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1、Literature Review1. The importance of reading in English learningIn language learning, reading is regarded as a major source of input, and for many EFL learners it is the most important skill in an academic context （Grabe 1991). In addition, reading can help learners extend their general knowledge o
2、f the world. In the context of China, as Chinese EFL learners are learning the target language in an acquisition-poor environment, they need all the more to depend on reading for language and culture immersion. And, what is more, there is another necessity to Chinese EFL learnersreading for examinat
3、ions (Zhou 2003). It is obvious that reading makes up a large proportion of the total scores in important English Proficiency Tests at various levels such as Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), College English Test Band 4 (CET-4), Col
4、lege English Test Band 6 (CET-6), Test for English Majors Band 4 (TEM-4), Test for English Majors Band 8 (TEM-8) (Pu 2006). Therefore, reading is considered an essential and prerequisite ability on the part of English majors. 2. The reading process 2.1 The nature of reading Reading comprehension beg
5、ins at the smallest and simplest language units and each single word, sentence and passage carries its own meaning independently which has no direct link with the reader (Chomsky cited in Zhang & Guo 2005). It is the process of acquiring information from a written or printed text. So to read a text
6、successfully is to know the meaning of the text. (Eskey 2002, cited in Yu 2005). Another view about reading is that reading is a “psycholinguistic guessing game” (Goodman 1967, cited in Zhang 2006) during which the reader can make predictions about the content of a passage according to the textual c
7、lues, his prior knowledge and experience. If his predictions are confirmed, the reader continues, otherwise, he revises those predictions (Goodman 1967; Smith 1971, cited in Silberstein 2002: 6).From this perspective, reading can be taken as an interactive activity (Eskey 1988; Grabe 1993, cited in
8、Hedge 2002: 188) which can be understood to be a complex cognitive process in which the reader and the text interact to (re)create meaningful discourse (Silberstein 2002: x). It is in at least two ways. Firstly, the various processes involved in reading are carried out simultaneously. Secondly, it i
9、s interactive in the sense that linguistic information from the text interacts with information activated by the reader from his long-term memory, as background knowledge (Grabe & Stoller 2005: 18). At this point, reading can also be described as a kind of dialogue between the reader and the text, o
10、r even between the reader and the author (Widdowson 1979a, cited in Hedge 2002: 188).Meanwhile, reading is a complex process. It involves processing ideas generated by others that are transmitted through language and involves highly complex cognitive processing operations (Nunan 1999, cited in Yu 20
11、05). And many processing skills are coordinated in very efficient combinations (Grabe & Stoller 2005: 4).Furthermore, reading is a purposeful process. We can divide the purpose into different categories: reading for pleasure or reading for information in order to find out something or do something w
12、ith the information you get (Grellet 2000: 4): to get information, to response to curiosity about a topic; to follow instructions to perform a task; for pleasure, amusement, and personal enjoyment; to keep in touch with friends and colleagues; to know what is happening in the world; and to find out
13、when and where things are (Rivers and Temperley1978: 187, cited in Hedge 2002: 195).Besides these, reading is a critical process. Critical reading views reading as a social engagement (Kress 1985, cited in Hedge 2002: 197). Form this viewpoint, texts are organized in certain ways by writers to shape
14、 the perceptions of readers towards acceptance of the underlying ideology of the text (Hedge 2002: 197). So it is the process for the readers to evaluate the writers attitudes or viewpoints. 2.2 Three components of reading 2.2.1 Language competenceMany researchers have pointed out that L2 learners m
15、ust reach a certain level of second language competence before they can smoothly read in the target language (see Grabe & Stoller 2005). An efficient reader can recognize and decode the words, grammatical structures and other linguistic features quickly, accurately, and automatically.Obviously, some
16、times second language readers have difficulties in processing texts which contain unfamiliar elements of the English language such as the cohesive devices (Hedge 2002: 192). Just as Berman (1984, cited in Hedge 2002: 193) suggests, deletion, another cohesive device, can make a text opaque to the reader. It seems to confirm the hypothesis that foreign language readers are partly dependent on processing syntactic structures successfully to get access to meanin
