| Since the introduction of schema theory in reading comprehension by Carrell & Eisterhold (1983), it was employed to study the readability of native speakers and ESL learners. The schema has received considerable attention in recent years from reading linguistics and ESL researchers, and is becoming widely used to demonstrate some reading phenomenon. Other researchers then investigated the effects of schema on reading some special type of literary styles among ESL learners (Carrell, 1981b, 1984b, 1988a; Johnson, 1981; Hudson, 1982; Alderson & Urquhart, 1983; Baraett, 1989; Dubin & Bycina, 1991). However, the results have been varied across studies. This paper reports on the experiments carried out on the reading comprehension where the variables of content schemata and formal schemata in question answers are manipulated and examined for their effects on narrative and expository among Chinese college students as EFL learners. The final goal of this paper is to examine whether different schemata have different effects on literary styles reading, and to determine the extent to which content and formal schema in narrative differ from those in expository.The paper consists of six parts: the first part is a brief introduction, which puts forward the main idea of this paper; the second part reviews some literature closely related to the present research; the third part displays the methodology and procedure of the research, which involves reading question answers, and the analyses of collected data in the research; part four is the findings and discussions of the research; part five provides implications for both reading teachers and reading researchers and limitations of the research; the last part presents the conclusion of the study.The findings of the research will offer some insights into future reading research. More effective study about reading and schema theory is to be advocated to examine and prefect the findings of this study.
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