StrategiesofBackgroundKnowledgeinReadingComprehension-2019年精选文档

1、Strategies of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension：The Schema Theory has indicated that successful activation of background knowledge significantly aids L2 learners reading comprehension. The paper ， based on the writer s practical teaching experience， explores someapproaches of activating

2、background knowledge and also concludes some reasons for unsuccessful activations as well as suggestions for L2 instructors.1 IntroductionBoth theorists and practitioners agree that“comprehension is an active process where learners interact with the text， using background knowledge thatthey bring to

3、 the comprehension process as well as the linguistic and rhetorical features of the text itself”(Carrell and Eisterhold 1977). So it is stronglyrecommended teachers should be particularly sensitive to the role of background knowledge and teach from a schema-theoretic view to help their students buil

4、d or activate schemata while comprehending.2 Background Knowledge StrategiesBy far ESL teachers are increasingly concerned about background knowledge strategies that are applied for two aims： （1） to activate students with cues， questions and advance organizers to make connections between their L1 li

5、nguistic ， cultural ， world knowledge and experience and the topics ， skills and competencies at hand ； （ 2） to introduce new content ， skills and competencies to provide new contextual knowledge in the target language when these content areas have not yet been exposed to L2 learners. There are nume

6、rous such strategies that are applicable in L2 instruction. Here， I introduce some with widelyaccepted effectiveness.2.1 The K-W-L ModelSchematic researches suggest that L2 learners comprehend better if they are provided authentic，meaningful materials with which they are quite familiar and in which

7、they are highly interested. In the consequent semantic pedagogy study by Donna M. Ogle in 1986， shecreated the concept of K-W-L Model. K-W-L， an acronym for three key questions（What I Know， What I Want to Learn ，and What I Learned ） is a teaching model designed to help students learn from nonfiction

8、 text in any content area(Ogle 1986 ) . According to my own experience in adopting this model in my College English instruction ， the approach is very effective and welcomed by my students.Take the class of Unit 5 in New Horizon College ( Book 1) I have taught for example. The topic is The Trashman.

9、I asked two of the questions at the beginning of the lesson ， the K question “What do you know about the topic ？” and the W question “What do you want to know about the topic ？” For the first question， students one by oneillustrated a brief image of a trashman through their prior knowledge. For the

10、second questions ， some students predicted a touching story about a trashman ， while others guessed it about some moral issues on how a trashman is treated in the American society and how he himself reacts to possible discrimination. In order for a more effective schema-activation ， two students wit

11、h higher proficiency were asked to describe what a trashman does in the local context and how they look at their job. By then， a basicschema for a specific character had been built up but with two possible content schemata for students to make clear.， theThis schema in content area was soon construc

12、ted when we started vocabulary study. At the end of the lessonstudents did the group discussion on the L question “What have you learned about the topic？” I made rounds of theclass to make sure that fruitful results have been achieved and my students have reaped the benefits of the schema-based lear

13、ning. 2.2 Advance Organizer SupportResearch studies have also validated the striking effects of visual advance organizers on reading and listening comprehension ， especially for lower-proficiency L2 learners. Therefore ， pictures ， graphics ， scripts ， movies and slides ， etc. are strongly recommend

14、ed in L2 instructions to help unsuccessful learners with an effective schema-activation and better understanding of the target language. For example ， reading graded picture books is one of the widely adopted approaches in instructing reading for lower-proficiency L2 learners. The graded picture boo

15、ks provide manageable reading materials and simple stories that can be easily understood. Learners advance forward step by step and develop their comprehension competence bit by bit. Whats more， being able to read and understand story books raise their self-esteem.Maybe another more effective visual

16、 organization comes from the advantages of Computer-Aided Instruction （ CAI）. By means of video show via computer or Internet ， Students background knowledge is activated to utmost. Right becauseof the best practiceof utilizing multimedia approaches infacilitating L2 learning， especially its role of

17、stimulating learners interest and better understandingof the target language， the educational authorities incountries all over the world have advocated CAI in L2classroom in the state level.Other pre-reading activities such as field trips，demonstrations ， discussions ， debates ， role plays ， text-pr

18、eviewing ， vocabulary pre-learning and key-word/key-concept association activities suggested by Carrell （1984a） are also widely adopted as powerful instructional strategies in Chinas L2 classro oms. Allthese activities contribute to effective comprehension by brainstorming learners background knowle

19、dge on the topic prior to reading， stimulating their curiosity on thesubject and encouraging their self-generating and self-monitoring reading.2.3 Culture-based TeachingCarrell and Eisterhold indicated“one of the mostobvious reasons why a particular content schema may fail to exist for a reader is t

20、hat schema is culturally specificand is not part of a particular readers culturalbackgroun d” （ Carrell and Eisterhold 1983）. Floyed andCarrell （1987） recommended a cultural-content-schema- training to readers second provided a four-st ep approach to build students schematalanguage acquisition. Gajd

21、usek research studies and in support1988）， based on his own of Carrell s suggestion ，with any literature text：（1） the raise of backgroundinformation relating to the text ；（2） factualin-class work （character ， place ， time ， and event of a text ）；（3） analysis （structure ， theme ， and style of a text

22、）；（4） extending activities（in-class activities，journal writing ）.Accordingly ， facilitators must try to build a rich linguistic environment where learners are exposed to alarge supply of authentic reading materials， such asmaterials about western values ， social systems ， cultures and customs ， etc.

23、 In this intentionally created schema-oriented context ， learners do culturally loadedreading with aid of in-class activities ， appropriate types of content schemata can be constructed so that learners may be able to compensate their linguistic weakness with their learned background knowledge when c

24、omprehending such topics. If the strategy is facilitated at learnersearlier learning stage， they will for sure benefit fromit in their future L2 acquisition.3 Limitation and ImplicationsHowever，teachers in some areas of China find little support from the schema theory for reasons they are not quite

25、certain about. As Rumelhart has stated ， if our schemata are incomplete and do not provide an understanding of the incoming data from the text we will have problems processing and understanding the text (Rumelhart 1977). The “incomplete schemata ” here ， as to L2 learner ， is theoretically attribute

26、d to two types of deficiencies：linguistic deficiency and cultural deficiency. The former means L2 learner s language deficits in vocabulary，grammar， cohesion and discourse structures， while thelatter refers to an unfamiliarity with content of the text in terms of cultural features of the target language. Yet， poor readers in the traditional L