An Empirical Study on the Application of ESA Teaching Model in Middle School English Reading Classes

Abstract

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four basic skills of English competence, among which the importance of English reading in English teaching is prominent. However, there are some problems in middle school English reading teaching under the exam-oriented background, such as teacher-dominated classroom, students’ mechanical learning, dull teaching process, which make it difficult to motivate students’ learning motivation in English reading classes, thus ultimately affect the effectiveness of teaching activities.
In view of the above problems, based on the methods of questionnaire survey, reading pre-test and post-test, and two-week teaching experiments with 20 students of Grade 7 from a local school as subjects, this research tries to introduce ESA teaching model into middle school English classrooms and analyze the specific influence of ESA teaching model on students’ reading interest, classroom participation and reading achievement through a two-week teaching experiment. Through the statistical analysis of the data collected from the questionnaires and reading tests with the help of SPSS, it has been found that under the influence of ESA teaching model, students in the experimental group are more interested in reading classes, more active in classroom participation, and are more satisfied with their reding performance than those from the control group. Most important of all, the experimental group has achieved higher grades in the reading test after the experiment than the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that the application of ESA teaching model in the middle school English reading classes can not only help teachers create relaxing and successful reading classes, but also help students to improve their reading competence, thus maximizing the learning outcome in English classes.