The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading

【Abstract】： This paper first elaborates the schema and the origins and concepts of the schema theory； and then puts forward the types of schema. Finally， it introduces the concrete application of schema theory in English teaching. The conclusion is that the use of schema theory will greatly improve the efficiency of reading.

【Key words】： schema； schema theory； English reading

1.Introduction

Reading comprehension is the key method of getting information for people. Moreover， it is one of the crucial tasks to learn English.（王篤勤，2002）。 The reading teaching plays a vital role in our middle school English teaching. Whatever the previous English teaching outlines or the current new standards， both denotes that we should mainly cultivate the ability to students’ reading comprehension. It is easy to find out that the comprehension in the all kinds of English tests， especially in the college entrance examination， counts for a pretty large proportion. So the level of the reading ability is of significance aspects that inspect the English level of middle school students. However， our teachers give priority the linguistic knowledge and grammar knowledge， ignoring the students’ reading ability for a long time， which leads to the inefficient reading and losing points in the reading tests. This paper elaborates the schema theory and apply it to the English reading， in order to improve the students’ reading ability and reading proficiency.

2.Schema theory

2.1 the origins and concepts of schema theory

Schema was first proposed by philosopher Kant in 1781. Later Burtlett firstly applied it in psychology research. Rumelhart further developed the schema concept and described schema theory as basically a theory of how knowledge is mentally represented in the mind and used.

Schema now refers to learners’ acquired knowledge about the world， stored in the brain in the form of concept and activated by incentives.

2.2 types of schema

1）Linguistic schema mainly refers to the basic knowledge of language related to the reading materials， including vocabulary， syntax， grammar and other aspects of knowledge. Linguistic schema is the prerequisite for reading comprehension.

2）formal schema refers to the knowledge of the article genre. Different essays， such as argumentative essays， illustrations， advertisements， etc.， having different styles， which use different vocabularies， syntactic forms， and organizational forms.

3）Content schema is the background of the content of the article. The content of the article can be related to a variety of topics.

3.Application of Schema Theory in English Reading

1）strengthening linguistic schema

Schema theory holds that linguistic schema is the foundation， that is students have a good language skills， then they will have a better understanding. If the student knows nothing about the language of the article he reads， he can not understand the article. Students must accumulate vocabulary and strengthen grammar in order to have a good language base. In the reading， the teacher should help the students to clear the language barrier away， but at the same time the teachers should make the students realize that only reading the simple article without language barrier is difficult to improve the reading ability. Teachers should enable students to learn certain guessing words skills.

2）extending content schema

If you are not familiar with the relevant content of the article you read， even if you have a certain language skills， you will find it difficult to understand the article. This is what we call the content schema affects reading ability. The article is not only composed of vocabulary and grammar， but also embodies a culture. This requires teachers should not only activate the acquired background knowledge of students， but also provide students with some new background knowledge in the teaching reading. Teachers can also inspire the student's initiative， let students look into the relevant materials out of class to find out the relevant background knowledge to help understand the article.

3）enriching formal schema

In the process of reading teaching， teachers should pay attention to the impact of formal schema on the reading comprehension， pay attention to the choice of reading materials. Students should read the contents of the material to be rich， subject matter to be diverse， difficulty to be moderate. To make students familiar with the structure of different genre articles. To enable students to choose the appropriate reading speed and reading methods according to the different article genre， length and difficulty to improve reading comprehension. Teachers can also train students on the genre and subject matter of the article so that they can understand the style of the essays and themes.

4.Conclusion

Therefore， in teaching reading teachers should not only strengthen the basic knowledge including the grammar and vocabulary to enrich the students’ linguistic schema but also pay more attention to the structure of the different genre articles and culture background such as history， music， literary and so on， as to construct students’ formal and content schemata. At the meantime， the teachers should make full use of the schema theory to activate students’ learning motivation and the way of thinking， in that way we can aim to enforce the reading comprehension ability and improve the reading efficiency.

Reference

[1] 王篤勤，英語教學策略論，外語教學與研究出版社，2002。

[2] Bartlett，F(xiàn).C.Remembering： An Experimental and Social Study.Cambridge：Cup 1932.

[3] Rumelhart， D. （1985）. Toward an Interactive Model of Reading. （pp.722- 750）

[4] Adams Marilyn J.A Schema-theoretic View of Reading[M].1985.

[5] Carrell，P.（1987） Content and formal schemata in ESL Reading.TESOL Quarterly，21（3），461-481.

作者簡介：張素月（1991—），女，漢族，河南舞鋼市，外國語言文學碩士，青島科技大學外語學院外國語言學及應用語言學專業(yè)碩士2016級研究生，研究方向：英語翻譯。