1.2 Purpose and significance of the Study 1

1.3 Research Question and Value 2

2 Literature review 3

2.1 Definition of the second classroom 3

2.2 Researches Home 3

2.3 Researches Abroad 4

3 Description of the experiment 5

3.1 Subjects 5

3.2 The research instruments 5

3.3 Procedures 5

3.3.1 Pre-questionnaire and Pretest 5

3.3.2 Procedures of the experiment 6

3.3.3 Give guidance in English extracurricular reading 7

3.3.4 Post-questionnaire and Post-test 10

4 Data analysis and discussion 11

4.1 Analysis on Pre-test and Post-test 11

4.2 Analysis on the pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire 12

4.2.1 Analysis on the pre-questionnaire 12

4.2.2 Analysis on the post-questionnaire 14

5 Conclusion 17

5.1 Findings from the investigation 17

5.2 Limitations 18

Reference 19

Appendix 20

Appendix I 20

Appendix II 21

Appendix III 21

Appendix IV 25

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

    For a long time, Chinese education takes examination-oriented education as the core. However, with the arrival of globalization of information, English is ubiquitous in everyone’s daily life. Under this international background, China has started to carry out educational reform since 2001. As a result, English reading, as one of the four basic skills of language learning and an aspect of communicative competence, has drawn more and more attention in language learning. English reading is widely seen as an effective way in helping students to study English and fundamentally improve their English language competence. 

The New English Curriculum Standard set the following standard for English reading: Firstly, students can infer the meaning of new words from the context and word formation rules. Secondly, students can understand the logical relationships between each sentence in a paragraph. Thirdly, students can pick out the main ideas in texts and understand the plot in stories, predicting its development and possible endings. Forth, students can understand reading material of different common genres. Fifth, students can use appropriate reading strategies to find information according to different reading purposes. Sixth, students can use dictionaries and other reference material to carry out learning. Finally, students should have read material other than that included in the textbook, totaling over 150 000 words.

The New English Curriculum Standard has very high requirements on English reading ability and a large amount of reading quantity. To adapt to the new requirements of the New English Curriculum Standard, the level of English reading skills of middle school students should be improved. Students should improve their reading ability which has been a challenge for them all the time. It has been found that students in middle school do not clearly know the importance of reading. Lots of them even show no interest in English reading. Facing the current embarrassing situation, we think it is essential to train students’ English reading ability.