Abstract: The development of adequate reading skills at an early age has an enormous influence on the academic achievement of students throughout the course of their educational career. This study explores the status quo of reading teaching in rural primary schools in China from the perspective of schools and teachers, and its findings could help promote the development of early reading for rural students. The survey in 150 rural primary schools in Guizhou and Jiangxi and the results of PIRLS show that teaching of reading still needs to improve.The sample rural teachers had lower level of education, and had not received sufficient reading trainings. The reading materials for teaching were quite single and the schools did not develop students’ reading skills in time. The regression results show that there were significantly positive correlations between teaching of reading and student reading achievement in rural China. And education levels of rural teachers and reading training are especially important for reading development. In order to develop student reading, it is necessary to improve reading training and reading environment, and enrich reading resources for teachers in rural primary schools.

Key words: primary school student, reading development, teaching of reading, PIRLS questionnaires