An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Schema-based Lexical Chunk Teaching On The Cultivation Of Junior High School Students’ English Reading Cognitive Ability

According to English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition),the curriculum content which is conducive to the cultivation of Core Competencies is reconstructed,the text knowledge is added,and the cultivation of the English reading ability of junior high school students is more valued.English reading cognitive ability,one of the components of English reading ability,includes the ability to recognize and extract,summarize and analyze,as well as criticize and evaluate literal information(Zeng,2017).Based on schema theory and chunking theory,this study aims to investigate the effects of the application of schema-based lexical chunk teaching on the cultivation of junior high school students’ English reading cognitive ability.Therefore,the following two questions are presented and explored:(1)Does schema-based lexical chunk teaching have a positive effect on the cultivation of junior high school students’ English reading cognitive ability? If yes,what are the differences in its effects on the cultivation of the three sub-dimensions of English reading cognitive ability—the ability to recognize and extract,the ability to summarize and analyze,as well as the ability to criticize and evaluate literal information?(2)What are the differences in the effects of schema-based lexical chunk teaching on the cultivation of the English reading cognitive ability of junior high school students with different English reading levels?In this ten-week empirical study,90 second-graders from two parallel classes of a junior high school in Guangzhou,Guangdong province were selected as subjects.45 participants in the control class received regular English reading instruction and 45 participants in the experimental class were taught by schema-based lexical chunk teaching.Instruments of a self-assessed questionnaire of English reading cognitive ability,two English reading tests,and a semi-structured interview were employed and then all the data were collected and analyzed.The results show that:(1)the students in the experimental class significantly improved their overall English reading cognitive ability far more than those in the control class,particularly in their ability to recognize and extract,as well as summarize and analyze literal information,however,improved the least in their ability to criticize and evaluate literal information;and(2)the students in both the high-level and low-level groups in the experimental class showed significant improvement in the overall English reading cognitive ability compared to their pre-experiment performance,especially in their ability to recognize and extract literal information,while the former made more progress than the latter.It is concluded that schema-based lexical chunk teaching has a positive effect on the cultivation of students’ English reading cognitive ability in junior high school English reading teaching.It can specifically enhance students’ ability to recognize and extract literal information,which subsequently drives a great improvement in their ability to summarize and analyze literal information.And,it has a greater effect on the cultivation of the English reading cognitive ability of the students with a high level of English reading ability than the lowlevel ones.Therefore,teachers should update their teaching concepts and place great emphasis on the application of schema theory and lexical chunks in English reading instruction to enhance the student’s English reading cognitive ability.