| English reading is one of the important ways for English learners to input information, so in the process of English teaching students’ reading comprehension ability is paid much attention to and schema-based English reading teaching method is very popular among teachers. Schema refers to the knowledge stored in the human brain. Schema theory is about how people obtain the new information in the reading material by using their known information. Readers comprehend the reading materials by activating the related schema in their mind in the process of reading. The more consistent the inherent information and new information are, the higher the reading efficiency is. How to apply schema theory to English reading and how to activate and construct the readers’ schema still need further study. The author tries to improve the English reading ability of Xinjiang Uygur students by adopting schema-based English reading teaching method.The author has found out some problems existing in the English reading teaching for a long time. For example, too much attention is paid to vocabulary and grammar teaching, while cultivation of students’ ability in textual comprehension is neglected, furthermore, students encounter some obstacles in language knowledge, background knowledge and discourse pragmatic in the process of English reading. All these problems greatly affect Xinjiang Uyghur students’ English reading teaching, because Xinjiang Uyghur students’ English textual comprehension ability is influenced deeply by their local culture and Chinese culture. As for these problems, reading strategies under the guidance of the schema theory are provided. The construction of schema depends on its diversification, contextualized and subnetted effect etc, here the author means to stimulate and establish the schemata in students’ brain. For the purpose of verifying the effectiveness and feasibility of schema-based English reading teaching method, the teaching experiment is carried out in the study. In the process of teaching experiment the control class and the experimental class is selected respectively. These students are picked out for the reason that all the minority students come from Xinjiang province, which indicates that they probably have similar mental and physical features and study habits. Questionnaires are used twice before and after the experiment. The pre-questionnaire is to search for the factors influencing the effectiveness of English reading. The purpose of post-questionnaire is to compare the students’ reading ability in these two classes after teaching experiment. In the experimental classes English reading course is given under the guidance of the schema theory, and it focuses on cultivating students’reading habits, skills and interests, etc. In the teaching process, much attention has been paid to the activation, establishment and consolidation of schema.1. before reading-the activation of the original schema.2. during reading-activation and establishment of the schema.3. after reading-accumulation and consolidation of schema. While in the control class traditional teaching method is adopted, that is, grammar translation method. Students’language ability has been laid much emphasis on, and therefore in teaching activities, a great amount of efforts have been given to grammar, sentence patterns and vocabulary etc.This paper aims to verify the following three hypotheses by applying schema theory to English reading teaching for students from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Hypothesis1:Is the schema-oriented teaching method superior to the traditional grammar translation method in fostering students thinking through English reading? Hypothesis2:Will the schema theory be of help in changing students’attitude and confidence in learning English or be more effective to improve students’awareness of reading skills and strategies? Hypothesis3:Will the schema-based English reading method improve students’capacity of reading English text? In addition, through this teaching experiment some suggestive methods to use schema theory in English reading teaching are discussed:1) Activation type of schema.2) Strengthening of schema.3) Consolidation of schema.The teaching experiment lasts for a whole term. In the end, it proves that this teaching experiment is feasible according to the analysis of data about the scores of English reading tests of these two classes. Every data analysis indicates that the English reading abilities of students in the experimental class is far better than that in comparative class, which means the schema-based English reading teaching method for Xinjiang Uyghur students is desirable and can be put in use in the future. Furthermore, it also shows that this study is instructive and meaningful to college English reading teaching method.Thus, this paper consists of six chapters. Chapter1presents the background information, the purposes and the significance of the study, and the organization of the thesis. Chapter2makes a literature review on the applications of the schema-theory in reading comprehension abroad and in China. Chapter3is about theoretical background including reading process, schema theory, schema theory model of reading and schema theory model of reading for SXUAR. Chapter4shows the research design and discussion, which consists of three hypotheses, subject, instruments, data collections, processes and results and discussion. It shows the results of the pretest and posttest. Then according to comparison of these data, we explore the relationship between reading comprehension and schema theory. The results of post-questionnaire and pre-questionnaire are displayed and analyzed. Chapter5concludes some suggestive methods to use schema theory in English reading teaching, and the ways to activate and construct the schema in English reading comprehension. Chapter6, as the end of this essay, it reveals the implications and limitations of this study and put forward some recommendations for the further study. |
PDF Full Text Request