The effect of reading English newspaper and magazines on English majors’ study

It’s not hard to see that with the development of the modern medium， people are provided with more access to English studying. The Internet and TV both play quite important roles in English studying. They are the top two sources while the English newspapers and magazines lists number four. While compared with other means， English newspapers and magazines have stability and targets features and indeed have a great effect among English majors in different aspects.

Firstly， Newspaper and magazine reading affects the accumulation of basic English knowledge. As a matter of fact， newspapers and magazines have 3 features (First， rich information on economy， culture and policy etc; second， flexible and precise use of English; third， regular update)， which brings about 3 different accumulations of English. ①itcomes to the influence that rich information on economy， culture and policy etc have on English major students’ learning.②it comes to the influence that flexible and precise use of English in various kinds of English newspapers and magazines have on English major students’ learning.③it comes to the influence that regular updated English newspapers and magazines have on English major students’ learning.

Secondly， Newspaper and magazine reading affects the language skills.①English newspaper and magazine help promote their reading skills greatly. Reading newspaper and magazine can help promote their reading ability， which usually includes 2 aspects: one is speed， the other is comprehension. English newspaper and magazine of all kinds help to stimulate students’ reading interest and have also become their extensive reading materials. Their reading speed will likely be improved a lot for they have practiced some reading skills such as skimming or scanning during reading process.②reading newspaper and magazine can help improve English majors’ writing level to some degree. There is no doubt that reading will rich the language knowledge and help to broad the writing materials， especially newspaper and magazine cover a wide rang field such as economy policy and culture etc. Moreover， English majors can use the normative article structure and precise English expression for reference in their daily writing from reading a lot. ③newspaper and magazine reading does improve spoken English as they can use the words for oral practice.

Thirdly， English newspaper and magazine reading affects the students’ feelings， attitudes， and generated skills.①Reading English newspapers and magazines， to a certain extent， do well to students for developing their emotions. It may encourage students to be confident in doing things， to be optimistic to the terrible case， to be ambitious for their goals and even support them to break away from the current straits. ②Students are highly likely to learn the nice character， good quality from famous person， which will help students to improve themselves. It is likely that anecdotes， in the English magazines and newspapers， may be an important transition to students. Students may take example of famous person， then to model what they did or the way they think. ③The appearance of the social phenomenon helps students have a better understanding of the international affairs， are awake to enhance their own qualities， arouse students to be aware of the responsibility and mission to invigorate the Chinese nation at the same time.④In addition， reading English newspapers and magazines plays a key role in understanding the intellectual culture. Students can take advantage of what they have read in English magazines and newspapers to develop their skills. For instance， while communicating with others， they may not be offensive but polite after going deep understanding the intellectual culture. In addition， they may make fewer mistakes in our translation， for example“It’s all Greek to me” which means not understand something totally.

In conclusion， reading English newspaper and magazines benefits English majors’ a lot as in aspects of basic knowledge， language skills and values. So in college foreign language teaching， newspaper and magazine reading should be vigorously promoted.