The Application Of Schema Theory In Middle School English Reading Teaching

There have been tremendous changes in the form of testing paper in Entrance Examination to Senior Middle School since 2006. The number of reading passages has increased from 4 to 6 by the end of 2009, which has definitely multiplied the difficulty of the exam. Faced with this challenging situation, the teachers should work out specific techniques to arouse the students'interest in English reading. The hot issue on how to improve students'reading ability is by now widely discussed and opinions vary. Here the author suggests using the Schema Theory in English teaching class to help enhance students'English reading ability.Chapter One is an overall introduction of the paper, which mainly focuses on the background and the purpose of the research. While two relevant theories, namely the definition of reading and schema theory appear in Chapter Two. Chapter 3 includes the thorough explanation of a particular experiment. Vivid examples are given to help students to establish, activate, use and consolidate schema. In Chapter Four, the author provides an analysis of the data. The concluding section of the thesis is in Chapter Five, which covers the main findings and presents some unsolved problems. The thesis involves several questions to be discussed:Does teaching Schema Theory have a positive effect on students' reading ability? Can teaching Schema Theory help improve students'reading comprehension? Can teaching Schema Theory help boost students'confidence and stimulate their interest in reading English articles?The experiment mentioned in Chapter Three is the main focus of this thesis. It involves 62 students, aiming at improving the students'reading ability using the schema theory. During the two-month experiment process, the author tried to apply various teaching methods. The whole process was divided into five steps: pre-questionnaire, pre-test, using Schema Theory in English reading class, post-test and post-questionnaire.From the two questionnaires and analysis of the data, we can figure out that Schema Theory is of great value in helping students better understand the given reading materials. Therefore, the author came to the conclusion that activating the students'existing schema and assisting them to establish new schema are surely an effective way in refining English reading class.