressure of enrollment. That is why in many areas in China, English reading doesn’t get much attention from schools, teachers, parents and students themselves. Accordingly, it is important to research the relevant aspects about English reading in order to know the status of students English reading and to provide suggestions.Beijing which is the capital of China and one of the most important cities in thefield of international trade and communication, has developed rapidly and has lots of resources. Rationally, as a kind of communication tool, English may get more attention in Beijing. English reading that is an important part of English learning may be taken more seriously. This study takes Chaoyang District for example, attempting to research and analyze the status of English reading habits and attitudes of junior high school students in Beijing. The questionnaire and interview methods were used.This thesis is organized as follows. Section One is the introduction of this study, introducing background, the main purpose and the construction of this paper. In Section Two, it presents literature reviews relating to theories in the research of the English reading habits and attitudes, focusing on the relevant definition, precious researches and influencing factors. Section Three introduces the procedure, data analysis and findings from the questionnaire and interview. In Section Four, conclusions and limitations of this study are provided.2. Literature Review Reading is regarded as a process of thinking, evaluating, judging, imagining, reasoning and problem solving. Reading is particularly important in education as well as for unhindered intellectual growth of a person. Tella and Akande suggested that the ability of reading is the core of self-education and lifelong learning and that it is a kind of art which can transform life and society.[1] As a kind of carrier, reading is a highly complex cognitive processing operation that involves processing of ideas generated by others through printed text and transmitted by language.[2]2.1 Researches on Reading Habit2.1.1 Definition of Reading HabitReading and reading habit have received increasing attention in recent years. The analysis of reading habits and their determinants is a well-established and common research area in the fields of psychology, sociology, pedagogy, literature, education, and other fields. Reading habit refers to the behavior which expresses the likeness of reading, individual types of reading and tastes of reading.[3] It is a pattern with which an individual organizes his or her reading. Shen defines reading habits as how often, how much, and what students read.[4] The activity of reading is regarded as a habitwhen it is repeatedly carried out. In measurable terms reading habits is often considered in terms of the amount of materials being read, the frequency of reading as well as the average time spent on reading, and this habit can be cultivated.[5]2.1.2 Previous ResearchesNoor claims that in any higher learning environment, reading is valued as the most important academic language skill for all second and foreign language learners.[6]( p:54) Students learn new information and become more competent in their subject matters through reading. Moreover, Loan stresses the importance of reading by claiming that individuals with good reading habits have the chance to widen their mental horizons and to multiply their opportunities.[7] From this, it can be seen that Loan supports Noor’s idea and adds that reading is essential in teaching individuals how to cope with new knowledge in the technological changing and developing world of today.A lot of international literature has established a general profile of students who study in secondary school, and has identified the particular characteristics corresponding to the various countries. There are many benefits of picking up reading habits, especially when it comes to matters that relate to the children’ mental growth. Without a reading habit, a child can grow up with some difficulties, especially in a line of work that requires reading at any level. Reyhene observed that when children read for pleasure, they involuntarily and unconsciously improve their language skills. Bignold indicated that the habit of reading improved children’s reading skills.[8] Therefore, the issue of reading whether it is for learning or leisure is important since it helps broaden young person’s experiences and knowl edge.[]2.2 Researches on Reading Attitude2.2.1 Definition of Reading Attitude Reading attitude is defined as an individual’s feeling about reading which leads readers to approach or avoid a reading situation.[] Reading attitude and interest associate wit h readers’ feeling and spirit of learning in some particular situation.Positive reading attitude which means liking reading leads to positive reading experiences and higher academic performance. Some studies focused on identifyinghow the positive attitudes toward reading influenced secondary school students. Walberg and Tsai concluded that a positive reading attitude is one of the strongest correlates of reading achievement. Factors that contributed to a positive reading attitude among adolescents included:1) believing that reading is important;2) enjoying reading;3) having a high self-concept as a reader; 4) having a verbally stimulating home environment where verbal interaction takes place regularly.[]2.2.2 Previous ResearchesA study by Kubis indicated that students attribute their positive attitudes toward reading to a significant event or person. Kubis reported that, generally, students who read like children and had personal book collections habits hold more positive attitudes toward reading than those who didn’t.[] Students whose families with positive attitudes toward reading received more reading materials than those with negative attitudes. Families play an important role in creating a positive reading attitude to their children. A home literary environment created by the parent can influence their children’s feelings toward reading. Recent research has shown that while positive attitudes towards reading incline in early school years, it begins a downturn around middle school. Once students begin to hit adolescence there is a shift in attitudes toward reading.[13] The previous study has found that, in spite of students’ busy schedule and tight time-table, most of them have been showing more interest in reading very short materials like advertisements, pamphlets, newspaper headlines and small bulletins rather than reading books, magazines and journals. Owing to the present competitive examination system at all levels, students are showing more interest in preparing for objective type examinations that are deteriorating their attitudes and reactive abilities.2.3 Factors Influencing Reading Habit and Attitude2.3.1 Elder People Lesesne claimed that elder people can inspire the younger to read by increasing their own reading habit and by demonstrating the art of reading to the younger generation.[14] As Guthrie and Greany established, the “amount ofleisure reading is related to the existence of a positive home environment and in particular to the value place in reading in the home”.[15] The role of te achers and parents is particularly important in this regard. It is not sufficient to tell young people to read only. Therefore, teachers and parents should be readers themselves first. In many educational institutions, especially those in the developing nations, the demonstrative effects of reading cannot be achieved just because of the weakness in collections and resources in libraries.2.3.2 Reader’s Interest and Motivation Parents and teachers push for students to read, because the evidence shows that students who read are more likely to be successful in the school.[16] However, students don’t agree with that reading can be done for enjoyment, and when reading may have been replaced by students’ favorite free time activities like watching television or surfing on the internet, reading may not be selected by some students as a free time activity, saying a lot about teenager’s attitudes about reading outside of school. What’s more, it has been equally clear that many students do not enjoy reading in school. Students have shown their preferences for what types of texts and extracurricular books which they would like to read, and their expectations are not always met by teachers, librarians, and administrators. In order to guide students to keep a positive attitude toward reading, it is important that teachers and parents are able to supply the books and materials that interest students.2.3.3 Reading Skills and StrategiesReading strategy is a kind of action taken by a reader to deal with the problems in reading process, also is an important component of reading abilities.[17] It not only contains some skills in reading, such as forecast, reasoning the article content, guessing or ignoring the meaning of some unknown words, skimming to have the main points, skipping to find particular information, and scanning to find a particular phrase or sentence, also includes other selective and controlling behavior of a reader in order to achieve the expected reading purposes. Developing reading skills and using reading strategies are considered weak areas in second language reading as well as in first language reading instruction in China among secondary school students.2.3.4 Difficulties of Reading in a Second Language Grabe pointed that the“importance of word recognition is hard to overestimate” for reading in a foreign language.[18] Alderson established this as follows: “Measures of a reader's vocabulary knowledge routinely correlate highly with measures of reading comprehension, and are often, indeed, the single best predictor of text comprehension”.[19] Reading in a second language is an active creation of meaning in the interactive process, in Braten’s point of view, between information what a text expresses and the knowledge of the reader.[20] Besides, Alderson’ s re search showed that having some background knowledge not only influences on a reader’s remembering from a text, also his or her understanding of the main idea and the whole content.[21] What’s more, Gray, arguing the dimension of reading process, pointed out that it includes recognition, understanding, reaction and integration. Therefore, in spite of vocabulary knowledge，fluent reading in a foreign context also requires the ability “to integrate appropriately and efficiently the background information of one text”.[22] To reach that, what readers need to master not only involves background knowledge, knowledge of the original language, but also text types.3. Methodology3.1 Research QuestionsThe purpose of this study is to sort out the answers of these questions:1. Who or what has great influence on junior high school students’ reading habit and reading attitude?2. What is the most difficult thing for junior high school students in the English reading process?3. According to the research results, what recommendation could give to parents, teachers and the relevant education offices, to encourage good reading attitudes and habits of junior high school students?3.2 SubjectsThis study was carried out among 70 junior high school students from Chaoyang district secondary schools with extra tutoring in Beijing New Oriental which is an educational institution. Based on the 70 samples drawn, the number of the valid responses to the questions was 50. Among these 50 students who study at the different。