Abstract:

This paper introduces an exploratory study on applying literature circles in a Chinese primary school to improve students’ reading abilities. After one academic year experiment, results show that literature circles have great impact on stimulating different levels of students’ passions on reading, improving their independent reading abilities, and fostering their communication skills and teamwork.

Students’ reading ability reflects their understanding during the class. However, in Chinese traditional education, students always depend on teacher’s teaching and analyzing the context rather than learning independently, which causes a phenomenon that teacher is reading, while students are just listening in class. Students have little chance to ask questions and express their ideas. This study aims at cultivating students reading ability by using literature circles. It explores the impact of literature circles on reading ability of 5th-grade students, how literature circles improves students’ test performance and students’ interest on reading.

The rest of this paper includes: literature review and enrichment of the literature circles reading method in part 2, introduction of experiment on literature circles application in Chinese reading in part 3, data analyze on impact of literature circles in part 4, and final conclusion with recommendations in part 5.

Keywords:

Literature circle, reading ability, Chinese reading, primary school.