Abstract In recent years, the over focus on examination-oriented education has caused ignorance on students’ real interest in learning English. As we all know, reading is one of the difficulties in English learning，especially for junior school students，because they are on the elementary stage of learning a foreign language, stimulating their interest in reading is of extreme significance.

This thesis is based on the studies of second language acquisition and many motivation theories at home and abroad. It explores the relationship between junior school students’ reading interest and competence. Although both examination-oriented education and interest are on the basis of promoting motivation, some researches prove that intrinsic motivation (interest) is more beneficial than extrinsic one. The papers’ ultimate aim is to get enlightenment from the relationship and put the implication into practice making it useful in teaching reading. In addition, this thesis analyses the several aspects of reading interest, such as reading materials, teaching methods and so on. The results reveal that proper teaching materials and methods in reading teaching class can effectively stimulate students’ interest in English reading, and that students’ reading competence can be improved by activating their interest.70451

Keywords: motivation; interest; English reading; English reading competence

摘要近年来，对应试教育的过分关注使教师们忽略了学生学习英语的真正兴趣。众所周知，英语阅读是学习英语的一大难点，特别是对初中生而言，因为他们处于初级阶段，因此激发他们的阅读兴趣当是重中之重。

本文以第二语言习得研究的理论以及动机理论为基础，探讨了初中生英语阅读兴趣与能力之间的关系并从中得到启示，将此启示运用至教学实践中以提高学生的阅读能力。此外，本文还分析了英语阅读教学方法、阅读材料等影响学生英语阅读兴趣的因素，揭示了合适的教学方法能激发学习者在英语阅读中的积极兴趣, 获得最佳阅读效果。

毕业论文关键词：动机；兴趣；英语阅读；英语阅读水平

Contents

1. Introduction..1

2. Literature Review2

2.1 The definition of motivation2

2.2 Interest and motivation3

2.3Interest and reading competence3

3. Measures to Stimulate Students’ Interest in English Reading5

3.1 Lead-in5

3.2 Group reading .... 6

3.3 Use of multimedia............7

4. Application of Teaching Methods into Reading Exercise..7

4.1 Selection of reading materials...7

4.2 Three stages of teaching9

4.2.1 Pre-reading.9

4.2.2 While-reading..10 4.2.3 Post-reading.10 

4.3 A sample of teaching reading..11

5. Conclusion...12

Works Cited14

1. Introduction 

After the implementation of reform and opening up, there was an intimate connection between China and western English speaking countries. To better adapt to the economic and social development, an increasing number of Chinese began to learn English. That’s why since the early 1980s English has been nationwide taught as a foreign language (FL) in China. With a desire to master English as a foreign language, one must first learn its basic four skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language (Carrell, 121). So reading in a second language has received a great amount of attention from researchers over the past decades, and improving students’ reading competence is a pressing matter of the moment, as junior school students are on the fundamental stage of learning English.