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1、图式理论在英语阅读理解中的应用The Use of Schema Theory in English Reading Comprehension论文摘要项目背景及问题综述：近几年来，一些研究阅读的学者认为，除了阅读水平，阅读技巧外，还有一个因素影响着阅读理解，即背景知识的作用。这种叫做Schema的理论认为，阅读是一个人对文章的意思进行积极预测、选择、确认过程，这个过程不仅涉及读者的语言知识，同时也涉及读者过去的生活经验以及头脑中对事物所固有的抽象观念，即阅读理解不仅是一个人对语言文字和语篇的处理过程，而且是一个人对已有背景知识的应用和处理过程。因此阅读理解是一个极为复杂的认知心理过程，它要求
2、读者准确有效地运用储存在大脑中的已有信息结构去获取新的信息，因而背景知识掌握的多少，这一非语言知识因素，以及如何激活大脑中已储存的Schema，是阅读理解能否顺利进行的关键。在新的英语教学里，英语阅读的教学作用已经得到了充分的重视。然而，在老师们的教学过程中，仍然存在着不少有待解决我们的问题。因此，本文的目的，也即是，探讨如何运用好图式理论，加强学生的英语阅读能力。 可以说，在阅读教学中运用图式理论，不断丰富学生头脑中原有的图式，并指导学生激活图式、建立图式和运用图式，对提高学生的阅读理解能力大有裨益。本研究基于这样的假设：运用图式理论，能有效提高学生的阅读理解力。项目对象为：20名学生项目实
3、施时间为期：两个星期。项目调研结果：项目目标基本达成。项目意义：理解学生在英语阅读学习时可能遇到的实际困难，真正有效地提高他们的英文阅读能力。关键词： 图式理论，英语阅读理解力，英语教学 Abstract In recent years, some reading researchers hold a view that except for the reading ability and reading skill, there is another factor influencing the reading understanding, that is, the use of schem
4、a theory. This theory believes that, reading is a process for a reader to positively predict, choose and confirm the meaning of the text. This process not only consists of the readers linguistic knowledge but also involves a readers life experiences and the inherently abstract concept in the persons
5、 mind. In another word, the reading comprehension is not only a process of the context, but also a implementation of background knowledge. Reading comprehension is a very complicated cognitive process, it requires a reader to gain the new information correctly and efficiently, by use of the exited i
6、nformation in his mind. Therefore, the mount of the schema and how to activate the schema which is stored in the brain, this non linguistic factor is the key point for successful reading comprehension. Our new English teaching approach has clearly stated that reading is one of the most important ski
7、lls of English study. However, there still exits some problems in our English teaching, which may leads to students reading failure. My paper is therefore, focuses on how to apply the schema theory in English reading. In conclusion, during the application of schema theory in reading teaching, consta
8、ntly adds more schema to students, and instruct students to activate, build and make use of the schema, will help improving students reading comprehension a great deal.Project Objective: to improve students skill of English reading.Project Hypothesis: schema theory will help students to improve thei
9、r skill of reading comprehension.Project object: 20 studentsProject time: two weeksThe result of the project: quite satisfied by students good response.Table of ContentsPages1. Project Introduction 72. Project Identification and Analysis9 2.1 Project problems9 2.2 Problem analysis92.2.1 Analytic met
10、hod92.2.2 Rote learning 92.2.3 Cause analysis 10 2.3 Results of the problem analysis 103. Project Objective and Hypothesis11 3.1 Project objective11 3.2 Project hypothesis114. Project Rationale114.1 What is schema theory114.2 Schema and comprehension11 4.3 Advantages of the schema theory 125. Projec
11、t Design 13 5.1 Target Group and Control Group13 5.2 Teaching materials14 5.3 Teaching methods15 5.4 The schema theory activity design15 5.5 Researching tools 18 5.5.1 Post-test18 5.5.2 Reflection Notes18 5.5.3 Questionnaire18 5.5.4 Interview196. Project Implementation19 6.1 Background information19
12、 6.2 Summary of project implementation19 6.3 Sample grouping 19 6.4 Data collection 207. Results and Discussion20 7.1 Learners perception of the new method20 7.1.1 Learners answers in the interview20 7.2 Comparison of the pre-test and the pro-test 21 7.3 Findings from the interview22 7.4 Findings fr
13、om Teaching Notes228. Conclusion22Bibliography23Appendix A 23Appendix BAppendix C2525Appendix D 26Appendix E26The Use of Schema Theory in English Reading Comprehension1. Project Introduction Reading plays an important role in the whole English learning. However, how to read most efficiently? The tra
14、ditional reading mode advocates bottom-up model（Goodman,1971:135）, or the passive decoding, which means that by understanding every word and phrase, the reader will surely gain the comprehension. But with the development of applied Linguistics and psychological linguistics, reading is found a proces
15、s of positive guessing and confirmation, rather than a process of passive decoding, which is called top-down model. And, later on, an artificial intelligence expert, D.E.Rumelhart suggests that reading is a process of both bottom-up model and top-down model, which can be called interactive model.In
16、fact, whatever model the reader chooses to use, the reading comprehension can not be satisfied without the readers schematic knowledge. It is safe to say that, the readers good understanding is the interactive result of linguistic knowledge and schematic knowledge.（winddowson,1990） In my opinion, th
17、e implementation of schema theory is an efficient way to improve students reading comprehension. Teaching with the use of the schema theory in English reading comprehension, however, received very little attention from teachers who emphasized that grammatical structure has the particular importance
18、in English teaching. For many years, they supplied their students with few strategies in the English reading comprehension, even told the students that they ought to read an English text independently, because, for a long time, teaching approaches such as the Grammatical Translation Method and Direc
19、t Method gave greater priority to the teaching of grammar, in order not to distract from the learning of those grammatical and sentence structures.Recently, with the further development in English Reading teaching, the role of the schema theory has been discovered and its value has been recognized b
20、y some educators. Therefore, the magic power of the schema theory made the English reading comprehension become a learning objective in its own right.The schema theory is the essential knowledge for a reader to understand a certain text. Many researches have proved that while reading a text, even yo
21、u understand the grammar structure, you still can not fully understand the text without the schema knowledge. As a linguistics researcher, Anderson said, “Sometimes, the influence of the schema is much more important than the linguistic knowledge.” For instance, a student read a text about an Americ
22、ans strange habit, which uses cold water to bath and drinks hot water. And after the student read the text, he regarded this to be quite normal. For this student is a northern, in his hometown, due to the hot weather , people all use cold water to bath and drink tea with the hot water. It is very co
23、mmon for people to understand this Americans habit. However, in America, people usually drink with only cold water, even for making tea. From this example, we can see the students failure in understanding the text is not because he lacks reading comprehension, but because he doesnt know some schema
24、knowledge about American culture. Therefore, in order to improve students reading comprehension, teachers have to not only teach them the grammatical approach, vocabulary, and reading strategy, but also need to provide students with the schema of English speaking countries culture and customs as man
25、y as possible. Only by doing so, can the students fully understand the meaning of a text. Subsequently, a scientific and systematic analysis was done by the researcher, and after that, using the schema theory was introduced to improve learners skills at English reading comprehension. Consequently, a
26、 two-week experiment, in which all learners were Grade Three students in a public elementary school in Shanghai, who were divided into the Control Group that only adhered to the rote reading class for the English reading comprehension, and the Target Group that employed schema theory to improve and
27、enhance young learners understanding in English reading, was intentionally designed and carried out by the researcher. The project hypothesis is that if the schema theory is provided in the effective and communicative way, this will help students to improve their skills at mastering English reading
28、comprehension and arouse their interest in further English reading learning. This effective strategy selected for the project was not only in the line with school curriculum but also relevant to students daily life and also this approach was accompanied accordingly by descriptions, questionnaires, e
29、valuations and so on. The specific activities designed for the project intended to assist students to master the efficient or effective skills in English reading comprehension. These are highly practical for young learners than their traditional exercises.A major aim of this project is to help less
30、experienced teachers recall successful techniques which they can share with colleagues newer to the field of ESL and of course to assist learners to know a great deal about English reading learning in order to discover much more in future.2. Project Identification and Analysis2.1 Project problemsRea
31、ding is a very complicated intelligent activity, or more precisely speaking, a psychological process which gains information from the written language. According to statistics, we obtain 50% of our knowledge from reading. (Chen shilu, “The Theory of ESP and its Practice”, 1996). Therefore, we can sa
32、y that reading is one of the main tools for English learners to grasp the language. And it is widely understood that students major difficulty in English reading is, the understanding of the words. During my teaching, I found some problems as below.For some students, they can understand most of the
33、words, however still some phrases got them confused. Some students only understand a few words, and they just half-guess the gist of an article. And the rest are totally at a sea about the article for their poor limited vocabulary. Therefore, the author of this paper holds the view that, besides enl
34、arging students vocabulary, it is also very important to be familiar with the schema theory and make a good use of it in the reading process as an ideal reading skill. 2.2 Problem analysis2.2.1 Analytic method Through careful analysis, I was led to a series of question: For instance, I found many of
35、 my students do not fully comprehend the meaning of a text, and I wanted to know why it should be the case? If they understood the meaning of every word, then the problem might be cause by the reading skill. 2.2.2 Rote learningThe most common way of reading an English text is through rote learning,
36、which emphasizes that the every word of the reading material has to be read and understood until it is fully comprehended in learners mind, but without paying much attention to its relented culture. For this reason, some learners, would produce poor results, if they have used rote learning for Engli
37、sh reading comprehension. In other words, rote way of reading learning is learning “just for test”. 2.2.3 Cause analysis In this situation, I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them. In order to know more about the issue, I designed a cause exploration procedure
38、like this. Questions AnswersIs it because they do not know the meaning of the words? Maybe.Is it because they do not understand some phrases? Maybe.Is it because they are not activated? Maybe.Is it because they do not have enough schema knowledge? Possibly yes.Is it because they do not like the read
39、ing materials? Maybe.2.3 Results of the problem analysisFrom the above analysis, a common cause surfaced - the students needed effective strategies for English reading comprehension. The rote learning could not meet the students need. In the end, the researcher helped the teacher to design a two-wee
40、k project by using the schema theory to improve students skill in English reading comprehension.3. Project Objective and Hypothesis3.1 Project objectiveMy research project objective is to improve students English reading comprehension.3.2 Project hypothesisIt is hypothesized that by use of the schem
41、a theory, students English reading comprehension can be improved.4. Project Rationale 4.1 What is schema theoryIn the 1970s, an American artificial intelligent expert, D.E.Rumelhart, after making a lot of researches, built a schema theory. A theory, which stresses that peoples exited knowledge play
42、a decisive role in the cognitive activity. According to this schema theory, the knowledge stored in human beings brain, is composed by different units and one unit is one schema. To reading, schema can be divided into three parts, linguistic schemata, content schemata, and rhetorical schemata. The l
43、inguistic schemata refers to the readers exited linguistic knowledge, which includes intonation, vocabulary and grammar. The reader will meet difficulty if he lacks of the linguistic schemata. Therefore, the linguistic schemata is much more important in the foreign language reading than in native re
44、ading. However, students reading comprehension will also be hindered greatly, if too much attention to be paid in the teaching. The content schemata refers to the theme of the article, thus, it also can be called thematic schemata. When we read an article, we often try to predict the theme. And by u
45、nderstanding the content or the theme of the article, the reader will much likely predict the main idea of the whole article. Generally speaking, the understanding of the content schemata will directly influence the understanding of the whole article. The rhetorical schemata refers to the listeners
46、understanding of the listening materials structure. The more familiarity the reader makes with the texts structure, the more understanding the reader will achieve. 4.2 Schema and comprehension The schema theory believes that information itself, no matter spoken or written, is meaningless, it only he
47、lps listeners and readers to recover or construct the meaning based on their own knowledge. Reading comprehension therefore, is firstly a message input, and then, the reader searches the corresponding schema in his brain to explain the message. The reader requires not only the corresponding linguistic schemata, rhetoric schemata but also the shared content schemata with the author. Thus, comprehension can be fulfilled. Area of Shared SchemaAC BWriter