An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Background Knowledge On The Teaching Of English Reading In Vocational Schools

Background knowledge is the existing knowledge or experience in mind which could be divided into several schemata: formal schemata, content schemata and language schemata. Various schemata are interrelated and compose a complete information system in human brain. The reading procedure is an interaction between existing information and reading materials. The more background knowledge readers know about reading materials the better they can understand.The experimental subjects in this research are secondary vocational school students. Their English level is usually not high and most of them have bad learning habits. They are short of background knowledge because they are lack of means of getting background knowledge and teachers don't often introduce background knowledge to them. Their interest in English reading is low. English reading is one of the basic skills. Thus, the research of improving English reading capability is in great need, especially for the vocational students in low English level.The theory foundations of this thesis include schema theory and Krashen's input hypothesis. The common ground between them is: More relevant information(background knowledge) input is helpful for the learning of new knowledge.The methodology used in this research is experimental study and the purpose of this research is to answer the following two questions:1) Can more background knowledge instruction in English reading teaching increase students' interest in English reading?2) Can more background knowledge instruction in English reading teaching help improve students' English reading comprehension competence?In this study, we have two balanced groups of subjects who are randomly chosen from Guangzhou Textile and Garment Vocational School, namely experimental group with 44 students, control group with 45 students, totally 89 students. Before the experiment, the two classes are required to conduct a pretest and a pre-questionnaire so that the author can get the information about their English reading level, English reading interest, habits, reading speed, views on the functions of background knowledge, frequency of using background knowledge to comprehend English reading materials, interest in background knowledge instruction, expectation on background knowledge and willingness to search for background knowledge, etc. The students are divided into 3 groups according to the results of the pretest: high score group, middle level group and low score group. The results of the two classes and the groups in the same level are compared respectively. In the experiment, rich background knowledge about the reading materials are introduced in the experimental class and simple background knowledge instruction in the control class. In the 17 th week of the experiment, a posttest is conducted in the two classes and a post-questionnaire only in the experimental class. The effect of background knowledge in English reading comprehension can be inferred from the results of the comparison between pretest and posttest and between pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire.After analyzing the data collected from the tests by SPSS, the following conclusions are drawn: In English reading class of secondary vocational school, more introduction of background knowledge facilitates students' better reading comprehension. The better effect can be easily seen from the comparison of two high score groups and two middle level groups while the improvement of low score group in EC is not significant. According to the comparison between the pre-questionnaire and the post-questionnaire, we find that the students in EC have greater interest in English reading after learning more language background knowledge. As majority of experimental subjects get significant improvement in English reading comprehension and have greater interest in English reading, we can say the results of the experiment support the hypotheses of the thesis: More background knowledge instruction in English reading class not only improve students' English reading comprehension ability, but also is beneficial in increasing students' interest in English reading. This teaching is worth popularizing. Of course, when we organize teaching, we should take students' individual differences into consideration, respect their original language foundation, and lead them to activate their existing background knowledge to solve reading problems in reading process.