Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
As we all know, English has become a very important tool for internationalcommunication. So it is impendency to learn English well. In China, the traditional teachingapproach is still popular in college English reading teaching. Teacher-centered method isalso a common practice in some English classes. Teachers have to explain sentence bysentence when confronting the large-size class, and what teachers do in class is a symbol ofgreat authority on linguistic analysis of the text. Teacher dominates the classroom byexplaining the usage of language with less participation of the learners. Gradually, in the end,Chinese learners have a comparatively stronger ability in mastering grammar and sentencestructures, but they are very weak in interacting with others in English. The traditionallanguage teaching method partly restricts the development of the learners' interactivecompetence in English communication.In fact, there is no denying that such a way of teaching has made learning much wasteof time and energy with low efficiency, and resulted in the so called “deaf and mute English ”(Hu Zhuanglin 2017). Frequent feedbacks from the undergraduates turned out to be the casethat their English is far from being satisfactory on terms of using English in the realcommunication. Fortunately theoretical studies and practical observations show that greatprogress in College English Test has been made to move from the teacher-centeredinstruction to the student-centered.
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1.2 Significance of the Research
Listening, reading speaking, and writing are four basic language skills, among whichreading occupies a considerable crucial position in language learning and teaching. That isbecause reading is a good way to understand a foreign language and the understanding of aforeign language is the first and an important step to master the language.Eskey (1973) also realized this point and said that reading is the most essential skill formany students in second language learning. In addition, if a foreign language learner wantsto progress to an advanced proficiency level, especially in a second language learning, the ability to read written materials in a foreign language at a reasonable rate and with goodcomprehension is as important as oral skills, if not more important. As Krashen (1985) statedthat reading would be helpful for language acquisition and it can promote to master moreadvanced vocabulary, to spell words better, to improve their writing skills and to have abetter understanding of reading comprehension. In Chinese EFL teaching, reading is alsorecognized to be a prior and important language skill. It takes up a major part of the totalscore in CET-4, CET-6, and even in the entrance examination for postgraduate. However, theteaching of reading in Chinese universities still laid stress on the transformation ofinformation from the teacher to the students. Therefore, the whole reading material islearned mainly through individual words, sentences, and grammar. The teacher does notintroduce extra knowledge and does not regard the text as a whole. As a result, it hinders thestudents’ understanding of the whole text and has a negative effect on their reading grades.So in this situation, it gives teachers an implication that students’ language competence,especially the competence in ，英语论文，英语论文范文
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