A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LITERARY READING INTEREST AND ENGLISH PROFICIENCY FOR STUDENTS IN VOCATIONAL NURSING SCHOOL

• Main Authors: Li-chuan Lin, 林麗娟
• Other Authors: Raung-fu Chung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/19145012979861295116

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 92 === The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between literary reading interest and English proficiency among students in vocational nursing school in Taiwan. Furthermore, this study also investigates if there are differences in students’ reading attitudes, reading methods and perceptions of literature reading after their participating in the literature reading program. The subjects in the first stage in this study are 226 second-grade vocational nursing school students. The major instrument is a pretest questionnaire on students’ responses to their literary reading interest including their attitudes toward reading literature, their reading methods and their perceptions of literature reading. The subjects of second stage in this study are 43 second-grade students who are as experimental group. During the six-week literature reading program, 43 subjects read the texts selected by teachers, participate in the eclecticism-based teaching activities, and take the post-test questionnaire on students’ responses to literature reading program including their attitudes toward reading literature, their reading methods and their perceptions of literature reading. In the data collections, the researcher collects the pretest, post-test questionnaires and academic English proficiency scores for investigating the relationship between literary reading interest and language proficiency and what’s more, the students’ change in their literary reading interest after the literature reading program. One-way ANOVA and t-test are employed to analyze the data. The main findings are summarized as follows: 1.There are some significant correlations between literary reading interest and English proficiency. 2.The larger subjects’ reading quantity is, the higher their English Proficiency would be. 3.The high-proficient students tend to take more positive attitudes toward literature reading, utilize more various and skilled reading methods, and affirm the value of literature reading. 4.Compared with the performance on subjects’ literary reading interest between the pretest and post-test treatments, there are some significant differences in the post-treatment after their participating in the literature reading program. They seem to become more active and positive readers. On the basis of the study findings, some pedagogical implications are given as follows: 1.Teachers are in a position to help students learn more by providing various teaching approaches and effective reading strategies. 2.Teachers should teach literary works by focusing on inspiring students’ responses rather than on structural analyses. 3.Teachers should adopt simplified texts to help students comprehend complex texts. 4.Teachers should utilize group discussions to help students learn to think from different perspectives and show their respect for others’ thoughts. Furthermore, students should be taught how to revise and refine their original thoughts after discussions.