The Exploration Of Effectiveness Of Using Schema And Script In Reading

Reading plays an important role in learning and teaching English. Reading is a platform for the second language learners to get background knowledge and helps them to build a solid foundation of proficiency for listening, speaking, writing and translating. The College English Syllabus (1999) states clearly that "College English aims to develop in students a relatively high level of comprehension in reading and an appropriate level of comprehension in listening, speaking, writing and translation". Obviously, reading is put in the first place.Goodman (1971) points out that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game and it involves an interaction between thought and language. From 60s in the 20th, a number of theorists have developed interactive theories of reading. Those theories, which now dominate reading research and strongly influence teaching practice, draw heavily on schema theory. Schema theory reveals the important function of the readers'background knowledge in reading comprehension.This paper aims at the exploration of effectiveness of using schema and script in English reading and their function of improving reading abilities of the college students. This paper can be divided into five parts: Chapter One is the introduction, it contains the reasons for choosing the topic and the arrangement of the thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review, particularly the nature of reading as well as the notions and the functions of schema and the script. Chapter Three is the methodology, including the subjects, materials, testing process, data collection and research results, and findings. The last chapter is the conclusion, which involves the significance and limitation of applying schema theory to reading.Reading is much a complicate theory system, and schema theory captures only part of it. The goal of a college teacher is how to guide reading comprehension with schema theory, and at the same time, to cultivate students to enrich their prior knowledge and develop their reading proficiencies.