| dc.description.abstract | In this globalized generation, English proficiency has become more indispensable. The importance of English education has also been concerned more. The nation, schools, cram schools and even parents all try their best to cultivate children′s English proficiency. Scoring is the most common way to examine the English ability of children. However, the feelings and attitudes of children during English learning were often ignored. When children have a positive attitude and feelings as well as the affirmative cognition to English learning. The willingness and action of learning were formed, and the children will enjoy the pleasure and achieve their self-expectations. The benefits of reading toward language learning are affirmed in many research. Therefore, this study explores the impact of different English reading activities on student’s reading engagement and reading attitude. The purpose of this study is to understand the feelings and psychological state of children during English learning, and design the appropriate English reading activity for cultivating their positive reading attitude.
The subjects of this study are 20 fifth graders from an elementary school in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. The duration of the experiment spans two semesters, a total of 13 weeks. “Free reading” and “guided reading” activities were implemented in two semesters separately, in order to observe the reading engagement and the difference of reading attitude continuously.
The results indicated that ”free reading” can help girls and high-level prior knowledge students to engage in reading and reduce anxiety effectively; on the contrary, reading without guidance can reduce boys′ and low-level prior knowledge students′ cognition of English reading and improve anxiety. In the ”guided reading” activity, the reading attitude of girls and of high-level prior knowledge students increased in the negative dimension and reduced their willingness to read. Conversely, reading attitude of boys and low-level prior knowledge students did not change significantly. The inference is that the books in “guided reading” activities is more difficult, and the books are uniform that the types of books can′t meet the interest of girls and high-level prior knowledge students, which made them have negative reading attitude changes.
Based on the findings above, it suggested that arranging girls and high-level prior knowledge students to English ”free reading” activity and provide a large number of books with different themes and difficulties. The ”guided reading” activity can be carry out for boys and low-level prior knowledge students, accompanied by a unified activity in the whole class. Through the understanding of reading attitude and reading engagement of children with different English reading designs, we can cultivate positive English reading attitudes of children, made them carry out English reading initiative, and learn English from it. In the long run, children’s English proficiency and the content they read will be the base to receive new knowledge and connect globalization in the future.
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