The Application of Schema Theory to Junior English Listening Teaching

1、AcknowledgementsThanks for giving me this opportunity to achieve this paper and to make the conclusion for my four years education. Through writing this paper, I have gained much more knowledge than I supposed.First and foremost, my sincere thanks and respects are given to my supervisor, Professor L

2、i Xuefeng, for helping me to clarify my thought and sharpen my thinking, for her professional guidance and encouragement.Then I also want to express my thanks to all teachers who have ever taught me knowledge and other reasons,Finally, I would like to give my thanks to my friends who gave me much he

3、lp and support. Thank you!AbstractThis task takes former research to schema theory, English listening teaching and their relationship as basis and then does deeper discussion to the application of schema theory to junior English listening teaching. It is vital to understand and use schemata correctl

4、y, activate students background knowledge and set up new schemata during the listening process. According to Questionnaire I and Test I, some problems existed in listening teaching have been discovered. Aimed at these problems, this task takes 40 students in Grade 7, Class 4 in Mayu Middle School as

5、 experimental objects to carry on experimental lessons based on schema theory for 10 weeks. And then Questionnaire II and Test II are used to verify the impacts taken to junior English listening teaching by the application of schema theory. Based on the research data and analysis, some enlightenment

6、 can be gained from the practice of schema theory.Key Words: background knowledge, listening comprehension, activate and set up schemata, listening teaching摘 要本课题以前人对图式理论和英语听力教学以及两者关系的研究为基础，进行了更深层次对图式理论在初中英语听力教学中的运用的探讨。如何正确理解和运用图式理论、如何激活学生在听力过程中所掌握的背景知识以及创建新图式是本课题的中心关键。通过调查问卷I和测试I，发现了英语听力教学中仍然存在的问题。

7、之后以马屿中学七年级四班的40名同学为研究对象进行了为期十周的以图式理论为指导的实验课堂。进而用调查问卷II和测试II来验证图式理论的应用对初中英语听力教学带来的作用。通过对数据的分析和研究，从图式理论的实践中得到了一定的启示。关键词：背景知识，听力理解，激活和建立图式，听力教学Contents TOC o 1-2 u1. Introduction 12. Literature 22.1 Schema Theory 22.2 Listening Comprehension 42.3 Relationship Between Schema Theory and Listening Compreh

8、ension 53. Research Methodology 63.1 Instruments 73.2 Research Questions 73.3 Subjects and Teaching Materials 93.4 Teaching Procedures of One Experimental Lesson 94. Results and Discussion 124.1 Analysis of Data from questionnaires and Tests 124.2 Discussion to Experimental Lessons 165. Conclusion 1

9、7Bibliography 19AppendixesThe Application of Schema Theory to Junior English Listening Teaching1. IntroductionWhatever the language is, listening is an efficient way to receive information from the outside world. As the important part of English language teaching, listening is the basis of other lan

10、guage skills such as reading, writing and speaking. According to statistics from W. M. Rivers and M. S.Temperly, listening in human communication is about 45%, speaking 30%, reading 16% and writing 9% (Zhou 24). Therefore, improving listening comprehension ability is always necessary and important.

11、However, for most English learners, listening is truly a stumbling block. So the effect of listening teaching greatly affects students language cognitive level and communication ability.The comprehension process of listening is to link up existing information and new information. The ability of list

12、ening comprehension depends on the activation level of background knowledge to a large extent during the listening process. Background knowledge is previous knowledge which people have already got. The more background knowledge one has, the easier one understands the material; the more background kn

13、owledge is activated, the more thoroughly one understands the material. Schema refers to the structure of knowledge stored in peoples mind. Schema theory exactly emphasizes the significance of background knowledge.Schema theory is applied widely in the field of psychology of reading. Because it can

14、greatly express mental phenomena in reading and understanding, establish one schema to analyze、describe and predict the complicated interpretative procedure which may be occurring. On account of many common grounds between reading comprehension and listening comprehension, the schema theory can also

15、 be used in English listening teaching to improve students listening comprehension ability.This paper focuses on the application of schema theory to junior English listening teaching.It mainly researches the relationship between schemata and listening comprehension, and then applies schema theory to

16、 junior English listening teaching according to their relationship and some existed problems in teaching. Questionnaire approach, test method and case analysis method are used in this paper.On the one hand, schema theory can be applied into junior English listening teaching in order to make listenin

17、g teaching get rid of bored and inefficient traditional teaching ways such as “play the tape-listen-check answers-listen again”. After a period of practice, students can spontaneously use the way of constructing schema and activating schema in every listening exercise. Only really understanding the

18、listening can students use English into actual communication with others. On the other hand, its helpful for teachers to use schema theory in teaching. Schema theory offers new train of thought to teachers which help them innovation in class. Every enlightenment from practice of schema theory may ta

19、ke positive influence to the development of junior English listening teaching.2. LiteratureIn this part, schema theory, listening comprehension and their relationship are briefly introduced.2.1 Schema TheorySchema, one of cognitive psychology terms originally, was firstly appeared in philosopher Kan

20、t s work in 1781. Kant pointed out that schema was product of pure transcendental imagination or structure of knowledge learners used to acquire (Kang 181). What s more, Kant considered that concepts combined with personal given information can be significative. In 1932, psychologist Bartlett put fo

21、rward schema theory in his work Remembering. He thought schema was a positive organization to former reaction or experience, which can also be referred to the process that one kind of information react to another stored in learners brain and the process that learner absorb new information. In the 19

22、80s, the American human intelligence expert Rumelhart made a further development and perfected this theory. He regarded schema theory as a theoretical model which researched the role of long term memory in comprehension process systematically and deeply.Each of us carries in our hands mental represe

23、ntations of typical situations that we come across. When we are stimulated by particular words, discourse patterns, or contexts, such schematic knowledge is activated and we are able to recognize what we see or hear because it fits into patterns that we already know (Harmer 199).For example, when Ti

24、ger Woods are talked about, golf ball will be easily associated. Therefore, to put it simply, this background knowledge activated while you read or hear one sentence is called schema.To sum up, cognition of human beings to the world is stored in brain as transcendental schemata. Transcendental schem

25、ata can be assimilated to an enormous file system. It classifies and stores ones personal knowledge and experience into brain. When brain receives new information, it will set up a new file to save this information.So in fact, transcendental schemata are background knowledge. Schema theory emphasize

26、s the importance of background knowledge. Schema theory is about how to use background knowledge to learn more new things and get richer knowledge in the applying process.Its generally considered that there are three types of schema: linguistic, formal and content. Linguistic schema is learners know

27、ledge about the foundation of a language such as sounds, vocabulary and grammar. As Carrell defines, formal schema is background knowledge about the formal, rhetorical, organizational structures of different kinds of texts(83). Formal schema refers to the knowledge about writing styles or figures.Co

28、ntent schema is the main idea or background of context. Content schemata are less abstract and presumably about the physical world of discernible objects and action (Ni 10).Schemata are made up of many slots. Slots can be seen as the elements in a structure of knowledge to store background knowledge

29、 and new accepted information. Slots will be filled up to activate pre-existent knowledge and input new knowledge. That is to say, schema can give rise to process to new information. On the basis of original schema, new content can be added and it will update in order to form new cognition. Second,

30、once the schema comes into being, it possesses quite high stability. This stability does not mean schema wont change easily, it means schema wont disappear easily. Third, schema decides the tendentiousness and preference when people face the choices of information. People tend to choose the informat

31、ion which is similar to stored knowledge. And that may influence peoples further prediction. What s more, schemata can be embedded with other schemata. If there is something new, the fresh information will be added to previous schema. If there is nothing different, existing schema will be intensifie

32、d. If there are some differences, previous schema will be adjusted with fresh information. If there is no relation between accepted and existing information, new schema will be constructed.According to features of schema, it has following functions: First, schema will affect listeners choice. Usuall

33、y, information related with existing schema can be the center of attention. Second, schema will influence listeners memory. Which are meaningful to listener or already understood can be more easily remembered. Third, schema will play a role in self-perception. Listener will process relevant informat

34、ion according to the existing schema.2.2 Listening ComprehensionUsually language skills can be divided into receptive skills and productive skills. Speaking and writing belong to the range of productive skills,while listening and reading are in the range of receptive skills. For receptive skill, it

35、asks people to receive and understand the information accepted into brain accurately. Actually, listening comprehension is a positive and purposeful procedure. Brown, G. pointed out, “When the listener do listening, they will search the meanings actively. These active listeners will use all related

36、background knowledge such as knowledge about co-text, information about speaker, knowledge of topic and so on”(82).To conclude from the above-mentioned opinions, people often listen to information content with a purpose. They not only listen to the single word or sentence, but also listen to and und

37、erstand the meanings contained in speech.American linguist Widdowson, H. G. once presented his opinion that “listening comprehension includes two implications: one is to understand the grammar structure of speaking. But this understanding is only confined to literal meaning; the other is to understa

38、nd functions and influence of speaking” (36).In other words, listening comprehension needs listeners to understand literal meaning, it also needs listeners to comprehend communicative function of discourse.To achieve real understanding, background knowledge is of the essence. Just as Wu Yian says th

39、at“the listening in actual life and tests is impossible not to involve background knowledge”(128).2.3 Relationship Between Schema Theory and Listening ComprehensionSchema produces an effect on and runs through the information processing of listening comprehension. We can make use of schema theory to

40、 explain process of listening comprehension and describe it in terms of three propagation modes.The first mode is called “bottom-up process”. Carrell& Eisterhold pointed out this mode was a way to comprehend listening material according to information of material itself. In this way, the beginning o

41、f this comprehension starts from the minimum linguistic unit such as phoneme and morpheme. In traditional teaching process, many teachers are affected by this mode. They generally think students can easily understand the listening material without difficulties of language knowledge. However, its ver

42、y normal that some students still cant comprehend although they master the points of language knowledge. Therefore, its obviously not enough to only use the “bottom-up process” in English listening teaching.The second pattern is called “top-down process”. Compared with the first mode, this pattern i

43、s relatively complicated. This strategy analyzes accepted information(vocabulary and sentences) by existing knowledge. Therefore, “top-down process” is actually a process from the totality to part. Specifically speaking, this mode activates background knowledge firstly by some afferent information.

44、Later these activated background knowledge can put schema of next level in motion.A large number of researches have proved that efficient and right listening comprehension cant only depend on “bottom-up process” or “top- down process”. Many teachers have realized that these two patterns should be cr

45、oss used in English listening teaching in order to improve students ability. This newly formed pattern is interactive mode.Celce-Murcia, M. used the following diagram to present relationships between “bottom-up process” and “top-down process” clearly.From this flow chart it can be seen that in the i

46、nteractive mode, the complicated treating processes of background knowledge(the same as schemata), content information and language information urge the understanding and explanation to a given speech segment. Therefore, listeners need to remove the stored knowledge in brain to cognize and inference

47、 dynamically to comprehend what the speakers want to express.3. Research MethodologyIts obvious of the role of schema played in listening comprehension. In this part, Questionnaire I and Test I are used firstly to discover existed problems in listening teaching. In order to solve these problems, exp

48、erimental lessons based on schema theory for ten weeks are designed. At last, Questionnaire II and Test II are used to verify the impacts taken to junior English listening teaching by the application of schema theory.3.1 InstrumentsQuantitative and qualitative methods are used together in the presen

49、t study because of their respective advantages and disadvantages. Two questionnaires, two tests and experimental lessons for 10 weeks are carried out. Questionnaires are carried out in Chinese to guarantee validity of students understanding to the content.There are two questionnaires in this study.

50、Questionnaire I (see Appendix I) is handed out to students at first to realize their feelings and situations about current listening learning. There are 10 questions in Questionnaire I. Questionnaire II (see Appendix II) is sent to students after 10 weeks experimental lessons to realize their differ

51、ent ideas about new learning mode and their feedback. There are another 8 questions in Questionnaire II. Both questionnaires adopt anonymous survey.As same as questionnaires, there are two tests in this study. One is before experimental lessons to see students practical level of English listening. T

52、he other one is after 10 weeks lessons to see students current level of English listening. The complexity of these two tests is similar and these two tests meet the criterion of junior high school.Experimental lessons are designed on the basis of schema theory for students in Grade7, Class4 for ten

53、weeks.By the analysis of Questionnaire I and Test I, existed problems in listening teaching can be easily discovered. To solve these problems, experimental lessons on the basis of schema theory are designed. Then by comparing data and results of two questionnaires and two tests, the effect of applic

54、ation of schema theory can be seen clearly and deeply.3.2 Research QuestionsListening always occupies a great position in every English test.In addition, listening is the fundamental skill of other English language skills. Only one master the listening skill well, can he apply English into actual co

55、mmunication or tests flexibly. However, its a reality that students even cant understand what teacher says in class.Questionnaire I and Test I are designed to find existed problems in listening teaching.The results of Questionnaire I can be shown as the following chart.题号/选项 A B C D1 25% 20% 45% 10%

56、2 40% 32.5% 12.5% 15%3 7.5% 22.5% 45% 25%4 57.5% 42.5% / /5 10% 25% 32.5% 32.5%6 5% 47.5% 47.5% /7 22.5% 32.5% 32.5% 20%8 22.5% 52.5% 25% /9 72.5% 12.5% 15% /10 Multiple ChoiceThe results of Test I are following. The highest score is 38, the lowest score is 3 and the average score is 27.1. There are

57、 6 students whose score is above 35, 22 students whose score is between 25 and 34, 9 students whose score is between 15 and 24, 3 students whose score is below 15.According to the analysis of Questionnaire I and Test Is data, its clear to see that how to train students learning ways and improve thei

58、r ability of listening comprehension are extremely urgent problems need to solve. Therefore, how to apply schema theory to junior English listening teaching according to teaching goals of junior high school is the following emphasis of this paper.3.3 Subjects and Teaching MaterialsStudents in Mayu m

59、iddle school, Grade7, Class4 will be chosen as the subjects of this study. Students in grade7 just step into junior high school for a short time. Their knowledge systems of a new language (refers to English) are not mature and perfect. But their cognition to English can be more easily remoulded than other older teenagers due to their immaturity of knowledge systems. For teenagers in this age,