A study of students' and teachers' perceptions towards using local folk stories for improving English reading skills at Kunshan Development Zone Senior High School, Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

This study determined the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of using local folk stories to improve English reading skills at Kunshan Development Zone Senior High School, Jiangsu Province, China. This study has two research objectives: (1) identifying the students’ perceptions of using local folk stories to improve English reading skills at Kunshan Development Zone Senior High School, Jiangsu Province, China. (2) to identify the teachers’ perceptions of using local folk stories to improve English reading skills at Kunshan Development Zone Senior High School, Jiangsu Province, China. 244 Grade 11 students and 10 English teachers participated in this study. The researcher used mixed explanatory methods to collect the data to carry out the research. The research instruments used were a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire for students and a structured interview for teachers. The findings indicated that (1) the Grade 11 students studied at Kunshan Development Zone Senior High School have positive attitudes toward using local folk stories to improve English reading skills. Since the total mean score of students’ perceptions on using local folk stories for improving English reading skills was interpreted as high on the interpretation scale. (2) the teachers who taught Grade 11 at the target school believed the application of folk stories in English reading teaching was helpful for students to improve their reading skills, and they were prone to use folk stories in their future teaching English classes.