The Application Of Schema Theory To English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

Reading plays an important role in junior high school English learning.In English learning,reading is an important way for students to acquire knowledge,understand foreign cultures and improve their English language skills.The new curriculum standard puts forward new requirements for junior high school English reading teaching.In junior high school,students should be able to read articles of common genres at their levels,find out the theme of the article,understand the general idea of the article,infer the meaning of new words from the context,and solve problems with simple reading strategies.However,the development of teaching hasn’t kept pace with the reform,some reading classes are still regarded as the grammar class.Teachers spend less time to read and translate the article,and the rest of the time is devoted to explaining the grammar knowledge in the article.Therefore,students’ reading ability cannot be well improved.Since 1980 s,schema theory has been widely used in foreign language teaching in China,especially in English reading teaching.In order to explore whether English Reading Teaching under the guidance of schema theory can improve students’ reading ability.Based on schema theory,this thesis studied the application of Schema Theory in junior middle school English reading teaching by using qualitative and quantitative research methods.Experimental data were collected through pre-test,post-test,questionnaire and interview.This research lasted six months,and carried out teaching experiments in Songyang Middle School of Zhengzhou.In the eighth grade,two parallel classes were chosen as the subjects,one was chosen as the experimental class,the other as the control class.Reading teaching was conducted under the guidance of Schema Theory in the experimental class,and the control class continued to use the traditional translation method.At the end of the experiment,the data were collected and analyzed by SPSS software.From the perspective of constructing three kinds of schemata,a specific teaching model was proposed for the experimental class: wake up the existing schemata before reading,supplement the existing schemata and build new schemata during reading,consolidate the schemata,conform the schemata and build new schemata after reading.In this reading mode,a teaching experiment was conducted to compare the grades of pre-test and post-test between the two classes.According to the results of data analysis through SPSS,it is concluded that the teaching of English reading under the guidance of schema theory can improve students’ reading ability.Under the guidanceof schema theory,students’ reading speed and comprehension have been improved,their interest,passion and confidence have been enhanced,their vision has been broadened,and their good reading habits have been cultivated.Despite the above results,due to the limitations of the author’s ability,there are still some shortcomings in this paper.Based on the results analysis,some suggestions are put forward for the future teaching in the conclusion.