The Application Of Schema Theory To English Reading Teaching In Secondary Vocational School

Reading is an important way for us to acquire the knowledge and ability of foreign language. However, it is very difficult for students to improve reading comprehension in an efficient way, especially for the vocational students. The writer uses the form of Questionnaire and interview, and by collecting and analyzing the data finds that besides difficulties of words and grammar, the vocational students also lack various knowledge, such as culture knowledge, geography knowledge, science knowledge and so on. Therefore, in their reading practice, the vocational students often feel hard to get accurate meaning and information. So the writer attempts to use the concept of "Schema theory" in teaching English reading, in order to improve the students' ability and the speed of reading.The concept of "Schema theory" was first put forward in late 1600's but it was finally theorized in1980's. Since then it has gradually become one of the most popular theories in the second language acquisition studies. Based on Schema Theory, the author of this thesis has made an experiment on schema-oriented teaching model for improving vocational students'English reading comprehension.The experiment lasts one school year. The author has adopted KWLH strategy in English reading class and tried many ways to activate the students' known schema and build their new schema. By comparing the results of the pre-experiment test with the post-experiment test, we can draw a conclusion:1.The study demonstrates that schema-oriented teaching model is of great value in improving the vocational students' English reading comprehension.2. The use of linguistic schema enlarges students' vocabulary and improves their understanding of complex sentences.3. The use of content schema makes students get a more precise idea of the topic and the content of the reading materials.4. The use of formal schema lets students know the structure of the article more clearly.