英语论文The Application of Schema Theory in English Reading Teaching in Senior High Schools.docx
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英语论文TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryinEnglishReadingTeachinginSeniorHighSchools
TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryinEnglishReadingTeachinginSeniorHighSchools
1.Introduction2
1.1Backgroundandpurposeofthisresearch2
1.2Significanceofthisresearch3
1.3Researchquestions4
2.LiteratureReview4
2.1Definitionofreading4
2.1.1Readingasadecodingprocess4
2.1.2Readingasaselectiveandpredictiveprocess5
2.1.3Readingasaninteractiveprocess5
2.1.4Readingasaschema-constructedprocess6
2.2Typicalmodelsofreading6
2.2.1Bottom-upmodel7
2.2.2Top-downmodel7
2.2.3Interactive-compensatorymodel8
3.TheSchemaandSchemaTheory9
3.1Themeaningofschema9
3.2SchemaTheory10
3.3Theclassificationofschema12
3.4Thefunctionsofschema13
3.4.1Predictionofreadingcontent13
3.4.2Selectionofinformationinput13
3.4.3Helpingremembering13
3.4.4Attractionofreaders’attention14
4.TheRoleoftheSchemaTheoryontheEnglishReading14
4.1ThecurrentsituationofEnglishReadinginSeniorHighSchool14
4.2Thereasonsaffectthereadingbyschema15
4.3Effectivereadingbasedonschemaabilities15
4.3.1Activatingbackgroundknowledgeandestablishingthecontentschema15
4.3.2Predictingmeaningtoassistthereadingprocess16
4.3.3Extractingthemainideaandanalyzingthetextualstructure16
5.TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryinSeniorEnglishReadingTeaching17
5.1Hypothesis17
5.2Subjects18
5.3Instruments18
5.4Testingprocedures19
5.5Materialsandtrainingprocedures19
5.6Resultsanddiscussion24
6.Conclusion25
References28
Appendix131
E34
Appendix235
1.Introduction
Aseveryoneknows,readingplaysaveryimportantroleinEnglishteaching.Howcanthereadersreadtoachievethebestresults?
Thetraditionalreadingadvocatesusingthebottom-upmodel—akindofpassivedecodingmodel,bywhichreadersonlyneedtoreadwordbywordanditwillbeveryeasyforthemtogetthewholemeaning.Withthedevelopmentofappliedlinguisticsandpsychologicallinguistics,itisfoundthatreadingisnotaprocessofpassivedecoding,butaprocessofactive“guess-confirm”(Goodman,1971:
135),whichisthetop-downmodel.Afterthat,Rumelhart(1977)saidthatreadingisaprocessthatthebottom-upmodelandthetop-downmodelinteracttogetherandatthesametimeprocesswordinformation,whichiscalledaninteractivemodel.Nomatterwhatkindofmodelisused,eitherthereaders’backgroundknowledgeortheschematicknowledgeisneeded.
Thepapermainlyconcernstheconceptionofschematheory,thefunctionofschematoreadingandtheenlightenmentofschematheorytothereadingteachingandaboveallisabouthowthestudentsaretrainedinEnglishreadingundertheguidanceofschematheorybytheteacherwiththepurposeofthethreeresearchquestions.
1.1Backgroundandpurposeofthisresearch
“Thewrittenwordsurroundsusdaily.Itconfusesusandenlightensus,itdepressesusandamusesus,anditsickensusandhealsus.”FromBrandy’swords(1983)wecanfindhowimportantreadingistoeveryoneinaliteratesociety.Someexpertsestimatedthat80%ofpeople’sknowledgeisobtainedthroughreadingwithonly20%throughtheirownexperience.Clearly,readingisvaluableanditisveryimportanttoallstudentswhentheylearnalanguage.AsCarrel(1987)pointedout,“formanystudents,readingisbyfarthemostimportantofthefourskillsinasecondlanguage,particularlyinEnglishassecondorforeignlanguage.”
InChina,thecurrentSeniorHighSchoolEnglishCurriculumStandardsdemandthatthereadingteachingpurposeis,firstofall,totrainstudentstoreadmoreeffectively,todevelopstudents’readinghabitsandtostimulatetheirinterestsinEnglish.BothteachersandstudentsinhighschoolrealizeEnglishreadingissoimportantthattheyspendalotoftimeandenergyonit.However,therearemanyproblemsinEnglishreadinginstructioninSeniorHighSchools.Manystudentstendtobepassiveaudiencesratherthanactiveparticipantsinclass.Afterclass,theyseldomreadEnglishmaterialsexceptfortheirtextbooks,andtheyhavetodoalargenumberofexercisesmodelingthetestpaperofNMET(NationalMatriculationEntranceTest).Asaresult,theyhaveanarrowscopeofknowledge,readwithaslowspeed,andcannotunderstandEnglishtextssuccessfully.Inaword,theirreadingcompetenceispoor.
1.2Significanceofthisresearch
ThisresearchwasdesignedtohelptheteachersachieveabetterunderstandingoftheschematheoryanditseffectonimprovingEnglishreadingbasedonschematheory.ThisthesisalsodemonstrateshowsuchapplicationcanbecarriedoutatclassroomlevelbyaddressingthespecificprocedureandevaluationmethodofanexperimentalresearchconductedjointlybytheauthorandamiddleschoolEnglishteacher.Althoughtheresearchisonlyattheexperimentallevelandmaystillneedfurtherimprovement,itsbasicgoalshavebeenachievedandithasdisplayedthepowerofactivatingschematainlanguagelearningtothefrontlinein-serviceteachers.
1.3Researchquestions
(i)DoesreadingtrainingundertheguidanceofschematheoryimprovethereadingabilityofhighschoolESL(EnglishSecondLanguage)learners?
(ii)Howistheeffectivenessofreadingtrainingundertheguidanceofschematheoryrelatedtothereadingproficiencyofthestudents?
(iii)What’stherelationshipbetweenreadingcomprehensionandschematheory?
2.LiteratureReview
2.1Definitionofreading
Readingbehaviorisapartofdailylife.Itisanordinarywayinwhichweusewrittenlanguagetogetinformationforsurvival,learning,enjoymentandsoon.Soreadingissoimportantthatwecan’tbreakawayfromitinthemodernworld.
2.1.1Readingasadecodingprocess
Thosewhoholdthisideabelievethatwhenaspeakerorwriterhasamessageinhismind,hewantssomebodyelsetoshare.First,heencodesitandexpressesitinlanguage.Onceitisencodedineitherspokenorwrittenform,itisavailableoutsidehismindasatext.Thereaderorthelistenercanreceivethetextanddecodethemessage.Thenreadingasadecodingprocessisfounded.
2.1.2Readingasaselectiveandpredictiveprocess
Readingisakindofselectingprocess,whichthereaderuseslanguageknowledgeandrelevantinformationtopieceandchoosesusefulthings.Thatis,basedonthereader’spredict,tousethelessselectivelanguagecodetoformthepredictionandjudgment.Goodman(1971)describedreadingasapsycholinguisticguessinggameandacyclicalprocessinwhichthereaderfiguresoutmeaningswiththeirformerlyacquiredknowledge.Theapproachtoreadingemphasizedthereader’suseofallrelevantinformationtogetmeaning.
2.1.3Readingasaninteractiveprocess
Readingisaprocessinwhichthereaderandthetext(thewriter)workinteractively.Themeaningneitheradherestotheprintedsymbols,norpassivewaitsforthereadertofindout.Thereadershouldtakeadvantageofvariedknowledgethroughprediction,inferencetoobtainthemeaningandunderstandthetext.ThisperspectivewasfirstlyposedbyRumelhartin1977.Heexpressedhisideathatreadingwasnotapassiveprocessofdecodingtheprintedsymbolsbutaninteractivemodelwhichworkstogetherwithbothlowerlevelandhigherlevel.Itreferstothegeneralinteraction,whichtakesplacebetweenthereaderandthetext.Thebasicconceptisthatthereaderreconstructsthetextinformationbasedinpartontheknowledgedrawingfromthetextandonpartfromthepriorknowledgeavailabletothereader(Carrel&Eisterhold,1983).Whilereading,accordingtothetextinformation,thereaderreactstothetextwithhisbackgroundknowledge,wordknowledgeandlinguisticknowledge.
2.1.4Readingasaschema-constructedprocess
Readingcomprehensionisacomplexprocess,whichhasalsobeendescribedasaconstructiveprocess(Bartlett,1932).Inordertounderstandthetext,thereadermustuseinformation,whichisexplicitandimplicittoformaschema.Readersinterpretatextaccordingtotheirschemata.Schematheorybelievesthatknowledgeissystematicallyorganized(Rumelhart,1980).Aschemacanbedefinedashavingelementsorcomponentswhichcanbedelineatedandwhichareorderedinspecificways.Readersarethoughttouseschematatoanticipatetextcontentsandstructures.
2.2Typicalmodelsofreading
Inthispart,someofthekeytheoreticalperspectivesonthenatureofreadingareexamined.Linguistsbelievethattherearetwobasicmodelsofinformationprocessing:
bottom-upandtop-downmodels.Schematheorycallsforoperationofbothapproaches:
interactiveapproach.
2.2.1Bottom-upmodel
Bottom-upmodelbeganwithindividualwordandstructureintexts.Thatis,readingasadecodingprocess.Thewriterusedwords,symbolsandcertaingrammarrulestoencodehisthoughtaslanguage.Thereadershoulddecodelanguagetohisthought.Thatis,itbeganwiththesmallestmeaningunit.Fromwordstosentences,paragraphsandfinallytothewholetext,itcamefromthesmallesttextualunitstolargeronesandthencametothewholetext.Intheprocessreadersreconstructtheauthor’sintendedmeaningviarecognizingtheprintedlettersandwords,andbuildupameaningforthetext.Thistypeofprocessingiscalled“data-drivenprocessing”(Carrell&Eisterhold,1987:
221).Thismodelthoughtreadingproblemwasactuallythelinguisticproblem.Thismodelalsounderestimatedthereader’sactivefunctionanddidnottreatthereaderasactiveworker.
2.2.2Top-downmodel
Tosolvetheproblemsthatbottom-upmodelcannotsolve,top-downmodelwasposed.Top-downmodeldescribedreadingasapsycholinguisticguessinggame.