A Study On English Reading Teaching In Senior High Under The Guidance Of Schema Theory

Not only is reading the content of English study for senior high students it is also theimportant approach for students to acquire foreign language knowledge and skills. As the NewMiddle English Curriculum Standards emphasizes more and more on developing students’readingability, reading comprehension is becoming more and more important in English test papers. Inevery year’s College Entrance Examination, reading comprehension accounts for over 40 percent,the largest proportion of all the items.However, the backward traditional teaching modes of Senior High have inhibited theimprovement of students’reading ability. Therefore, effective reading is becoming the focus inSenior High English language teaching. It’s necessary for teachers to get thorough understandingof the nature of reading process and learn some reading theories to explore effective teachingmodes to improve teaching quality.In recent years, there are many researches on reading theories and among them, schematheory has got much attention. Schema theory is an explanation of how readers use priorknowledge to comprehend and learn from reading materials. It provides a new perspective tointerpret the reading process, which emphasizes the role of background knowledge incomprehension. In other words, efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textualmaterial to the reader’s own prior knowledge.The thesis studies what the influence of the appliance of the schema theory in senior highreading teaching and the reading comprehension score is. An experiment is introduced to testifythe effect of schemata on students’reading comprehension. The experiment is conducted fromMarch to June, 2011 in Taiyuan Jinshan Senior High School. Two classes in Senior I are chosen asthe experimental group and the control group for their same level of English proficiency. In theexperimental class, schema-oriented instruction mode is adopted, while in the control class,traditional teaching mode is used as usual. The research consists of pre-test, post-test and readingteaching experiment. Data collection and analysis focus on students’reading comprehensionscores in pre-test and post-test. The results of the research indicate that the English reading comprehension scores and abilities of the students in the experimental class have been improvedmore explicitly and quickly than those in the control class. The schema-oriented mode is of greathelp in improving senior high students’reading comprehension, developing reading efficiency andforming good reading habits.Since schema has a great influence on reading teaching, teachers are suggested to helpstudents construct and consummate the schema in their mind and form efficient reading strategiesby offering practical teaching methods. So, finally, several suggestions are proposed for seniorhigh English reading teaching.