The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schools英语专业毕业论文.docx

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1、AbstractThe aim of the study is to explore how to effectively teach English reading more effectively in senior high schools. Based on schema theory, the thesis probes into the process of teaching reading as thoroughly as possible. The study finds out that the teacher can apply schema theory to teach

2、ing English reading, which can be presented in two aspects: Firstly, reading is an interactive process. Thus, the teacher should stimulate students schemata by combining the “bottom-up” model and the “top-down” model. Secondly, there are three major types of schemata，namely, linguistic schemata, con

3、tent schemata and formal schemata .Thus ,we can apply schema to teaching reading in terms of its three aspects. Compared with previous studies, the study puts forward that the key point of teaching reading is to enable students to grasp the meaning of a passage and the meaning of a passage can be le

4、veled into two parts: the surface meaning and the deep meaning.; in order to understand these two levels of meaning, in the process of teaching reading, the teacher should guide students to apply different types of schemata to know the meaning of a passage. This study is merely a preliminary tryout;

5、 I hope it can be helpful to teach English reading in senior high schoolsKey words: teaching reading schema theory meaning 摘 要本次研究的目的在于探索如何更有效地教高中生英语阅读课。本次研究以图示理论为理论基础，对阅读教学过程的本质深入探索。研究发现可以应用图示理论进行阅读教学，这体现在以下两点：第一，阅读是个互动的过程，教师需要结合“自下而上”和“自上而下”两种模式，激发学生已有的图示。第二，由于图示分为语言图示，内容图示和形式图示，因此可以从这三方面分别应用于英语阅读

6、教学。比较已往的研究，本次研究在阅读教学的关键方面提出了阅读教学的关键是教会学生理解文章的意义,并且文章的意义是可以分层次的:表层含义和深层含义；为了掌握文章的两层含义，在阅读教学中，教师要让学生学会充分运用各种图式来实现真正的理解文章的意义。为了本次研究还是一个初步的尝试，希望能对提高高中生英语阅读能力有所裨益。关键词：阅读， 图示理论， 应用ContentsAbstracti摘 要ii1. Introduction11.1 Literature review11.2 Thesis structure42. The process of reading comprehension and t

7、he process of teaching reading42.1 The process of reading comprehension42.2 The process of teaching reading53. Schema theory63.1 The definition of “schema”63.2 The types of schemata63.2.1 Linguistic schemata63.2.2 Content schemata73.2.3 Formal schemata74. Application of schema theory in teaching rea

8、ding.74.1 The application of linguistic schemata in teaching vocabulary in reading84.2 The application of content schemata in teaching reading104.3. The application of formal schemata in teaching reading125. Conclusion14References1616The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading Teaching in Se

9、nior High Schools1. IntroductionAccording to the English Curriculum for Chinese senior high schools, students should be able to understand simple works of English literature effectively and read more than 300,000 words. In English study, Reading plays a dominant role among the four skills in the for

10、eign language Acquisition. It is the foundation to improve students listening, speaking, and writing and translation abilities. Students may sometimes have difficulty with English reading comprehension, which is the result of the traditional teaching methods of reading. Traditional steps of these te

11、aching methods are as follows: (1) Students should read the text in advance and look up the new words in the dictionary; (2) The teacher may explain the meaning of the text, analyze the grammar structure and then expound the difficult language points; (3) The teachers will ask students to do the pos

12、t- reading exercises and then explain them. Obviously, this teaching pattern focuses on the development of language learning and the understanding of the sentences meaning only, claiming that the meaning of a text is not related to the author and readers but the contents. Then reading is considered

13、as a passive understanding process. 1.1 Literature reviewTheorists have different opinions on reading. The traditional opinions regarded reading as a passive (bottom-up) decoding process. It is thought that “meaning is embodied in the text and the reader can extract the meaning from the print if he

14、understands it letter by letter and word by word.” (Goodman, 1988, p.44) Reading is viewed “primarily as a decoding process of reconstructing the authors intended meaning via recognizing printed letters and words, and building up a meaning for a text from the smallest textual units at the “bottom”(l

15、etters and words)to larger and larger units at the “top (phrases, clauses, intersentential linkages).” (Goodman, 1988, p.47) Problems in SL/FL reading are viewed as being essentially decoding problems, deriving meaning from print. This is the so-called bottom-up, or text-based view. This bottom-up m

16、anner of reading often results in word-to-word reading and causes miscomprehension.A different view from Bottom-up model believes that “ones background knowledge plays a more important role than new words and new structures in reading comprehension.” (Rumelhart, 1988, p.47) It believed that “in teac

17、hing reading, the teacher should teach the background knowledge first so that students equipped with such knowledge will be about to guess meaning from the printed page.” (Rumelhart, 1988, p.47) In this view, fluent readings do not pay attention to words but use their past experiences to predict mea

18、ning as they read. Obviously, this top-down model often easily leads to “wild guessing” and misunderstanding. Therefore, it is worthwhile to ask the question:What is the process of reading in nature?Based on applied linguistics and psycholinguistics, the author of the thesis holds reading is an acti

19、ve process, or to be more exact, an interactive process. This more balanced view of reading posits a constant interaction between bottom-up and top-down processes, “each source of information contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of meaning of the text” (Eskey, 1988, p.94). That is, the int

20、eractive view of reading considers the importance of both the written text and the background knowledge in comprehension of print. It does not cover or underestimate the importance of background knowledge as the top-down view or interactive view does. Therefore, the interactive view is said to be “m

21、ost applicable to reading instruction”(Heilman, 1990, p.226).Concerning the field of teaching reading, studies abound. Many studies are found from 2006 to 2010. It is held that “a discourse-based approach to language teaching fosters students overview ability in reading comprehension through analysi

22、s of discourse feature and discourse pattern, aids students to be familiar with some commonly seen discourse patterns, and grasps interrelation among discourse pattern.” (Wu, 2010, p.1) It is also agreed that reading is seen “as social practice. The social context affects when you read, what you rea

23、d, where you read, who you read with, and of course why and how you read. Interacting with text can involve practices as diverse as reading instructions, scanning a newspaper, or reading an academic article.” （Kate & Yang, 2006, p.1）However, these studies have ignored the key question of teaching re

24、ading, which is to help students grasp the meaning of a passage. The meaning of a passage can be divided as surface meaning and deep meaning （Gail，1994，p56). Surface meaning can be described as literal meaning of words, main ideas and. details of a passage, main events and characters, time, place, o

25、rder and so on. It mainly depends on the level of language knowledge and language skills （Gail，1994，p56). Therefore, the teacher should aid students to master the relevant background knowledge, so as to lay the foundation for understanding. Deep meaning refers to reasons for the incident, order and

26、results of character, and so on （Gail，1994，p56). Therefore, the teacher should stimulate students knowledge of organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written textsIn order to investigate the process of teaching reading, schema theory is introduced and applied to teaching reading.1.2 Thesi

27、s structureThe thesis structure will be organized into five parts. In the first part, the aim and the meaning of the study are introduced and literature review are explored In the second part, the process of reading comprehension and the process of teaching reading comprehension are studied. In the

28、third fourth part, schema theory and types of schema are introduced. In the fourth part, schema theory is applied to teaching reading. In the fifth part are the conclusion and limitations of the study.2. The Process of reading comprehension and the process of teaching reading 2.1 The Process of read

29、ing comprehensionReading is an activity during which readers experience and understand the signs by means of or with references to their existent knowledge and experience. Goodman points out “Reading is a receptive language process. It is a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguisti

30、c surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning which the readers constructs. There is thus an essential interaction between language and thought in reading. The writer encodes thought as language and the reader decodes language to thought” (Goodman, 1988, p.55)As we know, all hum

31、an behaviors are controlled by the brain. Reading is not simply a process of knowing words and sentences. It is also an active process during which a reader processes, understands and constructs the meanings of the written words by bringing into relevant schemata. Reading involves reader- writer rel

32、ationship, shared assumptions, knowledge, predication and imaginations.When we read a text we are continuously evaluating and perceiving events with regard to our expectations for the future and against the background of the past. An unexpected occurrence will therefore cause us to reform our expect

33、ations in accordance with this event and to reinterpret the significance we have attributed to what has already occurred. (Holub, 1984, p.98) There are two steps in this process. First a reader sees language signs. Second a reader tries to process the information. The first step is mainly concerned

34、with physiological studied while the second is mainly related with linguistic, culture and cognitive studies, especially ones schema, because schema includes these factors.2.2 The process of teaching readingTeaching reading is a complicated cognitive transfer process in which students combine the pe

35、rceptive information with the acquired knowledge structure, completing the integration and reconstruction of new schema. This has been embodied into three aspects. First of all, students declarative knowledge of reading materials, procedural knowledge of language and syntax, as well as strategic kno

36、wledge of reasoning and monitoring, are all important factors in reading comprehension. Whats more, they may subsequently employ knowledge and skills acquired through reading in their training of listening, speaking, writing and translating, in which reading result can be tested. The last but not th

37、e least, the problem schema accumulated through teachers long-term teaching practice is procedural rules for effective teaching because it activates the inner mechanism of students cognitive development.3. Schema theory3.1 The definition of “schema”Schema now refers to learners acquired knowledge ab

38、out the world, stored in the brain in the form of concept and activated by incentives. Taking “schema” as cognitive construction material was the basic rule for all information processing. “Schemata” represented not only knowledge itself, but also use of knowledge, i. e., the cognitive structure suc

39、h as a series of cognitive scaffolding and strategies. （Rumelhart, 1985, p.728）3.2 The types of schemata3.2.1 Linguistic schemataLinguistic schemata are about readers existing language proficiency in vocabulary, grammar and idioms .They lay the foundation of other schemataIt is known that linguistic

40、 knowledge plays an significant role in text comprehension. Without linguistic schemata, it is impossible for the reader to decode and comprehend a textWe assume that a large vocabulary is the main obstacle in learning to read and believe that “the lack of such vocabulary may be the greatest single

41、impediment of fluent reading.” (Grabe, 1988, p.63) Thus，to some degree, the more linguistic schemata a reader has in his mind，the faster the reader acquires information and the better the reader may understand.3.2.2 Content schemataContent schemata refer to the background knowledge of the content ar

42、ea of a text，or the topic a text talks aboutThey cover topic familiarity, cultural knowledge and previous experience with a field(Holub, 1984, p.67) Content schemata deal with the knowledge relative to the content domain of the text，which is the key to the understanding of texts. In general, the fam

43、iliarity of the topic has a direct influence on readers comprehensionThe more the reader knows about the topic，the more easily and quickly he gets the information of the text.3.2.3 Formal schemataFormal schemata refer to the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written textsThey include

44、 knowledge of different text types and genres，and also include the knowledge that different types of texts employ different text organizations, language structures, vocabulary, grammar and level of formality. Formal schemata are described as abstract，encoded，internalized，coherent patterns of metalin

45、guistic，discourse and textual organization that guide expectation in our attempts to understand a meaning piece of language.(Holub, 1984, p.68) Readers use their schematic representations of the text such as fictions，poems，essays，newspaper articles，academic articles in magazines and journals to faci

46、litate comprehension of the information in the text. 4. Application of schema theory in teaching reading.4.1 The application of linguistic schemata in teaching vocabulary in readingAs we know, that vocabulary is the foundation of expressing and building up all kinds of schemata. However, the English

47、 vocabulary is so large that it is impossible and unnecessary for students to master all of it. Therefore, when dealing with unknown words teachers should help students activate their linguistic schemata so that they can guess the meanings of new words during reading comprehension. Some suggestions

48、are as follows:Using context to guess wordsThe most common skill used to acquire vocabulary suggested is guessing words in context. By this method, the teacher can ask students to do the following steps to help stimulate their linguistic schemata.Guide students to guess its parts of speech, for exam

49、ple, whether it is a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb according to the sentence in which the word is presented. For example: On the eastern and western boundaries ,the country borders the two great oceansthe Atlantic and the Pacific. (M9U1 in advance with English) The word borders is obviously a verb since there is no other verb in the sentence.Guide them to explore