A Study On The Applications And Limitations Of Schema Theory In The Teaching Of EFL Reading

With the development of the theories of second language acquisition and the"information explosion"nowadays, reading is becoming more and more important for the students, especially for the English majors. It is now considered as the most important of the five basic skills. Thus the teaching syllabus puts the training of the students'higher reading ability to the first place. Naturally, how to improve students'English reading ability becomes the focus for English teachers in China. Currently, one of the prevailing perspectives toward the analysis of reading process is the schema theory. This paper aims to acquaint more English reading teachers with the schema theory and the classroom application and then investigate the limitations of the schema theory in EFL reading.A schema is usually explained as the general knowledge structure in readers'mind. The schema theory proposes that readers possess different conceptual frameworks which they bring to the reading of a text and which they use to make sense of what they read. In other words, the schema theory is an explanation of how readers use their preexisting knowledge to comprehend and learn from reading materials. The theory claims that the nature of reading comprehension is counted as an active process. In this process, the reader starts from the visual stimuli in the text through the activation of prior schemata in his mind and obtains a proper interpretation of the text, which is congruent with what is intended by the writer and has an impact on the reader. Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to the reader's own prior knowledge.The first chapter of this paper provides a general introduction of the whole paper: the situations of the Chinese students'EFL reading, a general introduction of the objectives of the study and the organization of the dissertation. The second chapter reviews the historical and existing views on reading. The nature and the definition of reading are also discussed. The third chapter analyses the schema theory, the models and classification of it. The fourth chapter explains the functions schemata perform in English language classroom and also offers an example about how to organize a reading class in the whole process. The fifth chapter illustrates the limitations and difficulties of schemata in teaching of reading. In the sixth chapter some possible solutions and suggestions are provided. In the last chapter, it comes to the conclusion that it is important for teachers in the classroom to be aware of the importance of vocabulary instruction for the lack of it may give rise to ambiguity in comprehension. Meanwhile, the significance of reading extensively, reading with strategies and social-cultural knowledge required for better reading is also highlighted because students'difficulties in comprehension may be related not only to linguistic or lexical problems but also to problems caused by the lack of reading skills, cultural background knowledge and sufficient reading.