非英语专业本科生英语阅读困难及对策英文版.docx

1、非英语专业本科生英语阅读困难及对策英文版A Study of the Difficulties and Strategies in English Reading of the Non-English MajorsAuthor: Li GuojuanSupervisor: Li Yinping, Lecturer(College of Foreign Languages, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018)Abstract: English reading always plays an important role in Engli

2、sh learning. But the non-English majors usually can not pay enough attentions on English reading, so there are still many problems in English reading hindering the improvement of their English level. By means of a self-designed questionnaire, this paper aims to reveal the basic English reading condi

3、tion of the non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university. And based on the result of the investigation, I analyze the difficulties they faced in English reading and advance some corresponding solving strategies on how to improve the non-English majors English reading ability in the light o

4、f these problems.Key Words: non-English majors; English reading; difficulties; strategies非英语专业本科生英语阅读的困难及对策摘 要: 英语阅读在英语学习中一直起着至关重要的作用，但对于非英语专业本科生，由于平时对英语的重视程度不够，所以英语阅读方面仍存在很多问题阻碍英语水平的提高。为了帮助非英语专业的同学更好的提升英语阅读水平，本文通过调查问卷的形式对山东农业大学不同的非英语专业本科生进行了调查，在此基础上对他们在英语阅读中面临的困难及成因进行分析，并针对这些问题就如何提高非英语专业本科生英语阅读能力提出

5、了相应的解决策略。关键词：非英语专业；英语阅读；困难；策略1. A Brief Introduction of the Importance of English Reading In the contemporary society, English, as an international language, becomes more and more important in todays increasingly high degree of internationalization and extensive degree of the exchanges between China

6、 and the rest of the world. But as the learning of a language, the students reading ability largely reflects the level of the comprehensive ability of English and the ability to adapt to the demands of the era in the future. English reading is one of the most basic and important English abilities. R

7、eading is the important way of acquiring knowledge, understanding the world, and developing intelligence and emotions. Developing reading ability can help expand your vocabulary, enrich your language knowledge and improve your language skills. English reading skill is not only one of the important l

8、anguage skills but also one of the learning skills students must master. English reading ability is the basis and prerequisite of developing other language skills and is also one of the important symbols to measure ones English levels. It is an important goal of learning a foreign language. By maste

9、ring the English reading ability, students can understand the education, science, polity of the latest development within the scope of the world and can also lay the solid foundation for better integrating into the international community.2. The Condition of the Studies on English ReadingThe study o

10、n English reading strategies should be based on the research of learning strategies. Since the 1970s, many foreign researchers have paid attention on the importance role the learning strategy plays in language learning, such as Rubin (1975), Naiman (1978), Stern (1975), etc. Since the 1980s, Chinese

11、 scholars also began to pay close attention on the learning of English learning strategies, such as Wen Qiufang (1984), Lv Zhongshe (1998), Liu Jinkai (2002), etc. There are also some researches aiming at English reading strategies, but the number of the researches of reading strategies for non-Engl

12、ish majors is very small. In view of this condition, the paper makes an investigation into the English reading condition of the non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university by means of a self-designed questionnaire.3. Investigation Method3.1 Investigative QuestionsThis investigation is car

13、ried out by asking the non-English major students to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire aims at the following problems: (1)The time used in English reading and the reading materials; (2) The purpose of reading;(3) English reading difficulties and reasons.3.2 Investigative ObjectsThe objects

14、 of the investigation are the 60 seniors of non-English majors in Shandong agricultural university. And their ages rang from 19 to 22, with an average age of 20.67, among which the number of the girls is 30 and the boys 30.3.3 Investigative InstrumentThis investigation is carried out by asking the n

15、on-English major students to answer the questionnaire. In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, the questionnaire is written in Chinese. This questionnaire includes two parts: the first part is about the basic situations, including the age, sex, major and English level. The second part is ma

16、inly about the English reading purposes, time, materials and difficulties and so on.The questionnaire aims to investigate into the non-English majors of different English levels, and then a statistical analysis was made according to the results, thus we will find their problems in English reading an

17、d put forward the corresponding strategies.4. Investigation Results and the AnalysisThe investigation results show that: on the whole, the investigative objects spend little time on English reading and read reference materials, newspapers and magazines mostly. The main reading purpose for most stude

18、nts is to improve their English level. The investigative objects biggest difficulty in English reading is too little time they spend on English reading, and as a result of this, their interests in English decline and the English level lowers.4.1 Reading TimeThe time the investigative objects spend o

19、n English study and reading all is very little. The textbook learning and after-class reading time is only 2.7 h and 2.1 h on average respectively, so the English learning time on average is only 4.8 h weekly. Many students say that not understanding the meaning and the pressure coming from the lear

20、ning of specialized courses lead to their unwilling to invest enough time and energy in English learning.The investigative objects time spent on after-class reading is significantly less than on textbook learning. The majority of students think textbook learning is more important than after-class re

21、ading because most of the exam content com from the textbook. So learning the textbook well can be beneficial to improve ones test scores. On the other hand, the teacher do not put forward any requirements for after-class reading, nor any forms of inspection. So the benefits of after-class English r

22、eading can not be seen apparently.4.2 Reading MaterialsReference materials: nearly half of the students choose to read reference materials. Most students think they can improve their English test scores by doing all kinds of English reference materials, especially for the nation-wide test, such as t

23、he CET-4 and CET-6.Newspapers and magazines: about 42.7% of the investigative objects read English magazines or newspapers in their leisure time, mainly including China Daily the 21st century English world English learning and the English salon. They choose these newspapers and magazines mainly beca

24、use of their strong topicality, rich in content and the convenience for buying or borrowing. At the same time, the language in these domestic newspapers and magazines is usually simple and the content is familiar and easy to read, so it is natural for them to become students preferred after-class re

25、adings.Fictions: the majority of students are more interested in the novels, but because large numbers of the long novels sold need more time to read, and part of the students, teachers and parents see novels as other, so only a few students read novels, among which is largely the world famous books

26、 of simplified edition.Professional books: the students reading professional books account only 0.9%. The main reason is the professional books students are generally difficult, and most students have little interest in them,.4.3 Reading Purposes The non-English majors have clear purpose while doing

27、 English reading. Almost no one choice to read without a definite purpose and nearly half of the students primary reading purpose is to improve his English level. But there are also 42.7%students reading purpose is the need of employment and only 9.5 percent of students hope that by English reading

28、they can enrich their life and achieve the purpose of entertainment.The results indicate that the students foreign language reading is mainly to pass the exam, obtain information or other tools having to do with ones future, rather than appreciate the culture. Students get little pleasure in reading

29、, so they certainly will read as little as possible. Read less makes it more difficult to understand and the reading speed couldnt be improved. As a result of this, the students interest in reading becomes less and less. All respondents think English reading can help to improve the English level. Ab

30、out 13.16% students think it has a great help, 34.21% think the benefit is bigger, 47.37% think it is general, and the rest think reading helps little. Apparently, almost all students have realize the importance of English reading, but the degree of the help is not disagreed.4.4 Reading Difficulties

31、 15.9% students think they cant find the right English reading materials. And most students hope they can read the best-selling pop novels in recent years, preferably the thrilling short stories. There are still a lot of students being interested in newspapers and magazines which are topical and int

32、eresting. But the kinds of our countrys existing newspapers or magazines are very little, so the range we can choose is small. While most English newspapers and magazines focus on English learning or exam-oriented, the true presses focus on reading are very few.There are 35.9% students think most reading materials are too difficult to understand. But at present the publishers in our country seem to be keen on the exam-oriented teaching materials and books. So the really suitable English reading materials for students are very little. And most reading materials suitable