论文2：激活形式图式对高中生英语阅读的影响

分类_ 密级_教育硕士 学位论文激活形式图式对高中生英语阅读的影响李福勇导师姓名职称： 吕文澎 副教授 专业名称： 教育硕士 研究方向： 学科教学英语 论文答辩日期：2007年11月17日 学位授予时间：2007年12月 答辩委员会主席：姜秋霞 教授评 阅 人：二OO七年十一月十七日【备注：该课题实验研究论文于2008年6月被收录到清华大学中国学术期刊（光盘版）电子杂志中国优秀硕士学位论文全文数据库社会科学辑】硕士学位论文M. D. Thesis Influence of Activating Formal Schemata on EFL Seniors Reading Comprehension An Experimental Research from a Middle Schoolin the West of China 激活形式图式对高中生英语阅读的影响 一项来自中国西部中学的实验研究Li Fuyong李 福 勇Contents独创性声明.iAbstract.ii摘 要.ivList of figures and tables.viList of abbreviations.viiChapter One INTRODUCTION.11.1 Origin of the Present Study.11.2 Definition of Reading.41.3 Reading Comprehension .51.4 Critical Review of the Researches on Teaching Methodology of SL Reading Abroad and at Home.61.5 Models of Reading Process.8Chapter Two A CRITICAL SURVEY OF SCHEMA THEORY AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR TEACHING.13 2.1 The Notion of Schema.13 2.2 The History and Development of Schema and Schema Theory.13 2.3 The Theoretical Framework of the Research16 2.4 Review of Reading Researches on Schema Theory.17 2.5 Activation of Formal Schemata.22Chapter Three THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN.24 3.1 Purpose.24 3.2 Research Design.243.3 Experimental Procedures.29 3.4 Data Collection.37Chapter Four DATA ANALYSIS.38 4.1 Data Collection.384.2 Data Analysis.384.3 Conclusion.42Chapter Five GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION.435.1 General Review.435.2 General Discussion.435.3 Conclusion.445.4 Limitations.455.5 Suggestions.45Bibliography.viiiAppendix.xiiAppendix I: A Warming Up Activity.xiiAppendix II: A Teaching Plan (Experimental Class).xiiiAppendix III: Pretest Paper.xviAppendix IV: Midtest Paper.xxiAppendix V: Posttest Paper.xxviAppendix VI: Raw Data in Main Experiment (1).xxxiAppendix VII: Raw Data in Main Experiment (2).xxxiiAcknowledgements.xxxiii独创性声明本人声明所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得西北师范大学或其他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同志对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。签名： 日期： 关于论文使用授权的说明本人完全了解西北师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查阅和借阅；学校可以公布论文的全部或部分内容，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保存论文。（保密的论文在解密后应遵守此规定）签名： 导师签名： 日期： viiAbstractThe aims of a language teaching course are very often defined with reference to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Of the above four skills, reading is by far the most important for many students. It is certain that if we consider the study of English as a foreign language around the world, that is, the situation in which most English learners find themselves, reading is the main reason why they learn the language. One of the general aims of Senior English Course is to develop students ability of using language efficiently, especially the reading ability to acquire information, to deal with information, to analyze problems and thus to solve the problems. To form a good ability of using language efficiently, students should try their best to develop their language skills well. The present paper concerns itself with the formal schemata and EFL seniors reading comprehension ability. An experimental study is designed to test validity of a new teaching method under the formal schema theory. What we want to emphasize in the study is that the conscious activation of formal schemata will influence EFL seniors reading comprehension. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the necessity of carrying out the research on improving senior middle school students reading comprehension in the present situation. It first analyses the requirements on English reading in the New English Curriculum Standard made by the Ministry of Education, PRC, in 2003. It also throws light on the reason why the formal schemata previously stored in the students themselves previously should be activated to help them improve their English reading comprehension. In this chapter, a brief introduction to the definition of reading is also made clearly. Then a critical review of the researches on teaching methodology of SL reading abroad and at home is made and the development of the reading models is presented. It is accepted in the thesis by the author that reading is rather an interactive process between two models of information processing than a pure way of bottom-up or top-down processing. Chapter Two is concerned with the history of the development of schema theory. Bartlett views schema as the mental organization of the readers past experience. A schema is regarded as a highly organized abstract knowledge structure in the minds of human beings. Generally, schemata can be divided into content and formal schemata. Content schemata are related to a text topic or content, which can also be called background knowledge. Formal schemata are concerned about the text structure or textual organization. The two schemata are considered to affect readers reading comprehension ability. This chapter also talks about the application of schema theory in L1 and L2 situations. These theories make us agree that learners at high school may have already had some knowledge about how texts are organized, but there exists a problem that they can not consciously activate it in their reading process. So at the end of the chapter the author states that it is important to consciously build and activate the knowledge about how texts are organized (formal schemata) in students reading comprehension. Chapter Three deals with the experimental design. Chapter Four is data analysis. SPSS 11.5 was used to treat the experimental data. Chapter Five is the general discussion and conclusion of the research. After a general discussion based on the experimental result collected and analyzed in Chapter Four, it was claimed that the subjects in Experimental Class did perform much better than those in Controlled Class in reading comprehension after the experiment was systematically conducted. From the data analysis and results, we can find that the experimental class yielded promising results: their progress is significant and stable. In Controlled Class the subjects progress is not significant, and its developmental process is not stable and unpredictable. From the t-test between groups, we know that two classes almost had an equal start before the experiment was carried out. With the development of time and the different applications in methodology, Experimental Class performed better than Controlled Class. Therefore, the research result is that the activation of EFL seniors formal schemata will actually facilitate their reading comprehension. Key words: EFL Seniors Reading; Schema Theory; Formal Schemata; Schemata Activation 摘 要在语言教学过程中,语言技能是语言运用能力的重要组成部分。语言技能包括听、说、读、写四个方面的技能以及这四种技能的综合运用能力。在这四项技能中，对许多学生来说，阅读是最重要的一项技能。Carrell等认为很多英语学习者发现阅读是他们学习英语的主要原因。2003年中华人民共和国教育部制定的有关普通高中英语课程标准（实验）中也明确提出了高中英语课程的在总目标之一就是要提高学生有效运用英语语言的能力，尤其强调在进一步发展学生综合语言运用能力的基础上，着重培养提高学生用英语来获取信息、处理信息、分析问题和解决问题的能力。要培养有效运用语言的能力，学生应该努力培养他们的语言技能。本文的目的就在于研究如何有效运用一种新的教学方式的尝试（激活高中学生在以前的学习与生活经验中已形成的形式图式知识），来提高中学生的英语阅读理解能力。由此，本文作者设计了一项实证性研究来检验这种新的阅读教学方式的有效性。我们认为，有意识地激活高中生大脑中已掌握的有关形式图式会影响他们的英语阅读理解能力。本文共分五章。第一章首先探讨了在目前的形式下，进行教学实验来提高中生英语阅读理解能力的重要性和必要性。该章既分析了普通高中英语课程标准（实验）对高中生英语阅读理解能力提出的明确目标，也探讨了为什么能够并且可以通过有意识激活高中生已掌握的有关形式图式的知识来提高学生的英语阅读理解能力。本章还简要介绍了英语阅读的定义并回顾了国内外对英语阅读理解教学所做的研究，同时还详细介绍了阅读模式的发展历程。接受了阅读是一种互动的认知活动。理解语言不仅依赖对语言材料的正确感知，而且还依赖于人们的认知结构和各种形式的知识经验。也就是说，它既是一种“自下而上”的加工，也是一种“自上而下”的加工。第二章探讨了图式理论的发展历史。Bartlett认为图式是读者对过去知识经验的有机组织形式的心理认知。图式被认为是知识在大脑中的储存单位，是认知的基石。一般地说，图式可分为内容图式（人的大脑中具有的文章内容的背景知识）和形式图式（人的大脑中已经具有的有关文章结构的知识）。国外为数不多的学者已经研究表明两种图式都对学习者的阅读理解产生一定的影响。基于高中新课标的要求和高中英语教学与测试的实际情况，本文进一步探讨形式图式对高中生英语阅读理解的影响。形式图式比内容图式更能体现出学习者处理不同题材，不同体裁，不同内容的阅读材料。文章着重提出了有意识地激活并构建学生大脑中已具有的形式图式来提高他们的阅读理解的观点。 文章第三章为实证性研究。运用了一定的量化标准来精心设计了整个实验过程和分析了实验结果。第四章为统计分析。运用SPSS 11.5统计软件对整个实验结果进行了科学的数据分析处理。第五章是讨论和结论部分。通过对实验中采集到的数据分析，结果表明实验班学生的阅读理解成绩明显要好于控制班。从数据分析和实验结果分析我们发现，实验班取得了比较理想的结果：学生在阅读理解上的进步是显著稳定的。控制班的学生在阅读理解上也取得了一定的进步，但是他们的进步不稳定，而且不显著。组间t值检验证明在实验开展前实验班和控制班起点几乎一样。但是，随着实验的进行，不同的教学方法的采用，实验班的成绩比控制班的成绩好的多。最后的结论是有意识地激活高中生大脑中已有的形式图式能够有效提高他们的英语阅读理解能力和水平。关键词：高中英语阅读 图式理论 形式图式 图式激活List of figures and tablesFigure 1.1 Bottom-up model of reading process.10Figure 1.2 Top-down model of reading process.11Figure 2.1 Structure schema for stories.19Figure 2.2 Top-level structures of illustrative mini-texts.21Figure 3.l The difficulty level of the three tests.29Figure 4.1 Subjects total mean scores on three tests.41Table 1.1 Types of comprehension in English reading.2Table 1.2 A psycholinguistic, cyclical model of the reading process.4Table 3.1 Information about the subjects.26Table 3.2 The number of sentences, words and syllables of the test materials.28Table 3.3 The difficulty level of the three tests.28Table 3.4 Teaching procedures adopted in EC and CC.30Table 3.5 An analysis of texts on the types of writing in English Textbook.32Table 3.6 The subject matter and types of writing of the reading materials in English Textbook.32Table 4.1 Means of three tests of EC and CC.39Table 4.2 t-test between groups (EC vs. CC) on totltest.39Table 4.3 t-test within group (EC).39Table 4.4 t-test within group (CC).40Table 4.5 t-test between groups (EC vs. CC).40List of abbreviationsEFLEnglish as a foreign language NMETNational Matriculation English TestNECSNew English Curriculum StandardL1Language one (native language)L2Language twoSL second languageECThe Experimental ClassCCThe Controlled ClassSEFCSenior English for ChinaSPSSStatistical Package for the Social SciencePrepretestMidmidtestPostposttestOrigin of the Present StudyChapter One: INTRODUCTION1.1 Origin of the Present StudyIn a language teaching course, the aims are very often defined with reference to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Of the above four skills, reading, is by far the most important for many students. It is certain that if we consider the study of English as a foreign language around the world, that is, the situation in which most English learners find themselves, reading is the main reason why they learn the language (Carrell et al 1988). One of the general aims of Senior English Course is to develop students ability of using language efficiently，especially their reading ability to acquire information, deal with information, analyze problems and thus solve the problems. To form a good ability of using language efficiently, students should try their best to develop their language skills well. Language skills consist of listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which, listening and reading is comprehension skills, and speaking and writing are expression skills. As is described in New English Curriculum Standard（The Ministry of Education, PRC, 2003）(NECS), the highest standard (Level 9) for learners to reach requires them to develop the ability to read generic magazines or journals and obtain main information, to read the original English works and get to understand the main plots and the main heroes and heroines, and to understand the directions for various goods and so on. Above all, learners are expected to cultivate their ability to guess the unknown language units by the given linguistic contexts as required in New English Curriculum Standard. Meanwhile, with the development of NMET, more and more attention is paid to reading comprehension, which occupies an important position in the test paper of NMET. On reading comprehension, learners are required to reach the following capabilities:To grasp the main idea of the text;To get the information about details;To deduce the meaning of unknown words;To draw some simple conclusions and infer from the text; To understand the main structure of the text;To read the real intention and attitude of the author. In general, there are four levels of reading comprehension in all as shown in the following table (see Table 1.1).Table 1.1 Types of comprehension in English readingClassification of ComprehensionContents1. construction of meaningto understand the direct meaning of a passage (to recognize and understand words or groups of words that are meaningful as units; to understand ever increasing groups or units of words)2. interpretation of meaningto recognize the implied and inferred meanings (to infer, deduce and construct the important purport and significance of a passage)3. evaluation of meaningto react to the material read (to discriminate, imagine, analyze, judge and solve problem)4. affective comprehensionto appreciate literature (to respond to the text information personally and emotionally)All those introduced above require learners to focus on reading, a linguistic skill essential in language learning. Now, a lot of learners have shown more or less some difficulty in reading. Reading teaching in senior middle schools is mostly carried out in the traditional way. Although Chinese learners of English have spent many years studying grammar and vocabulary, many of them still have a lot of problems of low reading efficiency. Reading teaching is still concentrated on teaching words, phrases, causes and sentences to learners, believing that learners will understand the whole text from the very bottom and hence develop their reading ability. However, it doesnt come out as expected. This kind of reading instruction has somehow confined the cultivation of learners reading ability, let alone promoting their ability. So, it is extremely necessary to carry out a research on how to improve learners reading comprehension in senior middle schools. English teachers in senior middle schools are required to help students to improve their reading skills so as to be more efficient in reading. However, some of the teachers, especially in out-of-way regions, are often at a loss as to what to do. It is certain that most of the teachers are responsible for their work, but they are in great need of proper theory to guide them in their reading teaching. Thereupon, some useful and efficient ways should and must be found to help middle school students to enhance their reading comprehension strategies.A lot of researches on schema theory have shed light on the reading process and contributed to the improvement of reading skills. According to schema theory, reading comprehension is an interactive process between the readers background knowledge and the text. Such an interaction involves the readers language proficiency, his/her prior knowledge of the topic (content schema) and the rhetorical structure of the text (formal schema), and the actual information in the text (Rumellhart, 1980; Adams and Collins, 1979; Carrell, 1983). It is clear that knowledge of the text structure, among other factors, is a very important determinant of effective reading. There have already been many empirical studies showing that the knowledge of the text structure is very useful in reading comprehension and that awareness of and utilization of the knowledge of text structure might be an important reading strategy that can be used to foster reading comprehension. However, the importance of such a strategy has often been unknown to and overlooked by English teachers in senior middle schools. They put great emphasis on the language to be comprehended. In their English classes, reading ability of a foreign language is just a matter of proficiency in the target language. They fail to see the significance of knowledge of text structure in reading comprehension. To the best of my knowledge, insufficient and inadequate attention has been paid to the text structure (formal schema) in English reading in many senior middle schools. Such a situation calls for an investigation of the effects of the formal schema on senior students to determine whether it has a significant impact on their English reading process. Some Chinese