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Abstract: The concept of “schemata” was first put forward in the late 1600’s， but it was finally theorized in the 1980’s. There are three types of schema: linguistic schema， formal schema and content schema. This paper is designed to tentatively apply content schema to college English reading teaching so as to find an effective way to improve students’ reading comprehension.

Key words: content schema， application， college English reading teaching

一. Definition and classification of schema

Schema theory proposed by Bartlett (1932) stresses the importance of background knowledge and schema (knowledge of structures) for text comprehension. In other words， schema theory explains the role of background knowledge in language comprehension and explains how readers retrieve or construct meaning from their own pre-existing knowledge and past experience. That is to say a text does not by itself carry meaning. According to Rumelhart， “a text only provides directions for learners as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning. This previously acquired knowledge structures are called Schemata” (Rumelhart， 1980).

According to schema theory， reading comprehension is an interactive process between the learners’ background knowledge and the text. Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge (Anderson， 1977). The previously acquired knowledge is called the reader’s background knowledge. The structures of the already-acquired knowledge are called Schemata (Carrel and Eisterhold， 1983).

There are three types of schema: linguistic schema， formal schema and content schema. Linguistic schema refers to the reader’s prior linguistic knowledge; content schema refers to the reader’s prior knowledge and the content of the text; and formal schema， often known as rhetorical schema， refers to the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written texts.

二. Content schema

Content schema refers to the background knowledge of the content area of a text or the topic a text being talked about， such as a text about repairing a washing machine， celebrating Christmas， or the history of Britain， and so forth. It includes topic familiarity， cultural knowledge and previous experience with a field. It contains general or specific information on a given topic， concerning society， culture， economy， politics， and different customs and conventions. Content schema deals with the knowledge relative to the content domain of the text， which is the key to the understanding of texts. Johnson (1982: 503-516) has shown that a text on a familiar topic is better recalled by readers than a similar text on an unfamiliar topic. A learner’s failure to activate an appropriate schema during learning leads to various degrees of non-comprehension. According to Coady (1979:12)， background knowledge enables students to comprehend at a reasonable rate and keep them involved in the text in spite of its syntactic difficulty. In other words， content schemata can make up for the lack of language schemata， and help learners to understand texts by predicting， choosing information and removing ambiguities.

Content schema plays important role in reading comprehension. Therefore， it is really necessary to apply content schemata to college English instruction so as to improve students’ reading comprehension.

三. Application of content schema to College English Integrated Course

To help the students improve their reading comprehension， the author tries to apply content schemata to the instruction of reading comprehension. The following are some classroom activities applied in the instruction of the textbook College English Integrated Course， and they are proved effective in improving students’ reading comprehension.

3.1Comparison between the Chinese and Western cultural background knowledge

Comparison refers to the examination of similarities and differences among concepts， events， people， ideas， or cultures. It is an efficient way to help build/ activate students’ background knowledge because the awareness of differences or similarities can make a deep impression on the reader and improve comprehension. It is popularly used in the teaching of reading comprehension. For example， in the instruction of the text in Unit 5， Book 3， How to Celebrate Holidays， the teacher can make a contrast between the Chinese and Western festivals， so as to enable the students to know about Western festivals. The following list can be made to show the differences between Chinese and Western festivals:

Western festivals: Valentine’s Day: February 14th; Easter Day: the first Sunday after a full moon on or after March 21 st; April Fools’ Day: April 1st; Mother’s Day: the second Sunday in May; Father’s Day: the third Sunday in June; Labor Day: in America， the first Monday in September; Halloween: October 31st， the eve of All Saints’ Day; Thanks-giving Day: the fourth Thursday in November; Christmas Eve: December 24th; Christmas Day: December 25th

Chinese festivals: Spring Festival: the first day of the first lunar month; The Lantern Festival: the 15th day of the first lunar month; Tree-planting Day: March.12th; The Tomb Sweeping Festival: April 5th; Youth Day: May 4th; Dragon Boat Festival: the fifth day of the fifth lunar month; Double-Seventh Day (the Chinese Valentine’s Day): the seventh day of the seventh lunar month; Army Day: August 1st; Mid-Autumn Day: the 15th day of the eighth lunar month; Teachers’ Day: September 10th; Double-Ninth Day (the Senior People’ Day): the ninth day of the ninth lunar month; National day: October 1st。

Through the comparison， the students may have a general idea of western festivals. In this way， their schemata about Chinese festivals， such as the origins， the celebrating traditions may be activated. They may want to know more about western festivals， and they may ask: “Why do they have these festivals?” “How do western people celebrate their festivals?” This is just what the teacher expects， so the teacher may lead them into the text by saying “let’s see one of their festivals—Thanks-giving Day， the content of Text A”. Then the teacher may introduce the background knowledge about Thanks-giving Day to the students， such as the origin of the festival， the traditional foods of the big dinner: turkey， sweet potatoes， pumpkin pie， etc. Thus， the students can develop some schemata about Thanks-giving Day， which will facilitate their comprehension of the text.

3.2 Making use of signpost questions

The purpose of asking signpost questions is to draw students’ attention to the main content they have to focus on. The questions should reflect the focus and direction of a passage and the information demanded by a question is accessible to the students during a careful reading. Questions of this kind give students a special reason for reading， and they will read more purposefully in order to find the answer or complete the task. This may provide an interesting way to activate students’ prior knowledge and enhance their motivation to read. For example， when teaching Unit 1 Text A Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream Life of Book 3， the teacher can design the following true or 1 questions.

(1) The writer is famous and lives in the countryside.

F. (He is not famous.)

(2) In the writer’s opinion， their life in the countryside is self-reliant because they can grow all kinds of fruits and go picnicking in summer.

F. (Go picnicking in summer indicates he is satisfied with the life there.)

(3) The writer is satisfied with the life in the countryside only because their hens can lay eggs for them and their bees can provide them with honey.

F. (Their hens， fruits and bees， etc.， contribute to their self-reliant life in the country.)

(4) The writer and his family live in the countryside because they were dissatisfied with the life in the city and suburbs. (T)

While the students are offering answers， the teacher should not only evaluate their answers by saying “yes” or “no”， but make them aware why it is wrong or ask them which sentences provide evidence for their response if it is correct. Through repeated exercises， the students can not only have a better understanding of the main idea， but can also remember the details of the text， so as to have a better comprehension of the content of the text.

In addition to the above activities， there are also some other effective activities， such as， previewing， semantic mapping， experience sharing， summary writing， discussion， etc. Teachers can select some of the activities according to the practical situation of the students. No matter what activities applied， the purpose is to help the students improve their reading comprehension.

四. Summary

As Johnson stated “A person with more background knowledge is able to comprehend better than a person with less knowledge.”(Johnson， 1984) Through the application of content schemata in EFL reading teaching， the students can acquire more background knowledge which enables them to overcome the reading difficulties brought about by the lack of related cultural knowledge so as to have a better understanding of the theme and the content of the text. Thus， as college English teachers， we should make efforts to find more effective methods to cultivate and activate the relative schemata in students’ mind so as to help them improve their reading comprehension.

References:

[1] Anderson， R. C. 1977. The notion of schema and the educational enterprise: general discussion of the conference [A]. in Richard C. Anderson， Rand J. Spiro， and William E. Montague (eds.): Schooling and the Acquisition of Knowledge [C]. Hillsdale， NJ: Erlbaum

[2] Bartlett， F. C. 1932. Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[3] Carrell， P. L. and J. C. Eisterhold. 1983. Schema theory and ESL reading pedagogy [A]. in Carrell， P.L. et al (eds.): Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading [C] (pp.83-84， 85-86). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[4] Coady， James. 1979. A psycholinguistic model of the ESL reader [A]. in Ronald Mackay， Bruce Barkman， and R. R. Jordan (eds.): Reading in a Second Language [ C] (pp.5-12). Rowley， Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers

[5] Johnson， Patricia. 1982. Effects on reading comprehension of building background knowledge [J]. TESOL Quarterly 16(4): 503-516.

[6] Rumelhart， D. E. 1980. Schemata: the building blocks of cognition [A]. in R. J. Spiro， B. C. Bruce， and W. F. Brewer (eds.): Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension [C]. Hillsdale， New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates