4。3 Analysis of Questionnaire 17

5。 Conclusion 18

5。1 Major Findings 18

5。2 Suggestions 18

5。3 Limitations 19

References 20

Appendix Ⅰ 22

Appendix Ⅱ 27

Appendix Ⅲ 28

1。 Introduction

1。1 Research Background

In our daily life, people read for various reasons。 Some read for broadening their horizons。 Some read for getting certain kind of information。 Some read for pleasure and so on and so forth。 Notably, EFL learners read for getting high marks in tests or passing them。

English Curriculum Standards (2011) for compulsory education attaches great importance to reading。 According to it, the ultimate goal of English teaching is to develop learners’ comprehensive language competence which is achieved through the following five general objectives: language skills, language knowledge, attitudes to learning, learning strategies and cultural awareness。 Among these objectives, language skills include listening, speaking, reading and writing。 

In the curriculum, students in junior middle school are supposed to develop from Level 3 to Level 5 in English。 And Level 5 is the required standard for students in Grade 9。 Furthermore, the describing standards for reading in Level 5 are as follows:论文网

Students can:

1。 infer and understand the meanings of new words according to contexts and word-formation rules;

2。 understand the logical relations among each sentences of a paragraph;

3。 find the theme of a text, understand the plot of a story and predict the evolution of a story and potential endings;

4。 understand the common genres of texts in the same level;

5。 apply simple reading strategies to maintain information according to different reading aims;

6。 use reference books such as dictionaries to help reading;

7。 achieve the goal that extracurricular reading amount is more than 150,000 words。

--义务教育阶段英语课程标准，2011:17

Not only does the curriculum value the reading in Grade 9, but also 2017 Test Description of English in Hangzhou offers specific requirements for reading。 

The Test Description requires that Grade 9 students should be able to read and understand short textual materials such as notice, description, advertisement, etc, and short passages on general topics in books, newspapers and magazines。 These reading materials are supposed to be as difficult as texts in Grade 9 and contain no more than 3 percent new words。 Students are expected to infer the meanings of new words according to contexts, understand the main idea of a discourse, maintain relevant information, and make general analysis and inference about texts。

To be more specific, the Test Description can be pided into three levels, respectively, memorizing, understanding and applying。 As for the requirements of reading in the aspect of understanding, students should be able to 1) understand the exact meaning of words and phrases in sentences and passages, 2) understand the exact meaning of idioms in different linguistic contexts, and 3) understand surface meaning of the reading material。 Furthermore, in the aspect of applying, students should be able to understand the main idea and deep implication of the reading material。

1。2 Research Significance and Purpose

According to the study results from language testing experts, in addition to background knowledge and language knowledge, reading comprehension test also emphasizes examining learners’ reading competence, that is, the competence used to increase reading fluency and reach reading goals by skilled application of reading strategies(Xiu, 2002)。