High School English Reading Instructional Design based on the Activity-Based Approach to English Learning

A case study of The Age of Majority

Abstract

With the implementation of the English Curriculum Standards for General High Schools (2017 Edition, 2020 Revision), cultivating students’ English core competency has become a key objective in high school English teaching. The Activity-Based Approach (ABA) to English learning, as a pivotal pathway to achieving this goal, provides a new theoretical framework and practical direction for reading instruction. This paper explores the design of high school English reading instruction based on ABA, using the text The Age of Majority from Unit 1 of Book 5 in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (2019 Edition) Selective Compulsory textbook as a case study. The study first elucidates the essence of ABA and its guiding significance in high school English reading instruction. Subsequently, it proposes the following teaching strategies in conjunction with the specific lesson: 1) Shifting teaching philosophies to design activities oriented toward core competency development; 2) Optimizing instructional design to enhance student engagement through multi-tiered activities; 3) Conducting in-depth text analysis to explore deeper meanings and cultural connotations; 4) Refining assessment mechanisms to implement the integration of “teaching, learning, and evaluation.” These interconnected strategies aim to improve students’ language ability, cultural awareness, thinking capacity, and learning ability through activity-based reading instruction. Additionally, this paper presents a practical instructional design case to provide high school English teachers with actionable references.