1、文献综述的例子英语专业学期论文Literature review of reading issuesIntroduction:Reading is regarded as the one of the four basic skills l in language learning because people get information through reading as well as listening rather than speaking and writing。 Barnes & Powell think that “Reading holds the key to adv
2、anced language learning. （1996， p.13） Krashens input hypothesis (1982) also provided the theoretical support reading in second or foreign language acquisition which argues for the learners acquire a language by enough and highquality comprehensible input。 The development of technology like faxes, co
3、mputers makes reading more important in daily life and language learning or acquisition。 However， the widespread of Communicative Language Teaching nowadays avert more of educators attention from reading to speaking all over the world， particularly in Asian countries like China whereas reading compr
4、ehension is the most important and necessary part in all English exams。 This makes reading instruction in a dilemma and unpopular in most Chinese universities because regular classes generally tend to emphasize reading the course book assigned rather than extensive reading. And students are taught i
5、n a way that focus on direct teaching of reading comprehension and intensive reading of short， difficult texts coming form assigned course book, which causes a heavy burden of dictionary workload。 Both of the two forms of reading are necessary in reading instruction and I will review relevant litera
6、ture concerning the two forms in different areas， but much of the focus will be on extensive reading due to its significance and weak implementation in China. Reading comprehension for a textWhile the reader was once believed to be a passive receiver of information, he or she is now considered an ac
7、tive participant in a reading activity。 Sadeghi (2007) argues that a reader is an active participant in the readerwriter interaction who interacts with the text， the context and the writer by using his or her linguistic schema， particularly content schema， formal schema. Singhal (1998， p. 2） further
8、 distinguishes between three types of schema: content schema， referring to ones background or world knowledge; formal schema, also known as textual schema， referring to ones knowledge about a texts organizational and rhetorical structure； and language or linguistic schema, referring to ones knowledg
9、e of lexicon, syntax, and semantics. They all play different but important role in the interpretation of a reading text. Important text characteristics such as text type， topic, genre， lexical density， syntactic complexity， semantic abstractness， complexity of structure sentence length also affect t
10、ext comprehensibility （Pearson Camperell， 1981, p. 33）。 For the role of vocabulary in reading， there is a figure that learners need to have minimum amount of vocabulary, about 3000 word families or 5000 lexical items in order to read effectively (Laufer， 1997, p.25）. But they didnt relate the text l
11、ength to reading comprehension。 And Mehrpour and Riazi （2004) found the length of the text did not have any statistically significant effect on the students performance on the test. However， empirically， students tend to feel anxious， impatient or frustrated when facing a long text than a short text
12、 if at the same level of difficulty and if the text is a little bit difficult. This tells us when testing a student, teachers or test paper producers do not need to consider too much about the texts length， but difficult and long texts surely demotivate and frustrate the student. This is also true t
13、o classroom reading instruction。 And the implication of schemata theory in reading instruction is that while L2 readers bring their L1 content and formal schema to L2 situations, teachers need help them develop L2 language schema from the beginning。 In Chinese universities, teachers tend to emphasiz
14、e developing students linguistic schema by teaching vocabulary and grammar rather than formal and content schema, particularly the latter. Therefore， there is a must that instructors need to cover formal and content schema knowledge in reading instruction。For reading strategies， Schoonern et al (199
15、8, cited in Guan， 2004， p。23) find that an effective reader can effectively use and make constant shifts between top-down and bottom-up approaches with the meta-cognitive knowledge。 Metacognitive knowledge, referring to a readers ability to adjust his or her strategies to complete a task （Baker Brow
16、n， 1984）, is very useful for effective reading in that it enables the reader to compensate his or her deficiencies in linguistic schema。 The top-down approach basically emphasizes on the readers content schema knowledge in that it emphasizes on his or her interpretation and prior knowledge。 It deman
17、ds the reader to activate his or her schema to arrive at the text meaning. However, the bottom-up approach involves the reader to arrive at the text meaning by decoding the text through the knowledge of linguistic schema and text schema. Due to the lack of their content schema and insufficient readi
18、ng amount, Chinese learners of English tend to use bottomup approach during reading process。 This once again calls for the necessity of their content schema input by sufficient reading and teachers instruction。 Besides， strategy instruction is also important in reading comprehension domain （Nuttall,
19、 1996； Danielle, 2008) especially for those who have less content schema knowledge For example, teachers are suggested to use mental modelling to makes their reading process visible and easy for the students to imitate their reading procedures, thus further to help to develop students reading strate
20、gies by improving their reasoning by imitating the teachers process of reasoning (Pani， 2004， p。 361)。 Students can be put in groups to take turns selfexplaining a part of the textbook using the strategies of paraphrasing, elaboration, prediction and bridging inference （Danielle， 2008， p。35）. Extens
21、ive reading Richards and Schmidt (2002， pp。193194） define extensive reading as “reading in quantity and in order to gain a general understanding of what is read.” It attempts to build up knowledge of vocabulary and structure, arouse interest in reading and develop good reading habits。 Krashens input
22、 hypothesis (1982） also emphasized the value of extensive reading in reading instruction because of its sufficient comprehensible input and his reading hypothesis (1993） points out the positive effect of extensive reading on other skills like speaking, listening and writing and other abilities like
23、reading comprehension and speed， vocabulary, grammar and spelling。 This reading hypothesis has been supported by many researches （Mason & Krashen， 1997; Bell， 2001； Macalister， 2008） and Meng also supplements the hypothesis with the cultivation of interest and motivation, positive attitude and learn
24、ing habits towards reading and general language learning. However， Yamashita （2008, p.668） argues that extensive reading has little effect on linguistic ability by surveying a group of students。 No matter to what extent one agrees with the two hypothesis， it is undeniable that extensive reading has
25、a very positive role in second or foreign language learning thus should be integrated in school curriculum。 As how to employ extensive reading in reading instruction, Day and Bamford （2002， p.137-140） introduce ten guidelines for extensive reading teaching and learning from perspectives of reading m
26、aterials, teachers, students and reading itself。 Reading materials should be easy and enjoyable and concerning a variety of topics； teachers need to orient and guide their students and also act as a role model of a reader; students can choose what they want to read and they should read as much as po
27、ssible; the purpose of reading is for pleasure, information gaining and general understanding and reading is individual and silent。 Meanwhile reading speed should be faster。 Bell (1998) suggests that extensive reading should “avoid the use of tests”。 But in China， students are use to the way that th
28、ey learn for the exam, and if teachers dont test them, they are probably not to read。 Of course， other forms like keeping a journal of reading materials, card file system or the reader interview might be better choices but kind of difficult to employ in a large class to monitor everybodys reading. T
29、herefore, testing can be occasionally used in my teaching context to ensure that everybody involves in reading， but it should not be used too much in case of the cause of readers demotivation and frustration.In addition, Sustained Silent Reading （SSR） was regarded as an effective way no matter for i
30、ntensive reading or extensive reading. But success of SSR calls for a quiet， relaxing and non-evaluative classroom environment and teachers need to provide a role model of silent reading （Chow Chou, 2000 cited in Yang, p. 118)。 Although Bell (1998) and Wallace （1992， pp.5456) advocate read aloud (RA
31、） in language learning as well as reading instruction， but this is based on the reason that RA can motivate and encourage the students to involve in classroom reading and improve pronunciation of individual words， but Wallace (1992, p.56） and Gabrielatos （2002， p.2） admit that RA can be detrimental
32、to the development of reading skills in terms of reading comprehension and reading speed. Therefore, we can choose to use SSR or RA in reading according to different purposes。 But for higher-level of reading like my university students， SSR might be a better choice while for young children with a lo
33、w level English， RA can be used together with SSR. Ozburn (1995） argues that the benefits of extensive reading can not be observed until the minimum of four months has passed。 Therefore, educators should not give up extensive reading if students do not get instant positive result when integrating extensive reading in EFL instruction， but if ther
