Junior High School Students' Learning and Understanding of the Readings in English Textbooks: A Case Study

• Main Authors: Liang Ching-mei, 梁景美
• Other Authors: Pen-shui Liao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/68523895325555800576

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 94 === ABSTRACT This study aims to explore junior high school students’ perceptions of learning and understanding of the readings in English textbooks. The subjects involved three classes (111 students) in different grades in Fushing Junior High School（復興國中）in Tainan City. Based on the returned questionnaires, several important findings are presented as follows. 1. Many students (54.0%) think that the readings in English textbooks are not difficult. There are only a few students (24.3%) think that the readings in English textbooks are difficult. 2. From the contents of the readings in English textbooks, the top three reading comprehension difficulties that students have are: the grammar is not easy to understand (37.8%), students lack the background knowledge of the themes (34.2%), and the sentences are too complicated (32.4%). 3. The four main reading strategies which the teachers use are: the guidelines from the teachers (68.4%), underlining the important words (64.8%), discussing with others (58.5%), asking questions (57.6%), and associating the subject with the background to predict the content (48.6%). 4. We learn that the three main considerations in the students’ acquisition of the readings in English textbooks are: enhancing their English ability (80.3%), helping them obtain knowledge (79.2%), and enabling them to appreciate of their own country and foreign cultures (69.3%). 5. The students really have a high expectation of English teachers’ performance in helping students learn and understand the readings in English textbooks. They expect the guidelines governing the teacher’s teaching them to learn the readings must focus on the rules of grammar (63.0%), the reading comprehension skills (62.1%), the content knowledge of the readings (55.8%), the meanings of vocabulary (49.5%), and the background knowledge of the readings (45.9%). 6. The students’ three main favorite issues are: information technology education (60.3%), career development education (52.2%), and home economics education (39.7%). 7. From the results of the study, we are aware that the subjects have been taught English by the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in order to achieve the goals of English education. 8. Young and Riegeluth (1988) found that whether a teacher is a veteran or a novice, he/she tends to expect students to gain skills and understandings, not just information, from the textbook (p.8). The students hope that reading class can be increased. Thus, they can have more time to learn reading comprehension skills and practice with their teachers and classmates.