ASchemaTheoreticalViewonEFLListeningComprehensionClassroomTechniques-2019年精选文档

1、A Schema Theoretical View on EFL Listening Comprehension： Classroom Techniques ： This article reviews the notions of schema and listening comprehension ， discusses studies and approaches to associate schema theory with language comprehension， and explores techniques to be used practically in EFL lis

2、tening course in China. s： listening comprehension schema theory listening techniques 1. Introduction The notion of schema was originally introduced by Bartlett as early as 1932， and was first adapted to the study of connected discourse by Rumelhart and Ortony ( 1977， cited in Rossi ， 1991 )， who de

3、fined a schema as a data structurewhich represents generic concepts stored in memory. It is the active organization of past reactions ， or of present experiences， which must be supposed to be operating in any well-adapted organic response ( Bartlett ， 1932 ： 20 ). In Piagets theory of cognitive deve

4、lopment ， a schema is just the coordination and organization of adaptive action， considered as a behavioral structure within the organism， such that the organism can transfer or generalize that action to similar and analogous circumstances（Furth ， 1969 ： 44 ）. Cognitive scientists now believe that k

5、nowledge at all levels is organized in the form of schemata（also called scripts and frames ）， that is ， stereotyped scenarios and sequences of actions that fit common situation（Long， 1990）. As the mental representation of typical instances ， schemata are the innate structures which organize our perc

6、eption of the world ， account for the organization of text in memory ， and allow for hypotheses to be generated regarding the possible interpretation of texts （Anderson ， 1983）. Schemata and background knowledge are terms bot h adopted to refer to previously acquired knowledge structures. Carrell（19

7、83a） defined and studied three components of background knowledge in reading comprehension. They were “context - context versus no context”， referring to the presence or absence of a title and picture page preceding the text passage ； “transparency -transparent versus opaque”， referring to the prese

8、nce or absence of specific ， concrete lexical items within the text which provide textual cues to the content area of the text ； and “famili arity- familiar versus novel”， referring to the presence or absence within the reader of prior knowledge or experience of the content of the text. 2. Listening

9、 comprehension Listening is an important mode of humanc ommunication ， and is the most frequently used in the life. James ( 1984) pointed out that listening comprehension ， as a skill ， can not be learned without reference to other language skills. He claimed that listening ， first of all ， is a set

10、 of skills which involves the aural perception of oral signals. It is not passive but involves a dynamic interaction between perception of sounds and concentration on content ； and it is necessary for almost any other work related to language. Two broad categories of listening factors are identified

11、. Inside-the-head factors： 1) Intelligence ， listeners cognitive ability to comprehend the language. 2) Language facility ， listeners accurate and automatic recognition of words ， and segment or parse the speech stream into morpheme and syntactic units； syntax knowledge to process the language under

12、standing of different accents and anaphoric terms. 3) Background knowledge and schema. 4) Speech registers and awareness of contextual influence ， listeners being aware of different styles of speech and the status of the speaker. 5) Metacognitive strategies ， listeners monitoring and evaluation of l

13、istening. 6) Kinesics ， listeners understanding of the nonverbal signals. 7) Motivation ， listeners interests in speakers words. Outside-the-head factors ： 1) Discussion topic ， topic matching with listeners background knowledge. 2) Speaker awareness of audience needs， speaker considering of listene

14、rs level and interests. 3) Clarity and speaker effectiveness ， speaker s clear language for the audience. 4) Context ， context cues supporting speaker s words. 3. Applying schema theory in listening comprehension ： classroom techniques 3.1 Introduction of the listening course The course ， Listening

15、to English News Broadcasts ， which the author teaches himself， is a selective course for third-year English majors. The course ， while takes its primary focus on listening practice in news broadcasts， also aims at building up students vocabulary and knowledge in this field. Before students take up t

16、his course ， they are expected to have done some similar listening practice ， beginning with VoA special English ( with an average of 90 WPM ， and linguistically easier) and gradually moving to VoA standard English( with an average of 140-150 WPM， and linguisticallymore difficult ). And therefore ，

17、students should have built up a certain amount of vocabulary ， and become used to the intonation ， the speech rate and overall structure of news reports. In giving the course， the teacher is not trying to cover all things in the news broadcasts ， rather he/she focuses on the up-to-date hot issues ar

18、ound the world， which is definitely the distinctive feature of the course. The reasons for doing that primarily is based on the argument that through listening， listeners hope to get news. Secondly ， as students are asked to keep track on the latest and hot issues instead of sole listening practice

19、for listening s sake， they may have more interest in the course and thus have higher motivation. Thirdly ， both the teacher and students find it more convenient to collect materials for the class. 3.2 The textbook and other teaching materials information ， particularly latest information from the Th

20、e nature of the course indicates that not any single textbook is able to meet the needs. One thing is that before any textbook on news broadcast is published ， the news has gone out-of-date. Besides ， most textbooks of this kind are organized in chronological order， covering news of all aspects. Som

21、e textbooks do classify the news into categories ， such as diplomacy ， war ， science and technology ， business and disasters ， but the classifications are still too broad since the materials are not arranged in depth to provide an overall image of any single topic. However， setting a major textbook

22、for students to draw references from is possible and necessary. The textbook should be content-based ， providing a series of materials on classified topics ， together with some background knowledge ， thus enabling the students to have a general understanding of these topics. A book ， English Listeni

23、ng Course of International News ， is able to meet the needs. Although the listening materials it provides are out-of-date ， detailed background knowledge is given on various topics. Besides， there are relevant vocabulary lists in each lesson and explanations of terms used in the listening materials.

24、 Besides ， both the teacher and students are responsible for making the course up-to-date. The teacher should know where and how to get such materials， whether on the internet ， television ， radio ， newspapers or magazines. The students are also required to do some preparations. Both of them contrib

25、ute to the classroom sessions. 3.3 Teaching and learning procedures There are generally four steps in each session of lesson. Step 1 Preparations for the class For preparations of each session of lesson ， students are required to obtain relevant information on the topics ， such as the topic on terro

26、rism ， materials may include Sept. 11 terrorist attack on USA， US-led war in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq ， etc. While the teacher collected some printed materials ， made some tape recordings and downloaded some latest reports in both special and standard English. Step 2 Pre-listening discussion

27、and oral reports In this step ， students are given twenty minutes to discuss in groups on information they have collected. Occasionally ， handouts are given out by the teacher as reference. Then several students are to given oral reports on what they have discussed. This step is indeed an interactiv

28、e process ， involving reading and oral communication and is expected to activate and construct student s background knowledge and thus get them prepared for the listening practice.Step 3 Listening comprehension The listening materials for third-year students are expected to be mostly in standard Eng

29、lish， which causes some difficulties in students listening comprehension. For the purpose of lessening the difficulty level and for students better information ， occasionally ， students have accesses to special reports on similar topics before they listen to reports in standard English. While listen

30、ing ， students are required to take notes for the use of post-listening discussion， which is designed for students to monitor their comprehension and ensure that all students gain more or less information on the topic(For students who are weak in listening comprehension， this activity can be crucial

31、) . At times ， students are given a list of questions to check their comprehension after they listen to the news(The recording may be played several times considering its difficulty level.) . Step 4 After-class activity After listening and discussion ， students are asked to write a summary of about

32、200 to 300 words on the topics. The purpose of doing this is to help students reinforce what they have learned and to prepare for the next session. Whent he four procedures are all completed ， students are required to reflect on the materials learned and write an essay about 500 words on the topic， particularly with the focus on some aspects in depth. 4. Discussion and conclusion In the learning and teaching precess ， there are some features worth analyzing. Questions facilitating students listening comprehension ， and to what extent. Further studies are to be d