通过为期三个月的实验，通过问卷调查、访谈和试卷分析，作者得出以下结论：第一，整体语言教学法能激发学生的阅读兴趣。在全语言教学中，全班以学生为中心，课堂气氛轻松。更重要的是，学生也有机会选择他们想读的阅读材料。教师可以充分利用各种工具和活动来吸引学生的注意力。这些都有利于激发学生的阅读兴趣。通过实验前后的问卷调查和访谈，得出结论：在初中英语阅读教学中采用全语言教学法具有重要意义。
Chapter One Introduction
1.1Research Background
“English teaching as a language discipline, which focuses on the development ofstudents’ listening, speaking, reading, and composing capacities. Reading capacity isthe foremost basic capacity for learning English” (Jia,2014:168). The proportion ofEnglish subjects in junior high school English classes are mainly reading teaching.Nowadays, only reading comprehension accounts for one-third of the total number ofthe overall score of English papers, which fully explains the importance of reading. Incompulsory education, English reading imparts students the necessary knowledge andto stimulate students’ interest in reading, improve students’ reading ability, andpromote the improvement of students’English ability.
According to the New Curriculum Standards for Junior Middle School English（2011:8）imposes that , “students’interest in studying English should be aroused andnurtured in the junior middle school English curriculum, and students’ good learninghabits and effective learning strategies should be developed within the teacher’s help,and students’ self-study ability and spirit of cooperation should be developed, makingstudents master specific English knowledge and forming comprehensive languageskills to understand the world and the differences between Chinese and Westerncultures , to expand their horizon, to cultivate patriotism, and to form a solid outlookon life and to lay a good foundation for their deep-rooted learning and progress.”However, in the traditional English reading class, these are impossible to achieve.Secondly, the traditional English reading class focus on teachers, and students arepassive receivers, and therefore there is no interaction between teachers and studentsin the classroom，and then it will be not difficult for educators to overlook students’interests, hobbies, and current English proficiency. Finally, the traditional readinglessons cannot create an appropriate language environment for students and do notreflect the communicative functions of the language. Thus, it is imperative forteachers to create the right language environment for students and get their attention.
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1.2Research Purpose
To explore the effect of the combination of the Whole Language Approach tojunior high school English reading on students’ reading ability and whether theteaching method can stimulate students’ interest in reading or not is the primarypurpose of this research. “In reading teaching, teachers often find out new words,phrases and sentences to help students understand, but students have not manychances to understand and think the whole article in an overall and profound level,which makes students’critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem-solving abilityunable to develop effectively” (Cui, 2019:93-94). As time passes, students loseinterest in reading. However, the Whole Language Approach can solve this problemmore effectively.
A more virtual method for junior high school English reading teaching is alsosupplied by the research. The status quo of English reading in junior high schools isthat teachers attach great importance to the teaching of language knowledge, placegreat importance on students’ understanding, as well as advocate students to mastervocabulary and sentence patterns. The Whole Language Approach may help changethis situation to a certain extent.
All in all, the purpose of this study is to explore whether the application of theWhole Language Approach to junior high school English reading teaching will affectstudents’ reading interest and reading ability, and to provide references for changingthe current situation of junior high school English reading teaching.
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Chapter Two Theoretical Framework
2.1The Theory of the Whole LanguageApproach
2.1.1 Humanism
Humanistic psychology, represented by Rogers (1970), argues that it is importantin education to explore human beings as a whole, rather than classifying them intosubordinate aspects such as behavior and cognition. The Humanism theoryemphasizes that true learning is the learning of the whole human being. The purposeof education is not only to teach knowledge, but to grow students into perfect humanbeings. In terms of teaching methods, humanistic theory advocates meaningfullearning, that is, learning is participatory, automatic initiation, and self-evaluation. Inthe process, the teacher acts as a facilitator, creates an atmosphere suitable for thestudents and promotes the comprehensive development of students’potential.
Humanism emphasizes that education ought to be student-centered, teachersshould respect and cherish students, and give students opportunities to grow freely.The Whole Language Approach is based on the principle of interrelationship andintegrity. It regards students as complete people with physical, mental, emotional, andspiritual aspects. It is a variety of forms of community learning between subjects andlearners. It advocates that students can claim that they have the right to choose whatthey are studying, that is, topics and materials they are interested in. It advocatesstudent-centered teaching approach. Teachers should go with the students, providetimely help for students, and control their learning process.
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2.2The Whole LanguageApproach
2.2.1 The Origin and Development of the Whole LanguageApproach
“The term Whole Language Approach can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970sby a group of U.S. educators concerned with the teaching of language arts, that is,reading and writing in the native language” (Jack C. Richards 2001:108). It is themost crucial theoretical trend in western language education circles. The concept of“the Whole Language” was first developed by Professor Kenneth Goodman andProfessor Y.M. Goodman. In 1967, Kenneth Goodman’s book Reading: APsychological Linguistic Guessing Game was published, which marked thegermination of the Whole Language Approach genre. In 1971, Frank Smith publishedUnderstanding Reading: A Psychological Linguistic Analysis of Reading andLearning to Read, proposing a psycholinguistic reading teaching method. WithKenneth Goodman & Frank Smith, the idea that reading is a psychological languageprocess has come to be recognized.
In the 1980s and 1990s, “it became popular in the United States as a motivatingand innovative way of teaching language arts skills to primary school children. Inlanguage teaching it shares a philosophical and instructional perspective withCommunicative Language Teaching since it emphasizes the importance of meaningand meaning making in teaching and learning” (Jack C. Richards 2001:108). It is alsorelated to the natural method of language learning because it is designed to helpchildren and adults learn the second language with the same as the way children learnthe first language.
Table 4-1 Demographic Background of Participants
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3.1 Review of the Whole Language Approach at Home and Abroad..............13
3.1.1 Foreign Research on the Whole Language Approach............................13
3.1.2 Domestic Research on the Whole Language Approach...................................14
Chapter Four Research Design................................20
4.1 Research Questions.................................20
4.2 Research Methods..................................21
Chapter Five Results and Discussions..........................35
5.1 Results....................................35
5.1.1 Results of the Questionnaires...........................35
5.1.2 Results of the Tests............................42
Chapter Five Results and Discussions
5.1Results
The questionnaire was mainly used to test the reading interest of students beforeand after the experiment. The results of the pre-questionnaire and thepost-questionnaire were shown in the following tables.
5.1.1 Results of the Questionnaires
The Questionnaires were mainly to investigate the situation of students’ readinginterest based on the interest feature scale, which were adopted in the experimentalclass before and after experiment.
5.1.1.1 Results of Validity and ReliabilityAnalysis of Questionnaire
In this study, Cronbach Alpha was analyzed to measure the internal consistencyand each dimension and the whole questionnaire was measured. The table 5-1 andtable 5-2 showed the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.
Table 5-2 The Validity of Questionnaire
Chapter Six Conclusion
6.1Major Findings
Based on the three-month experiment and analysis of questionnaires, interviews,and test papers, the author draws the following conclusions:
Firstly, the Whole Language Approach can arouse students’ reading interests. Inthe Whole Language Approach class, the whole class is student-centered and theatmosphere of class is relaxing. What is more, students also have the opportunity tochoose the reading material that they want to read. The teacher can make fully use ofmany tools and activities to attract students’ attention. All those actions are good forstimulating students’ reading interest. Through the questionnaire and interview beforeand after the experiment, it is concluded that combining the Whole LanguageApproach to English reading teaching in junior middle school is of great significance.It is helpful to improve students’interest in reading.
Secondly, after combining the Whole Language Approach to English readingteaching in junior high school, the author identifies that the Whole LanguageApproach can enhance students’ reading ability. In the English reading class of theWhole Language Approach, students know about some reading strategies. In the stepof pre-reading, students can predict the gist of the test with the help of a teacher andthey can also grasp the main idea in the given time, which indicates that students’reading ability is enhanced than before. In the step of while-reading, a large numberof students tend to skim or scan the passage based on the different questions. Thenumber of students who adopt the traditional way of reading the passage word byword is less. When students find the main idea of every paragraph or they match themain idea with every paragraph, they choose to skim the test; when students arerequired to look for detailed or special information, they tend to choose to scan the test.
reference(omitted)