The Application Of The Schema Theory To The English Newspaper Reading In Senior High Schools

Reading is an effective approach to study the English language and improve the learners'(EFL) language competence of English, and it is also an important way to learn about the world. In China's elementary education, to improve the students' ability to read in English is one of the most important objectives in English teaching and English reading is among the most important contents and methods in their English language learning. The newly published National Criterion of English Curriculum for General Senior Middle Schools stresses the students' abilities of decoding the English language and of logical inference from context. It requests the students to cultivate a wide interest in English reading and a good habit of it. The new criterion stresses the students'abilities of analysis, perception, and judgment, and develops the students' abilities to using a wider resource in their English language learning. All this advances new challenges to the teaching of English reading in senior middle schools.However, the only textbook can't satisfy the students' need and has no way to reach the demanded standard while English newspapers, such as 21st Century can help solve the problem. They have new contents plentiful amount, various articles, and interesting stories. They are closed to life and in fashion. Using them as materials in reading classes can enhance the students' enthusiasm, enrich teaching resources, widen teaching ways and therefore develop the students' interest in English. And at last we reach our goal.English used in newspapers has its own unique lexical and stylistic features, which is a great barrier for students who seldom read English newspapers. It is necessary to provide the students with English newspaper reading training and give them instructions on how to read English newspapers effectively. Therefore, building up and developing the schemata in English newspapers has become an important step for students in English newspapers readings without difficulty.Schema theory, originated in the field of psychology in the study of mental organization for storing and retrieving the existing knowledge while dealing with the new information, has been applied in EFL learning and has great effect on reading comprehension. In this view, reading comprehension involves an interactive process between reader's schematic knowledge and the text itself. The schema theory suggests that our knowledge and expectations about the world will strongly affect our ability to understand new information by providing a framework within which that new information might fit. The basic principle behind schema theory is that texts themselves, whether spoken or written, do not carry meaning. But rather they provide signposts or clues to be utilized by listeners or readers in reconstructing the original meanings of the speaker or the writer. Reading comprehension is thus an interactive process between the reader and the text, in that the reader is required to fit the clues provided in the text to his or her own background knowledge. It can not only help the reader understand each individual word, sentence, but also, at the same time, grasp the main idea and the author's intention. Therefore, for EFL reading, schema theory has been becoming necessary for its ability of balancing interaction in reading process.Based on empirical studies, this thesis reports a study of English newspaper reading by the Schema Theory in the setting of senior high schools, discussing the necessity and methods of establishing journalistic English schemata by analyzing the schema theory in teaching of English newspaper reading process. The definition and ramifications of the Schema Theory are presented to the readers. The Schemata fall into three categories. They are the linguistic schema, the content schema, the form schema, and along with their interactions in the process of reading. The aim is to explore and apply English newspapers to the teaching of reading in senior schools and to verify its effectiveness and feasibility. The experiment was carried out among students in Senior Two from High School Attached to Northeast Normal University. Students in the experimental class were involved in reading English newspapers during one year's instructive intervention, and students in the control class used the traditional reading materials. Three instruments were used in the research: the pre-test and post-test, questionnaires and self-evaluation sheets. The findings are as follows: The reading abilities of the experimental class have evidently improved after the experiment. English newspaper reading has contributed to the improvement of the senior students' reading habits and strategies. The classroom activities during English newspaper reading have a positive effect on the senior students' interest and confidence in English. The students have become active learners when they are involved in English reading. Conclusions are therefore drawn from the data achieved through experiments. Of the three schemata, the linguistic schema provides the foundation for understanding a text literally, the content schema the basis for understanding its content, and the rhetorical the application of the content. These three schemata are inter-related and each indispensable. Three things should be done in the course of teaching and learning reading so that students can very well improve their reading comprehension ability, grasp reading skills and have a linguistic schema, and in this way they can also enlarge their reading to enrich the content schema, tell the different styles of writing to perfect the rhetorical schema and guide the students to pick up reading skills and strategies.It is hoped that this thesis will offer a teaching method to enhance the English learning of senior students through English newspaper reading and encourage more teachers to apply English newspapers to their own classroom teaching practice, students English proficiency therefore improved.