《1.1 Background of the Research .docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《1.1 Background of the Research .docx（1页珍藏版）》请在三一文库上搜索。
1、1.1 Background of the ResearchAs one of the main sources of getting information, reading is no doubt of importance for EFL learners. A good reading competence is a necessity for those using English for academic and occupational purpose. For those who are learning at school, the challenge of reading
2、is huge. In most English examinations, reading comprehension is the main skill to be tested, accounting for 40% to 50% of the total score in the test. Famous researchers like Wang Qiang (2000), Wen Qiufang conduct a series of researches in order to find out some beneficial reading strategies. Teache
3、rs also spare no efforts to find effective ways to improve students reading competence. Yet, despite continuous practice tutored by teachers in reading, many students find difficulty in making sense of text they need to read. Actually, the common phenomenon in junior high schools is that students pa
4、y their most attention to the learning of individual words, language points and fixed sentence patterns instead of the whole text. Most of the students care little about the arrangement of the whole text, the interrelation among different parts of a text. Thus, it is difficult for students to achiev
5、e further progress in English reading. Many scholars (Cook,1989; Grellet,1981; Mackay, 1979; Nuttall,2005) have suggested and some (Connor & Johns,1990)have shown that one of the reasons for this is failure to interpret the writers cohesive signals or fail to understand the functional value of indiv
6、idual sentences and thus their relationship to each other and the whole(Lubelska,1991).1.2 The Purpose and the Significance of the StudyThe main purpose of the present study is to improve the reading comprehension ability of junior high school students based on cohesion theory. As is known to all, a good reader should not only pay attention to the meaning of a text, but also try to infer the underlined meaning and appreciate the experience and emotion of the writer. In this sense, cohesion theory suggests that to understand the structure or patterns of sentences and lang