Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Present Study
For people, English reading is the main means to obtain the outside information. For thesenior middle school students, English reading is not only one of the channels of learningEnglish language knowledge, but also the most means to improve English language competence.Reading has always received priority to other three basic language abilities (listening, speaking,and writing) at all stages of middle schools, especially at senior middle schools. Additionally,students in China learn English as a foreign language in a non-native language speakingenvironment where they seldom have chance to communicate with English native speakers.Therefore, reading becomes an efficient access to language input for students who in the lack ofauthentic language environment to improve their language competence.It's worth mentioning that, reading comprehension takes up a considerable percentage and itis the most difficult part in various kinds of English tests. The importance of reading also lies inthe fact that the National Matriculation English Test (NMET) is just the case for the seniormiddle school students, they are asked to get through five paragraphs containing around 2017words within 35 minutes and the final results of their exam depend mostly on readingcomprehension.What's more, in this year, 2017, all the senior middle schools in Guangxi ZhuangAutonomous Region will welcome the new curriculum reform according to the Newly-issuedEnglish Curriculum Standards for Senior Middle Schools (NECS) set by the Ministry ofEducation (ME) in 2017. The new English Curriculum criteria put more emphasis on cultivatingsenior middle students' reading ability and require the senior middle school students to achieve ahigher level in reading. In order to cater for the need of society, NECS puts forward the specificrequirements of reading ability for the senior middle school students. There are four levels inreading skills for the senior middle school phrase: Level 6, Level 7, Level 8 and Level 9. Ofthem, Level 7 is the necessary requirement for every senior middle school leavers. In addition.Level 8 and Level 9 are designed for those students showing great interest or special talent inlanguage learning and designed for those senior middle school students eager to further improvecomprehensive English language competence. The specific reading requirements of Level 7 are:1) To be able to gain and deal with the main information from common articles; 2) To be able tounderstand the article's gist and the author's intention ； 3) To be able to deal with new wordsfrom the context and understand the discourse meaning; 4) To be able to infer from the clues ofthe context; 5) To be able to gain the required information from network resources; 6) To be ableto read English newspapers and magazines suitable for senior middle school students' languageproficiency; 7) Apart from textbooks, the accumulative amount of out-of-class reading to be over230,000 words. These specific requirements of reading ability for the senior middle schoolstudents also prove that cultivating senior middle school students' reading ability is of greatimportance in the senior middle schools.
1.2 Significance of the Present Study
With the background of the study mentioned above, the significance of the present studycan be drawn from the following aspects:Firstly, the new E，英语毕业论文，英语论文题目 |
