The Application Of Schema Theory To English Majors’Autonomous Listening In College

Listening is very prevalent in language use. For decades, how the learners can listen to achieve the best results has become the key concern of teachers devoted to English teaching. The way to become a better listener is to practice "active listening". By active listening listeners make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, to try to understand the total message being sent. One theory that can help to achieve active listening is the Schema Theory. Schema is the core concept of cognitive psychology, and the research into it is widely regarded as a leading issue in exploring comprehension psychology. In this paper, the author discusses listening and comprehension, summarizes the definition and functions of schema, particularly the functions of schema in information processing in listening comprehension, and then explores the application of the Schema Theory to English majors’autonomous listening. It is suggested that in listening, the functions of schema should be brought into full play in reinforcing perception and memorizing, in enhancing comprehension and reasoning, and in problem solving so as to help listeners improve listening proficiency. And as we all know, listeners can not improve the listening proficiency only by the practice in class. A great quantity of exercise outside the classroom is essential to the enhancing of listening proficiency. However, most listeners have no idea on how to listen without the teacher’s guidance. Consequently, though most of them guarantee a great quantity of exercise outside the classroom, there is slight improvement in their listening proficiency. In order to solve this problem, it is vital to give listeners appropriate guidance on how to listen actively by themselves outside the classroom. It is also necessary to inspire the students to apply the Schema Theory in autonomous listening practice. In the current project, an experiment is designed to verify the effectiveness and the feasibility of the application. It consists of objectives, participants, methodology, findings and statistical analysis. The inspiration of the Schema Theory to autonomous listening is extensive. The most important is that it helps renovate the listening practice belief. With the guidance of this practice belief, listeners’listening quality will definitely be gradually formed in the process of listening practice.