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A Study of Reading Strategies for Higher Vocational-technical College Students

Author: ChenPing
Tutor: WenBin
School: Central China Normal University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: HVTE English Course teaching materials reading strategies differences similarities
CLC: H319.3
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2004
Downloads: 398
Quote: 3
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Abstract


Higher Vocational-technical Education (HVTE) is an important component of higher education in our country. According to the statistics issued in 2001, the number of higher vocational-technical colleges (HVTC) graduates and the total enrollment of students who are studying at HVTC exceed those of full-time regular (four-year) college students. The objective for HVTE is to train practical talents in production, technology, service, management, etc. We should emphasize the application and practicality in HVTE. HVTE should correspond with the standards of vocational employment.The Basic Requirements for HVTE English Course, serving as the national syllabus for HVTE English course, was issued by China’ s Ministry of Education in 2000. The Basic Requirements (short for The Basic Requirements for HVTE English Course) is designed for non-English major students of HVTE. The requirements for reading are set as follows. The students should be able to read short English materials on topics at intermediate level. For English materials, the reading speed should be around 70 wpm. The students should be able to understand short practical materials, such as letters, technical manual, business contract, etc. According to linguistic skill Form of Basic Requirements, following is a list of the basically required reading skills of HVTE English course in China: (l)reading for general comprehension; (2)reading for detailed comprehension; (3)deducing meanings of unknown words from context; (4)drawing inferences according to context; (5)Inferring writer’ s opinion and attitude, understanding the purpose of writing; (6)drawing conclusionsaccording to contents; (7)skimming & scanning. The students’ English reading ability is tested in Practical English Test for Colleges. 35% of scores are devoted to reading. We can say that students will certainly fail if they are poor in reading. From this we can see the competence of reading is placed on the highest position for HVTC students. The investigation report of social need for HVTE college graduates practical English in 2000 indicates that reading is the most important in HVTE college graduates’ work. Therefore, the study of reading strategies is meaningful and worthwhile.At present teaching materials in use in HVTC are different. Some HVTC use teaching materials designed specially for HVTE English course, such as Practical English published by Higher Education Press. Some HVTC still use teaching materials designed for full-time regular college, such as College English published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Therefore, an investigation into reading strategies use by the two groups seems to be necessary. The subjects are non-English major students of HVTE in two natural classes. 45 students in one class use Practical English as textbooks and 45 students in another class use College English as textbooks. Based on Basic Requirements for reading skills and Nuttal’ s typology of reading strategy, the five principal cognitive reading strategies are discussed: word-attack skills, skimming, scanning, inference and summarization. Two experiments are conducted including a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire about reading strategies. By use of quantitative research, the present study intends to investigate the use of reading strategies by the students with Practical English textbooks and the students with College English textbooks in their reading process. In addition, it aims at finding out the differencesand similarities in the employment of reading strategies between the two groups.The study reveals obvious differences between the two groups of students. (1) The students with Practical English textbooks employ most of the reading strategies more conscious and frequently and therefore, reading comprehension test scores significantly higher than students with College English textbooks who sometimes do so. (2) The greatest difference lies in scanning where the mean gap as large as 0.84, indicating that the students with Practical English textbooks

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CLC: > Language, writing > FOREIGN > English > Language teaching > Teaching method
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