MeaningGuessingStrtegiesinHighSchoolEnglishReading英语毕业论文.docx

Meaning Guessing Strategies in High School English Reading Abstract For English learners, reading is one important skill of the five basic language skills ( listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating ) and plays an extraordinary important role in both English language acquisition and intercultural communication and cooperation. Reading is a tool for learning. However, in the course of English reading, students will inevitably find many new words and also some words that are not new to them but their meanings change. These words are often regarded as barriers to comprehension. Many English learners, especially high school students are not good at obtaining the meaning of new words or new meanings of familiar words when students read, which discourages them to read further. Hence, the ability to infer meanings of words plays a very important role in English reading and meaning guessing strategy is a traditional and effective method to improve reading comprehension. With the purpose of improving, English students’ reading speed and ability, this thesis mainly deals with the three factors in guessing strategy and the strategies of guessing the meaning of words, and more examples are given to demonstrate how to apply these strategies to English learning. As long as students truly acquire and apply these guessing strategies in English reading, they will access the new information in a passage more easily and accurately, stimulating their great interest and passion in learning English so as to improve their reading efficiency and capacity. Key words: guessing strategy; English reading; word itself; context Ⅰ Introduction Reading serves to enlarge a learner’ vocabulary, enrich his or her language knowledge and broaden his or her horizon. It is an active process and almost all reading involves a risk guessing game in Goodman’s words—because learners have to, through this puzzle-solving process, infer meanings, decide what to retain and not to retain, and move on