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［摘 要］This paper，through questionnaires responded by 200 students has investigated the current situation of use reading aloud to learning English．The research from four aspects analyze the reading aloud and promote some proposals that can be taken to deal with the matter．

The study makes an attempt to examine the effect of reading aloud on sense for English，listening，and speaking and word memory and the English learning strategies used by high school students．

［關鍵詞］English learning ability reading aloud

［中圖分類號］G64 ［文獻標識碼］A ［文章編號］1009－5489(2008)02－50－05

Ⅰ Introduction

The thesis is composed of four parts：

In part one，the author first gives a brief introduction to the study of reading aloud．Then，the purpose for the present study is presented．

In part two presents some related concepts and theories and their close relations with reading aloud．And the theoretical background be presented．It reveals the relations between reading aloud and sense for language，listening，speaking，words memory with the help of linguistic，and psycholinguistic theories．

Part three gives a rough description of the English learning strategies used by senior high school students in China via questionnaires．And analyze the data and results．

Part four is the author put forward proposal for reading aloud in English teaching．

Part five concludes the findings of this thesis and gives recommendations for future research．

Ⅱ Literature review

1． Concepts of reading aloud

Reading aloud can be characterized as \"the clear articulation of words，flexibility in rate，volume and tone，adequate phrasing and effective use of pauses\"．Reading aloud to children has been advocated in Western countries in recent years，as represented by Trelease Much work has been done on reading aloud to children and adults．Recent research conducted on reading aloud is mainly in the following fields：1)reading aloud and listening comprehension 2)reading aloud and motivation； 3)reading aloud and reading comprehension．

2．Overview of reading aloud

There is no doubt that the origins of reading lie in speech，both historically and developmentally．The kids are taught to read aloud when they were in kindergarten．Similarly，children are almost invariably trained to read aloud，and only subsequently begin to read silently．

(1)The controversy about reading aloud．

Until the early 20th century，reading aloud was the prevalent method of teaching reading in Western cultures．Subsequent to the rise of silent reading instruction in the early 1900s，three schools of thought developed about reading aloud instruction．The first group saw reading aloud as a means to more proficient silent reading； the second viewed reading aloud as a detriment to the development of proficient silent reading； and the third approached oral reading as an art form whose techniques were worth mastering．The debate about the relative value of silent and oral reading diminished in the 1950s with the acknowledgement by some that reading aloud and reading silently involved different skills．However view pointed by Hallday\"If it(the text)gets too difficult，try reading it aloud．It is amazing how much that can help\"

(2)Reading aloud in Home

In China，most teachers and students support reading aloud．Xiao Jianzhuang says 'reading aloud not only helps us comprehend texts on a macroscopic level，but also on a sentence level'．In primary and middle schools，special time is set aside for reading aloud，usually in the early mornings．The popular textbooks used by most undergraduate students，College English，maintain reading aloud as the first exercise．Reading aloud is advocated as a sort of good experience in learning languages．

However，there is little empirical research or theories done to investigation the benefits of reading aloud to Chinese learners learn English and in which respect can reading aloud help Chinese learners．

3．The aim of thesis

Although much attention has been paid to the English learning of Chinese learners，there is not yet a particular theories suggested．Chinese learners，especially those high school students，Since teachers of English have no inclination to spare some time for listening，vocabulary memorization，or spoken language．Can we find a particular way for Chinese students' self-learning after class？

4．The good effect of reading aloud in English teaching for high school students．

Reading aloud then is discussed in its special advantages．The learner will receive visual stimuli，auditory stimuli and oral stimuli at the same time when he reads aloud．Reading aloud needs reader to concentrate attention and has fluent speech．The reader must read the material carefully and think whether the pronunciations right or not，and adjust the phonetic sounds to suit the context．The good reading aloud also need readers' feeling．Reading English aloud can produce mechanically memorize，so it can memorize the sentence patterns，then produce a series of reaction，such as feeling，perception and thinking．The paper from 4 aspects reveals the effects of reading aloud in English learning．

a．The language sense

The frequent reading aloud is good for training students' feel for language．An expert said； \"The faulty of thinking of high school students that are at puberty is better than children．And the conscious memory and long term memory are also better than children．So all of these are their advantages in their language learning．\"\"if it(the text)gets too difficult，try to reading it aloud．it is amazing how much that can help．\"If they came across a passage that is very hard to understand，they can read it aloud repeatedly．Then the general idea of the passage will clear．The skillful reading aloud is good for developing people's language sensing capability Therefore frequent and persistent reading aloud advantage the students get more sense of whole in English．Many good sentences were absorbed via repeating text aloud．The teachers could save much time and energy to teach the completed structures English，if their students like reading aloud．

b．Listening comprehension

In English learning，the high school students get listening materials through the short-term memory，so they cannot hear it very correctly and clearly．For instance，homonyms and the words of close pronunciation are very hard to distinguish．All of these influence the result of listening．The sound that imitates the standard reading text of listening materials returns to brain．Thus it form the hearing stimulus，thereby the hearing image was set up．The speed of reading aloud decides the hearing reaction．The people that have the best hearing may not have a good eloquence，but the eloquent people must have a good hearing．The score of listening test not only show students' listening ability，it also show the ability of speech．Obviously，reading，speaking and listening have a close relationship．

c．Spoken English

\"It's hard to speak out the English\" means they speak，\"Dumb English．\" This is a common problem in Chinese students' English learning．Moreover，the \"Dumb English．\" leads to uninterest of students in English learning．So the students have no motivation to learn English further．However，reading aloud text is an effective way to develop spoken English．

(1)Reading aloud can train speech organ and lay a good foundation for spoken English．English is a foreign language in China，which means that English is rarely spoken or heard outside class．For example multisyllable and consonant cluster are very rarity in Chinese．Most classroom discourses，however，are conducted in Chinese，especially in high school．The speech muscles of Chinese are not used to pronounce those English sounds．It is quite possible that a Chinese learner can spell an English word but cannot pronounce it correctly．Thus reading aloud can help train their speech muscles．Then learners can speak an idiomatic English．

(2)Reading aloud can improve speech sound and intonation of English．They are important parts of language and deeply influence communication．For senior high school students in China，there is no English condition to practice oral English．So they are impossible to learn the speech sound and intonation of English through social intercourse．Yet reading aloud was not limited by condition，the learners can practice it in any time and any place．The students can master the pure speech sound and intonations through imitation the tape of text．That is，reading aloud text following the tape．

d．Words memory

Reading aloud is a good way to remember English words．Memory experts recommend using as many of one's senses as possible when one is learning new information．Some suggest，for example，that one reads aloud rather than silently when one is trying to memorize something because then one hears the words as well as sees them，and one sense reinforces the other．Reading aloud texts to remember words，in fact，is based on the theory of learning words from reading Learners get visual stimuli from silent reading while they can get two other stimuli from reading aloud．Thus，learners can get three stimuli when reading aloud．Actionpoints out that reading aloud asks learners to pay close attention to what they are reading．Learners must look carefully at the words and sentences to avoid mistakes．They must make sure that it is pen not pin that they are going to read aloud．Since they pay concentration，their word recognition and speech production systems are activated and their knowledge about semantic meaning is also activated．The general principle of the levels of processing' theory is that the more that words are analyzed and are enriched by associations or images，the longer they will stay in the memory．Reading aloud texts repeatedly provides learners chances to have all the new words recycled．They repeatedly see and listen to the pronunciation of the words．

Ⅲ Research design

1．Objectives

This thesis tries to suggest the importance of reading aloud More specifically，the study tries to show that reading aloud is an effective way to learn English．English listening，English speaking technique，the way of train sense of language and remember new words reveal its special significance to high school students．The experiment is employed here to examine the reading aloud used by the second year senior high school students．The result enabled me to design a list of items that can prove the importance of reading aloud．At last I hope this way can use d by students can be paid more attention by high school teachers．

2．Participants

In order to get the above-mentioned ends，a questionnaire was elaborated after a widely reviewing of relevant literature and research．More than 120 students were interviewed about their English learning and views of reading aloud．For the students，they come from senior high school in YanBian area．There are two classes．And 60 students are from natural class，and 60 are from excellent class．Relatively speaking，the students in natural class are in low rank score of English，but excellent class students have a high score of English．The data were collected and characterized according to the different classes

3．Instruments

In order to assess the opinions of potentially diverse students，a questionnaire was used to collect the data for the study．This questionnaire is composed up of 13 questions all together and can be divided into 5 parts．The first and second questions simply ask students if have a good habit of reading aloud or their if paid attention to reading aloud．The next two questions were designed to investigate high school students' ideas to the sense for language．The next two questions ask them that how to improve they spoken English in school．The following two questions refer to how to improve their listening．The remaining questions investigate students how to memorize the new words．

4．Data collection

On January 28，2007，the questionnaire experiment was conducted in No．4 Senior High School．Under the teachers' help who are in that school．The data collection was complete within one day．All of the participants are the second year students．The experiment took place in classroom．All of the participants answer the questionnaire at the same time．The questionnaire requires about 2 to 5 minutes．120 papers were issued to the students，and all papers were collected．But there are 3 papers were empty．So 117 papers are available．

5．results and analysis

Results of the research are calculated by computer．In this section，the result of the questionnaires are categorized into 6 sections as results of 12 questions and are presented in forms of diagrams and tables

Diagram 1Q1：has your English teacher ever required you to insist on reading aloud？

A：enforcement B：yes C：no

The result showed that the reading aloud has never been stressed in senior high school．To further analyze，I found the most English teacher always stress the importance of examinations especially the entrance of college．The students do grammar exercises in everyday，and the old pattern of learning English are still in the leader position．

Q2：Besides the time of in class，how long did you read aloud the English？

ABC

natrual class28%14%58%

Excellent class62．5%19%11．5%

Table 1

A：more than one hour B：less than one hour C：never

From the table we can found in common class only 28% students are read aloud text in everyday more than one hour．The most students have never read text aloud．However，in excellent class 62．5% students read text more than one hour，and only 11．5% students have never read text aloud．(The average English sore of common class is 65，and the excellent class is 83．)Therefore，we know the high score relate to reading aloud．

Diagram 2Q3：Do you usually use sense of language to do grammar exercise？

A； frequently B：seldom C．never

The high percentages(72．7%)in diagram is the most students' choice．Hence we can conclude that memorizing many grammar rules is not a popular way in resolving the grammar questions．On the contrary，the sense for language is more useful method．

Diagram 3Q4：Do you think the reading aloud is useful or not in improving oral English？

A：yes B：no C：don't know

The diagram shows that there is 77% students think that reading aloud can improve their oral English．Only 14% students say no．And the 9% students maybe never try this method to improve their oral English

Diagram 4Q5：Do you think the reading aloud is useful or not in improving English listening？

A：yes B：no C：don't know

From diagram 3 above，we see there is 32% students do not know that reading aloud is a good way in listening．And there is 25% students do not think reading aloud is a useful method．

Diagram 5Q6：Do you think the reading aloud is effective or not in memorizing words？

A：yes B：no C：never try this way

The diagram looks a little complex．Because there are 8% students choose both \"A \"and \"C\"．Perhaps they the reading aloud is a good method，but they don't want to give up the traditional method and to try the new one．The most of students think that reading aloud is a good way to memorize the words．The results imply that students believe that words should be learnt in context rather than rote learning．

From the analysis above，we conclude that the most students can realize that reading aloud to a certain extent can improve sense for language，oral English，listening，and can help to remember news words．But it takes learners a lot of time and energy．And the students don't have much interest in it．Moreover，many high school teachers ignore the importance of reading aloud； they don't give them a good direction．The biggest problems of students' English learning is lack of teachers'' guidance．

Ⅳ Proposal

From the previous section of presentation and analysis of the results，we can get enough feedback from students on their attitude towards reading aloud in English learning．So the following recommendations are made：

1．Make a reading aloud plan

According to the different age groups，the teacher should make a reading plan．From the grade one which is in junior middle school to grade three which is in senior middle school，the teach can teach them from read letter，phonetic alphabet，tone words stress，short sentence，long sentence，some kinds of sentence patterns，sense-group reading aloud and reading with feeling．In a word，the teacher should teach students in accordance with their aptitude．

2．Whet students' interest．

English teachers can use the varied activities to whet students' interest．For example teachers can hold some competition text of reading aloud，reading aloud story，speech，or some imitation shows，and so no．

3．Reading aloud training

Here the paper focuses on the Effects of the teacher's reading aloud on high school students．In class the teachers' reading aloud is directly influence students' training．Here the demonstrate reading aloud is more important．

If the teacher can read passage with cadence，feeling，it must attract students．And the students will imitate their teacher's reading．Especially reciting text aloud can make some students remember the text．Thus，the teaching activity becomes interactive between teacher and students．At same time students learn some skills of reading aloud by osmosis．In a word，a good English teacher must have a good ability of reading aloud．

Conclusion

The thesis makes an attempt to examine the reading aloud used by Chinese senior high school students and the effect of reading aloud on training sense for English，listening，and speaking and word memory．Although the investigation of the senior high school students is via questionnaire，a description of reading aloud can still be generalized．While for many senior high school teachers reading aloud is regarded as a useful way to learn English，but it seldom be paid more attention．

The thesis uses an experimental study to find out the effect of reading aloud on training sense for English，listening，and speaking and word memory，the results of which suggest that reading aloud help learners to learn English efficiently．Further teaching need to combine many forms of teaching activities．So the senior high teachers should have a correct attitude to the reading aloud and give students a correct guidance．

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