A Teaching Design Of Writing Class Based On Schema Theory In Advanced Stage Of TCSL

Among the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, most people regard writing as the most difficult part in teaching Chinese as a second language (TCSL). For the overseas students in China, writing combines the lexical, grammatical and discourse knowledge together which require a higher ability of the students to utilize the language comprehensively. So it is very difficult for overseas students to promote their writing ability. And for the teachers, the composition content covers a wide range in teaching writing, the organization of class activities is not easy and the class hours are insufficient. Thus the composition teaching in TCSL is quite difficult. So it is an important subject for the teachers of TCSL to cultivate and promote the Chinese writing skills of overseas students. This thesis tries to apply the schema theory into the teaching of writing in TCSL to find a way of improving the teaching mode and promote the writing ability of overseas students.In1781, Kant first raised the concept of schema theory which belongs to the category of philosophy. In1932, the famous psychologist Bartlett published his book Remembering which was regarded as the origin of modern schema theory. In1970s’, the American expert in AI, whose name is Rumelhart, made great contributions in perfecting the schema theory. After1980s’, this theory was gradually adopted by language educators and became an important research and practical theory in language teaching. The schema theory is now successfully and widely applied in teaching of listening and reading in TCSL, the author assume that if implanting this theory into teaching of writing in TCSL, we could also achieve a wonderful result.This thesis includes five parts:Chapter One mainly analyzes the aim and significance of choosing the topic, discusses the feasibility of applying the schema theory to teaching of writing in TCSL and states the relative research on Schema Theory both at home and abroad, then makes an overview of teaching of writing research in TCSL from four aspects. Chapter Two states the concept of schema theory and the classification of schemata, discusses the function of this theory in second language writing and thus supplies a theoretical frame to the thesis. Chapter Three makes the investigation and analysis of the students’learning mode of writing and the teaching mode of writing of the teachers through a questionnaire survey, and analyzes the shortcomings of the current teaching mode of advanced writing in TCSL under the perspective of Schema Theory. Chapter Four mainly introduces the teaching procedures and the concrete methods in advanced teaching of writing in TCSL based on the schema theory, analyzes how to activate, construct and consolidate the students’schemata during the process of preparing, writing and revising the composition. Chapter Five makes a case design of a specific course according to the procedures and methods mentioned in the preceding chapter. The last part makes a conclusion of the thesis and elaborates some implications to the teaching of writing in TCSL and points out the limitations of the thesis.