A standardized English Reading Test of 50 items chosen for this purpose was the main instrument of the study used to identify the reading ability levels of these four groups. Appendix A The English Reading Test 120 Appendix B IOC Experts for English Reading Test 142 Appendix C Marks of the English Reading Test 149.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study will first discuss the importance of reading in language learning, and more specifically, some basic information about the importance of reading in English. Next, selected reading theories are introduced to reveal what reading is about and the meaning of reading elements that focus on the academic reading skills.
READING IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Kovacs (2018) mentions that reading is one of the basic skills that must be mastered in linguistics. As this model shows, reading is an essential basic skill and is very important for the development of other skills.
READING AS AN IMPORTANT ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILL
The Definitions of Reading
The reform of basic English education continues to permeate all aspects of education, and English reading education is no exception. Therefore, improving English reading ability has become an important task in current English education (Ping, 2018).
The English Curriculum in China
In the third stage (Year 5 and Year 6) 1) students can understand the listening material they have learned when in English, at a rate of 80 words/minute; 2) in addition to reading English words, sentences and texts. At the same time, they need to speak about 400 English words to have pronunciation and tone, and can spell about 250 English words.
RELATED RESEARCHES
Jiang (2015) conducted a research on "Chinese College Students' English Reading Comprehension in Silent and Loud Reading-Mode". Use of Reading Strategies” and states that English majors use intermediate reading strategies in reading comprehension tests.
POPULATION AND SAMPLE
Instrument 3: The Semi-Structured Interviews
This question aims to find out students' reading strategies used to deal with text reading, vocabulary guessing and reading comprehension. This question aims to examine during reading which question type the students can handle best. This question aims to investigate which type of question was difficult for the test takers during reading.
The purpose of this question is to gather students' opinions on how to improve their English reading skills.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
Validity of Research Instruments
The study used an English reading test to collect the data and information needed for this study. This chapter presents an analysis of English reading test scores achieved by Year 1 to Year 4 English major students studying at Yunnan Minzu University. Quantitative data analysis was performed on mean and S.D. The researcher analyzed the qualitative data into themes that emerged and reported on the themes.
The results of the English reading test shown in Tables 4.1 to 4.6, in response to Objective 1: To identify the reading skills of Chinese major English major students and Objective 2: To compare the reading skills of different levels of Chinese major English major students in terms of read .
RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH READING TEST
Read English books” (165 times), “Watch English movies” (130 times) and “Improve interest in English reading”. 60 times) was mentioned by fewer students. From the table it can be concluded that students felt they needed to learn more reading strategies. Although the data shown in Table 4.9, the group of English major students suggested so many ways to improve their English reading abilities, the responses in this questionnaire revealed that 9 reading techniques.
According to the findings of the fourth chapter, this chapter will be divided into three parts, from the research conclusion, discussion and research recommendations.
CONCLUSIONS
Responses to Objective 1
The first aim of the study was to identify the reading skills of Chinese major English major students. Among them, the English reading scores of the first year are the worst, those of the second and third years are almost, and those of the fourth year are the best. According to the One-Sample T-test (Tables 4.14 and 4.15), the mean value of the four numbers was 25.77, which is significantly different from 22, indicating that most students' English reading test score was higher than 22.
But when the English reading test score was 32, the average value of the four grades was 25.77, which is significantly different from 32, indicating that most students' English reading test score was less than 32.
Responses to Objective 2
The answers to the study objectives, both 1 and 2, are clear and explainable. 1) The reading abilities of Chinese college English students, as interpreted by their scores on the English Reading Test (Instrument 1), show that there is plenty of room for improvement. They are expected to have advanced reading skills to demonstrate their command of the English language. In addition, they were more familiar with reading strategies and used them more than students in other years.
According to this research, using effective reading strategies is really a useful method for English major students to improve their English reading abilities.
English major students reading comprehension scores were generally not high
Recommendations for reading teachers are to give students more practice in difficult areas and provide students with training in effective reading strategies. Most of the students could not understand the meaning of the passage they were reading and were not familiar with the vocabulary in the passage. For some reason, the lack of vocabulary and lack of understanding of the essence of the blurring of the understanding of the text.
Another reason may be the students' level of attraction to reading and their learning motivation.
The English reading test can be used as a diagnostic test
Reading lessons need to be redesigned to allow students to work more independently under the supervision of reading teachers. Therefore, in future learning for Year 1 and Year 2, teachers should pay more attention to vocabulary learning and memory. Vocabulary is the foundation of reading. If students are weak in vocabulary, if they want to get high score in English, it is impossible. reading. Meanwhile, the importance of strengthening the teaching of reading strategies is also self-evident: if students can master many reading strategies, such as skimming, scanning, inferring, paraphrasing and so on, it is not difficult for them to solve the questions of paraphrasing and detailing. unload. even questions about sentence insertions.
It is recommended that teachers give them more practice to improve their English reading speed.
English major students lack effective reading strategies
Rong (2015) points out that a major factor currently affecting students' effective reading is students' lack of mastery of effective reading strategies and skills. In the teaching process, teachers should focus on training students to effectively use reading methods and skills to improve the effectiveness of students' reading. Ting (2017) states that insufficient vocabulary is the biggest problem students face while reading English.
This shows that in English reading, the three main problems encountered by junior high school students are: insufficient vocabulary, unclear syntactic structure, and semantic discourse barriers.
Students do not pay much attention on English reading strategies learning
Difficulty and its causes in reading comprehension of junior high school students and the suggestions. Exploring Chinese EFL teachers' knowledge and beliefs regarding the teaching of English reading. The practice of English reading instruction in the junior middle school based on Basic Education Reform.
Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED530281.pdf Widdowson, H. The Process and Purpose of Reading.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
The English Reading Test
Evidence of the Earliest Writing
1 Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage. C Archaeologists have discovered that literacy was developed in several parts of the world, including ancient Mesopotamia. 2 Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage.
6 Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about the difference between earlier and later tokens.
Chinese Population Growth
This technological advance took many forms: one was the steady introduction from the south of earlier maturing rice varieties, which made it possible to double the production of two harvests a year from one field New crops such as corn and sweet potatoes. as peanuts and tobacco were introduced from Americas corn, for example, can be grown on the dry soil and marginal hill country of northern China, where it is used for food, fuel and fodder and provides something like one-seventh of the food energy available in the area The sweet potato, which grows in sandy soil and provides more food energy per unit of land than other crops, became the main food for the poor in large parts of the southern Chinese rice area. C Adding increasing amounts of fertilizer to the soil D The reduction in the amount of human labor per earth unit. C It shows why population growth was most noticeable in the south. D It shows how foreign crops gradually gained greater acceptance in China.
These technological advances took many forms: one was the steady introduction of earlier varieties of rice from the south, which made it possible to double the production of two harvests a year from one field 【A】New crops such as corn and sweet corn, potatoes, as well as peanuts and tobacco were brought from America. 【B】 For example, maize can be grown in the dry soils and marginal hills of northern China, where it is used for food, fuel and feed and provides something like one-seventh of the dietary energy available in the area【C】Sweet potatoes, which grow in sandy soil and provides more nutritional energy per unit of land than other crops, it has become the staple food of the poor in most of southern China's rice area 【D】.
Movable Type
A The industrial process for mass paper production was first introduced in the early fifteenth century. B The Gutenberg Bible was the result of combined technologies in the mass production of paper and the newly invented manufacture of movable type. C The increased need for classical texts and reference works, together with the existence of an established workshop system, stimulated rapid growth in the printing trade.
D The mechanized production of books in the fifteenth century is the first example of a modern industry in Europe.
APPENDIX B
IOC Expert for English Reading Test
APPENDIX C
The Scores of English Reading Test
APPENDIX D Questionnaire
Your Personal Particulars
Test Taking Techniques
The strategies you used to try to understand the text Reading 12 Scan the text for key words key information. 15 I don't think I know the meaning of the words from the context around each word. 17 The test is suitable for my English level 18 Practicing in the classroom helps me to do that.
23 To read by translating the words' sentences into Chinese, first help me understand the text 24 World knowledge Background knowledge.
Open-ended Question
- In your opinion, are there ways to improve your scores in the test?
APPENDIX E
IOC Expert for Questionnaire
APPENDIX F Semi-Structure
2 While doing the test, what techniques did you use in trying to understand the reading passages. 5 What do you think you need to improve in order to do this reading test.
APPENDIX G
APPENDIX H Permission to
Collect Data
