How to improve middle school students' English reading comprehension ability

As an English teacher who has taught the graduating class for many years, I think it is very important to improve students' English reading comprehension. On the one hand, English reading scores high in English exams. Whether it is cloze, essay filling or essay understanding, students are required to have good English reading comprehension ability. Whether reading comprehension ability is strong or not determines the success or failure of English test; On the other hand, reading is one of the four basic skills that students are required to master in English learning. Wang Yingmin, a special teacher in Beijing, said: "If you can't read, you won't learn English. Reading is the foundation. If you don't study, you won't have good listening, let alone writing. " English reading can improve readers' cognitive ability, thus promoting the improvement of the other three skills (listening, speaking and writing). Reading can also enrich people's knowledge and broaden their horizons. However, it is found in teaching that many students have difficulty in reading and don't know the correct reading method. Starting from three aspects, this paper mainly expounds the ways to increase language knowledge, develop good reading habits and what reading skills should be paid attention to, so as to improve middle school students' English reading ability and improve reading efficiency.

First of all, remember as many English words as possible to increase your vocabulary.

Mastering a certain number of words is the premise of improving reading comprehension. If there are many unfamiliar words, it is very difficult to read English short passages. Therefore, mastering a certain number of words is the premise and guarantee for students to improve their English reading ability. In rural middle schools, it is very difficult for students to remember words because of the restriction and influence of specific environment. In particular, the vocabulary of Oxford English textbooks has expanded a lot, which is more difficult to remember. There are many ways to remember words. I often use the following in my teaching:

1. Vocabulary "Eight Pairs" Memory Method

This is one of the methods most used by middle school students, that is, combining vocabulary with human organs: seeing in the eyes, thinking in the heart, writing in the hands, taking it to the mouth, listening in the ears, smelling in the nose, tasting in the tongue and touching in the fingers. Students should not be lazy when reciting, but must draw while reciting and fully mobilize all organs. This method enables students to associate the target vocabulary with their own cranial nerves, which is easy to remember and lasting.

2. Classification memory method

That is to say, analyze the form of words and classify the words to be memorized according to their meaning, shape and sound. For example, memorizing words according to the spelling rules of phonetic symbols, memorizing words according to the changes of parts of speech and memorizing words according to homophones. Teachers can also teach students English roots and affixes. New words can be derived by adding prefixes or suffixes to the roots, and new words can be synthesized by putting two or more words together.

3. Associative memory method

Pavlov, a famous Soviet psychologist, pointed out: "Memory depends on association, which is the product of the connection between old and new forms." William james, an American psychologist, also said: "The secret of memory is to make various associations according to the materials we want to remember, and these associations become the hooks of various materials. In case the materials sink into our minds, we can hook them out through hooks like Lenovo. " Make full use of divergent thinking to expand your imagination, make the English words you want to remember vivid, vivid and concrete, and establish a connection between new words and cooked words, so as to achieve the purpose of taking the old with the new and remembering them quickly.

In addition to memorizing vocabulary, students should also know the meaning of extracurricular vocabulary, especially popular vocabulary and new vocabulary. When reading materials, there are often some latest words and abbreviations, which may affect the understanding of the full text if they are not clear.

Second, in the usual teaching, pay attention to cultivate students' interest in English reading.

At first, due to various reasons, students have a certain psychological burden and are afraid of English articles. Teachers should regularly give students a certain amount of training, write a composition a day, and gradually train students through "gnawing". When selecting materials, the articles should be diverse, wide-ranging and interesting. In addition to the reading materials in textbooks, teachers should also collect some articles that are not too difficult, close to students' lives and easy for students to be interested as extracurricular reading training materials. For example, you can use some articles about customs and festivals in western countries, and you can also use some articles about campus life abroad, jokes and fables. After reading, ask students to do some exercises or write a summary, which can not only improve their English reading comprehension, but also train their oral and writing skills.

After students' English reading reaches a certain level, teachers can combine the common reading questions in the exam, such as expository and popular science, and let them practice. Students should be encouraged to think carefully about the difficulties they encounter and learn to understand the meaning of the article in context. You can hold some English reading competitions regularly, provide reading materials, ask students to finish reading within the specified time, fully affirm their achievements, and let them feel a certain sense of success.

Third, teach students the correct reading methods, clarify the purpose, and improve the correct rate of doing problems.

The purpose of our reading is to get useful and relevant information from the materials. Different purposes, different topic requirements and different reading methods. The main methods and skills are as follows:

1. If students only want to know the central idea and meaning of the article, they only need to browse or skim it.

When reading, focus on the first sentence (paragraph) and the last sentence (paragraph) of the article. Because the central idea and main meaning of the article or the result of things are mostly at the beginning or end of the article.

If students want to know the specific details of the article, they should read it intensively.

Reading sentence by sentence and understanding the beginning, process and result of the event is very helpful to grasp the details of specific facts.

3. If the space is too large, the story is not strong and the time is limited, students can choose to read purposefully according to the training topic.

4. In the process of reading, you will inevitably encounter unfamiliar or unfamiliar new words, which will affect your understanding.

If it's not an important word, let them ignore it. If it affects the understanding of the article, students can speculate according to the context. In this way, it can sometimes help to understand the article.

In addition to paying attention to reading methods, we should also pay attention to reading habits and allocate time reasonably during training. Some students are used to reading aloud, and some students are used to reading with their fingers or pens, which are not desirable. Many times, especially during the exam, it not only bothers others, but also delays time. Students should get into the habit of reading silently, read without distractions, expand the viewing range and reduce the backward view. Concentrate all your energy on the material you read and save time. Teachers can also give students a limited time when practicing at ordinary times, asking them to finish within the specified time, and try to look up the dictionary as little as possible or not, which can speed up the reading rhythm and lay the foundation for getting good reading results in the exam.

Reading comprehension is the embodiment of the comprehensive application of English knowledge, an important part of English teaching and an important way for readers to obtain information. Only by mastering reading skills and methods and persisting in training can we achieve good results. In the actual reading teaching, we advocate the combination of intensive reading and extensive reading, and the combination of in-class reading and extracurricular reading, so as to cultivate students' reading ability, tap each student's language learning potential and effectively improve students' comprehensive language use ability.