The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schools.doc

毕业论文（设计）The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schools1.Introduction21.1 Background and purpose of this research21.2Significance of this research31.3Research questions42. Literature Review42.1 Definition of reading42.1.1 Reading as a decoding process42.1.2 Reading as a selective and predictive process52.1.3 Reading as an interactive process52.1.4 Reading as a schema-constructed process62.2 Typical models of reading62.2.1 Bottom-up model72.2.2 Top-down model72.2.3 Interactive-compensatory model83. The Schema and Schema Theory93.1The meaning of schema93.2 Schema Theory103.3 The classification of schema123.4 The functions of schema133.4.1 Prediction of reading content133.4.2 Selection of information input133.4.3 Helping remembering133.4.4 Attraction of readers attention144. The Role of the Schema Theory on the English Reading144.1 The current situation of English Reading in Senior High School144.2 The reasons affect the reading by schema154.3 Effective reading based on schema abilities154.3.1 Activating background knowledge and establishing the content schema154.3.2 Predicting meaning to assist the reading process164.3.3 Extracting the main idea and analyzing the textual structure165. The Application of Schema Theory in Senior English Reading Teaching175.1 Hypothesis175.2 Subjects185.3 Instruments185.4 Testing procedures195.5 Materials and training procedures195.6 Results and discussion246. Conclusion25References28Appendix 131E34Appendix 2351.IntroductionAs everyone knows, reading plays a very important role in English teaching. How can the readers read to achieve the best results? The traditional reading advocates using the bottom-up model a kind of passive decoding model, by which readers only need to read word by word and it will be very easy for them to get the whole meaning. With the development of applied linguistics and psychological linguistics, it is found that reading is not a process of passive decoding, but a process of active “guess-confirm” (Goodman, 1971:135), which is the top-down model. After that, Rumelhart (1977) said that reading is a process that the bottom-up model and the top-down model interact together and at the same time process word information, which is called an interactive model. No matter what kind of model is used, either the readers background knowledge or the schematic knowledge is needed. The paper mainly concerns the conception of schema theory, the function of schema to reading and the enlightenment of schema theory to the reading teaching and above all is about how the students are trained in English reading under the guidance of schema theory by the teacher with the purpose of the three research questions.1.1 Background and purpose of this research“The written word surrounds us daily. It confuses us and enlightens us, it depresses us and amuses us, and it sickens us and heals us.” From Brandys words (1983) we can find how important reading is to everyone in a literate society. Some experts estimated that 80% of peoples knowledge is obtained through reading with only 20% through their own experience. Clearly, reading is valuable and it is very important to all students when they learn a language. As Carrel (1987) pointed out, “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as second or foreign language.”In China, the current Senior High School English Curriculum Standards demand that the reading teaching purpose is, first of all, to train students to read more effectively, to develop students reading habits and to stimulate their interests in English. Both teachers and students in high school realize English reading is so important that they spend a lot of time and energy on it. However, there are many problems in English reading instruction in Senior High Schools. Many students tend to be passive audiences rather than active participants in class. After class, they seldom read English materials except for their textbooks, and they have to do a large number of exercises modeling the test paper of NMET (National Matriculation Entrance Test). As a result, they have a narrow scope of knowledge, read with a slow speed, and cannot understand English texts successfully. In a word, their reading competence is poor. 1.2Significance of this researchThis research was designed to help the teachers achieve a better understanding of the schema theory and its effect on improving English reading based on schema theory. This thesis also demonstrates how such application can be carried out at classroom level by addressing the specific procedure and evaluation method of an experimental research conducted jointly by the author and a middle school English teacher. Although the research is only at the experimental level and may still need further improvement, its basic goals have been achieved and it has displayed the power of activating schemata in language learning to the front line in-service teachers.1.3Research questions(i) Does reading training under the guidance of schema theory improve the reading ability of high school ESL (English Second Language) learners?(ii) How is the effectiveness of reading training under the guidance of schema theory related to the reading proficiency of the students?(iii) Whats the relationship between reading comprehension and schema theory?2. Literature Review2.1 Definition of readingReading behavior is a part of daily life. It is an ordinary way in which we use written language to get information for survival, learning, enjoyment and so on. So reading is so important that we cant break away from it in the modern world.2.1.1 Reading as a decoding processThose who hold this idea believe that when a speaker or writer has a message in his mind, he wants somebody else to share. First, he encodes it and expresses it in language. Once it is encoded in either spoken or written form, it is available outside his mind as a text. The reader or the listener can receive the text and decode the message. Then reading as a decoding process is founded.2.1.2 Reading as a selective and predictive processReading is a kind of selecting process, which the reader uses language knowledge and relevant information to piece and chooses useful things. That is, based on the readers predict, to use the less selective language code to form the prediction and judgment. Goodman(1971) described reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game and a cyclical process in which the reader figures out meanings with their formerly acquired knowledge. The approach to reading emphasized the readers use of all relevant information to get meaning.2.1.3 Reading as an interactive processReading is a process in which the reader and the text (the writer) work interactively. The meaning neither adheres to the printed symbols, nor passive waits for the reader to find out. The reader should take advantage of varied knowledge through prediction, inference to obtain the meaning and understand the text. This perspective was firstly posed by Rumelhart in 1977. He expressed his idea that reading was not a passive process of decoding the printed symbols but an interactive model which works together with both lower level and higher level. It refers to the general interaction, which takes place between the reader and the text. The basic concept is that the reader reconstructs the text information based in part on the knowledge drawing from the text and on part from the prior knowledge available to the reader (Carrel & Eisterhold, 1983). While reading, according to the text information, the reader reacts to the text with his background knowledge, word knowledge and linguistic knowledge.2.1.4 Reading as a schema-constructed process Reading comprehension is a complex process, which has also been described as a constructive process (Bartlett, 1932). In order to understand the text, the reader must use information, which is explicit and implicit to form a schema. Readers interpret a text according to their schemata. Schema theory believes that knowledge is systematically organized (Rumelhart, 1980). A schema can be defined as having elements or components which can be delineated and which are ordered in specific ways. Readers are thought to use schemata to anticipate text contents and structures.2.2 Typical models of readingIn this part, some of the key theoretical perspectives on the nature of reading are examined. Linguists believe that there are two basic models of information processing: bottom-up and top-down models. Schema theory calls for operation of both approaches: interactive approach.2.2.1 Bottom-up modelBottom-up model began with individual word and structure in texts. That is, reading as a decoding process. The writer used words, symbols and certain grammar rules to encode his thought as language. The reader should decode language to his thought. That is, it began with the smallest meaning unit. From words to sentences, paragraphs and finally to the whole text, it came from the smallest textual units to larger ones and then came to the whole text. In the process readers reconstruct the authors intended meaning via recognizing the printed letters and words, and build up a meaning for the text. This type of processing is called “data-driven processing” (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1987:221). This model thought reading problem was actually the linguistic problem. This model also underestimated the readers active function and did not treat the reader as active worker.2.2.2 Top-down modelTo solve the problems that bottom-up model can not solve, top-down model was posed. Top-down model described reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game. According to this model, the reader selected enough information from the text to predict rather than used the whole textual cues. In the course of reading, the reader was the active party. Readers began to read with general predictions based on their cognitive system. It assumed that on reading, the readers have some hypotheses in mind. Then the hypotheses about the meaning were confirmed or reflected, and new hypotheses came out.To read with this model, the reader might be easy to abuse his predict ability, and neglect the actual meaning. The reader also tent to use his thoughts to understand the text and it was easy for him to misunderstand the writers meaning.2.2.3 Interactive-compensatory modelOnce it has been understood by readers, top-down model proves to be helpful in their reading. However, reading is a complex mental process. According to schema theory, not only content schemata, but also linguistic schemata and formal schemata are necessary factors in reading. Therefore an efficient and effective reading requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating interactively (Rumelhart, 1980). This is the third model: interactive compensatory model.In interactive processing, top-down model and bottom-up model occur at all levels of analysis simultaneously. On reading, the two processing always work at the same time, no matter on whatever stage or whatever level. The bottom-up model confirms the reader to find new information and things that are different from his hypotheses. The top-down model helps the reader remove ambiguity and select the useful information. So, the reading is the interactive processing between the readers knowledge in memory and the textual cues. The article itself does not have fixed meaning, it just directs that the reader use his background knowledge to reconstruct the text. The difference of the knowledge may cause different understanding. Therefore, if the reader stored certain background knowledge, it would be very useful for him to understand the text and make correct judgment.3. The Schema and Schema Theory3.1The meaning of schemaThere are various ways of defining schema, among which the followings are quite influential. Bartlett (1932), in Remembering, A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, defined the term “schema” as “an active organization of past reactions or past experience, which must always be supposed to be operation in any well-adapted organic response”. Rumelhart (1980) came up with this concept of schema and described schema theory basically as a theory of how knowledge is mentally represented in the mind and used. Based on his “schema theory”, “all knowledge is packaged into units. These units are the schemata.” Widdowson (1987) later described schema as “cognitive constructs which allow for the organization of information in a long-term memory”. And finally Cook (1989) redefined the concept as “a mental representation of a typical instance” which helps people to make sense of the world more quickly because “people understand new experiences by activation relevant schemata in their mind”.From the above definitions, we may conclude that schema is made up of the experience stored in memory and background knowledge. The schema is the knowledge units that exist in cerebrum. Generally speaking, every of us have a uniquely personal store of knowledge gained through experiences in his or her life time. This stored knowledge along with its storage structure is called schema. A schema (pl. schemata) is an abstract structure of knowledge. When the reader integrates the store schema and the offer information together, he can understand the text.3.2 Schema TheoryAs far back as Kant(1781), it was asserted that background knowledge plays a part in comprehension. Bartlett(1932) developed schema theory on this notion to further explain how background knowledge is used by a reader to understand a text. He reported that learners reading comprehension mainly depends on their knowledge structure. A learners comprehension wont occur if he doesnt know the relative background knowledge or he cant use the background knowledge successfully. He developed schema theory to explain how a reader to understand and recall a text by using background knowledge. Bartlett found that when participants read a story from an unfamiliar culture, their memory of the change over time to fit schemata from their own culture. But Bartlett was vague about how schemata work.In 1970s and 1980s, Bartletts theories received an enormous amount of attention in the artificial intelligence work. Rumelhart(1980), an American artificial intelligence expert, further developed the schema concept. He regarded the schemata as “arts of interactive knowledge structure” or “the building blocks of cognition”. He described schema theory as basically a theory of how knowledge is mentally represented in the mind and how it is used. Carrel is a well-known researcher on schema theory who proposed “modern schema theory” in 1983. She maintained that skilled readers constantly shift between top-down and bottom-up model according to the demands of the text they are reading. Carrel refers to over-reliance on bottom-up processing as “text-boundless”, and over-reliance on top-down processing as “schema interference”. That is, reading process was a combination of top-down and bottom-up models in which low level and high-level work together interactively as parts of a reading process (Rumelhart, 1977). Carrel and Eisterhold suggested, “The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as schema theory, which has as one of its fundamental tenets that text, either spoken or written, does not by itself carry meaning.” This means reading is an interactive process in which the reader makes use of information from his background knowledge as well as information from the printed page. Carrel posed two important concepts: formal schema and content schema. Content schemata refer to the background knowledge of the content area of a text, or the topic a text talked about (Carrell 1988, Carrell &Eisterhold 1988). Formal schemata are higher order structures containing knowledge of rhetorical organization structures, including knowledge of the general properties of text type differences in genre (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983). A successful reading of passage depends upon a combination of linguistic knowledge, cognitive skills and general experience and knowledge of the world, whether acquired by experience or by learning, which influence greatly the reading comprehension process, for the more the reader brings to the text, the more is taken away.3.3 The classification of schemaAccording to forms of representation, schemata can be classified into three kinds: linguistic schemata, content schemata and formal schemata. The classification distinguishes the differences among the three types of schemata. It reminds teachers that they should activate different schemata and bring them into play according to the features in reading instruction, so the classification is helpful in reading instruction.Linguistic schemata contain the prior knowledge of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar rules. Without the linguistic schemata, the reader can not recognize words, phrases and sentences, then may cause the failure in comprehension of reading materials.Content schemata contain the background knowledge of the content area or the topic involved in reading materials (Carrell, 1988). For example, readers who have ever been in rural areas might find reading materials about farming easy to understand while an urban reader may not. The content schemata about farming help the readers to understand and recall more than the readers who are less familiar with farming.Formal schemata contain prior knowledge of rhetorical structures and expressing conventions, like different types of text structures: story, play, poem, allegory, prose, etc. All these have their own structures. The prior knowledge defines the