Students Severe Lack of Reading in Foreign Language Education.

I will start my essay with my own son. He is seven years now and he has read like 300 hundred original English picture books. I started to guide him to read simple picture books when he was only three. What delights me most now is that he can speak very fluent English with correct grammar which the Chinese learners take most care of. Now he doesnt need me to teach him to read as he can pick a book freely from the bookshelf and read continually without any interruption. The brief introduction of my son is the prelude of my essay topic – students severe lack of reading in foreign language education.

In many second or foreign language teaching situations，reading receives a special focus. There are a number of reasons for this. First，many foreign language students often have reading as one of their most important goals. They want to be able to read for information and pleasure，for their career，and for study purposes. In fact，in most EFL situations，the ability to read in a foreign language is all that students ever want to acquire. Second，written texts serve various pedagogical purposes. Extensive exposure to linguistically comprehensible written texts can enhance the process of language acquisition.（Jack C.Richards，Willy A. Renandya，2002）Given the portability of books and other reading materials（as well as the increasing availability of reading material over the Internet），reading is gradually being recognized as a valuable source of language input，particularly for students in learning environment（as in some EFL contexts）in which fluent speakers of English are generally not available to provide other kinds of language input.（Marianne Celce-murcia，2001）Even in those courses that may be labelled “reading”，your goals will be best achieved by capitalizing on the connection between reading and other models of performance，especially the reading-writing relationship.

Primary school English reading issues outside the classroom

With the development of the times，English has become a popular language and English education is very important in our education system. With this development trend，primary school English education plays an extremely important role in current teaching. However，it has a lot of issues in primary school students' English reading.

1. Ignorance of extracurricular reading

At present，in primary school English teaching，teachers often ignore English extracurricular reading teaching and lack guidance for that. Students lack correct guidance during reading，which leads to the failure of extracurricular reading. In English teaching，the corresponding extracurricular reading practice arrangement is not sufficient. In the specific teaching，due to the improper schedule of extracurricular reading，the curriculum setting is not reasonable，which leads to the failure to implement the extracurricular reading teaching.

2. Insufficient reading materials for English education in primary schools

In primary school English teaching，teachers only teach basic pronunciation of English and the understanding of basic words. Only by mastering these foundations can we learn dialogue and text. There are very few suitable materials for primary school students to read. The choice of reading materials is also inappropriate. Therefore，the actual English extracurricular reading teaching could not be carried out effectively and the effect was not good.

1. Knowledge Obstacles

1.1 Vocabulary obstacles

Vocabulary deficiency is the main reason which affects reading level. Because of the understanding of words directly affect the understanding about the sentences. Dictionary with a large vocabulary contains as many as 200，000 entries. But common college students usually master 5，000 to 8，000 words. It is simply a drop in the bucket. Whats more，some scientific and technical terms as well as catchphrase continually appear on reading paper. It is no doubt that these situations add the difficulty to English reading. The range of vocabulary is so narrow that students cannot understand the meaning of articles when they meet new words，they feel confused and moreover，some of them would count on dictionary or e-dictionary，which either wastes lots of time or the meaning they doesnt necessarily meet the one in the context. Lack of vocabulary is not only influence the correct and comprehensive comprehension about the whole test，but also affects readers interest and independence.（李俊，2003）

1.2 Grammar Obstacles

In the process of English learning，the grammar knowledge is also indispensable. The complicated words，sentences and sentences compose to discourse. This is the function of grammar. Because of the difference in syntax  language habits and customs of the culture，English grammar and Chinese grammar also exists great differences. Lack of grammar knowledge would certain affect the quality of reading comprehension. Especially when encounter with the clause，sentences and complex sentences，but also need to analyze the sentence structure to understand the meaning of the sentences. For example，when there are long sentences or difficult sentences in reading material，usually students can not find out the central words，they can not divide the elements of sentence and can not understand the meaning of sentence if they do not have the strong grammar knowledge.

Reference：

[1]  David Nunan（2004），Practical English Language Teaching

[2]  H.Douglas.Brown，（2007），Teaching by Principles

[3]  Jack C.Richards，Willy A. Renandya，（2002），Methodology in Language Teaching

[4]  Marianne Celce-murcia，（2001），Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language

[5]  Penny Ur. A Course in Language Teaching：Practice and Theory.Cambridge University Press，2000.8.

作者簡介：裴晓敏（1988.8-），江苏人，在读研究生，研究方向：英语教育。