The Application Of Schema Theory In Handling Vocabulary Difficulty In English Reading Of Senior High School

In modern era,English learning is becoming an increasingly important device to gain information for social interaction,especially reading.Except for the fact that reading comprehension accounts for a great part in Senior High School English Tests,English Curriculum Standard of General High School(2003)made it clear that to cultivate students’ “ability to obtain and process information with English” should be one of the important goals for English teaching in senior high school.However,in the daily life’s learning process,students inevitably meet various difficulties in reading,among which,vocabulary difficulty is a chief one.Many senior high school students complain that various vocabulary difficulties can decrease their reading efficiency and make them lose interest in English learning.D.A.Wilkins,an English linguist,claims in the book Linguistics in Language Teaching(1972)that ‘‘Without grammar very little can be conveyed;Without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”.(Wilkins David A.,1972,P111)Therefore,it is imperative for both teachers and researchers to find ways to help students to deal with vocabulary difficulty.Since it was proposed by Bartlett in 1932,schema theory has won plenty of attention from experts and scholars.Many pedagogical facts suggest that schema theory can accelerate students’ learning greatly when used in reading,writing and listening.However,few studies have been conducted on the effects schema theory has on vocabulary teaching and learning,let alone the vocabulary difficulty in reading.Based on those experts and teachers’ researches,the author of this thesis firstly analyzes the main difficulties students may encounter in English reading and then she pays more attention to methods connected with schema theory.This research lasts for about three months,and the author selects two classes,class6 and class 7 of grade 2 in senior high school as EC(experimental class)and CC(control class)respectively.This thesis aims to seek answers to the following specific questions:1)What difficulties do students usually meet in English reading and what methods will they take when meeting vocabulary difficulty?2)In what ways do schema theory-based methods help senior high school students to deal with the vocabulary difficulty,thus improving their reading efficiency?Basing on the above researches,the author comes to a conclusion that in English reading,senior high school students encounter both linguistic difficulties and non-linguistic difficulties,among which,vocabulary difficulty is a chief one.Looking up in the dictionary,consulting others and skipping blindly are three main methods that students take to address vocabulary difficulty in reading.Besides,through the comparison of the results of pre-tests and post-tests on reading and questionnaires in EC and CC,the author finds that the mean score in reading of EC is higher than that of CC in post-reading tests and that students in EC have better reading performances.This thesis consists of six parts.The first chapter is the introduction part.It depicts the research background,research significance,research methods,research questions and the structure of this thesis.The next chapter is literature review,which mainly talks about previous studies on reading difficulty,vocabulary difficulty and the applications of schema theory in vocabulary acquisition.The third chapter describes the theoretical basis of this research,including the sketch of schema and schema theory,the classification of schema and some other concepts related to schema theory.The fourth chapter concentrates on research methods and research design.It elaborates the research aims,research subjects,research instruments and research procedures.The fifth chapter focuses on the results and discussion on the research.Chapter six is the conclusion part,which includes the significance,limitations and future development of this research.