The Application Of Schema Theory In The Teaching Of English Reading In Primary Schools

With the increasing international communication and cooperation,the role of English is becoming increasingly prominent.Among four skills in English,which are listening,speaking,reading and writing,reading is especially important.And the importance of effective English reading teaching methods is also obvious.However,at present,the English reading teaching situation in many primary schools is not satisfactory.Therefore,it is necessary to seek effective English reading teaching methods to improve students’ English reading achievement and reading interest.As an important part of cognitive psychology,schema theory has attracted more and more researchers’ attention because of the important roles it plays in reading.However,most of the previous studies focused on the application of schema theory in college and high school English reading teaching,while the application of schema theory in primary school English reading teaching is few.On the basis of previous researches on schema theory and schema theory applied in English reading,this thesis will study the application of schema theory in primary school English reading teaching in order to improve primary school pupils’ English reading interest and ability.There are two research questions in this study:1.Can the English reading teaching under the guidance of schema theory improve pupils’ English reading achievement?2.What influence does the English reading teaching under the guidance of schema theory have on pupils’ interest in English reading?In order to find out the answers to these two questions,the author conducted a one semester teaching experiment from February 25 th,2019 to July 5th,2019.The research subjects of this study are two parallel classes in the fifth grade of Huayuan School,Laiwu District,Jinan City,Shandong Province.One class is experimental class and the other one is control class.In the experimental class,the reading strategy under the guidance of schema theory is used,while in the control class,theconventional reading teaching method is used.After a four-month experiment,through the analysis of the data collected not only in the pre-test and post-test but also in the pre-questionnaire and the post-questionnaire in EC and CC and the random interview of the experimental class students,it is found that the English reading scores of the experimental class are significantly higher than those of the control class.The students’ interest in English reading in the experimental class has also improved significantly,which is reflected in the positive change of students’ attitude towards English reading learning and the enhancement of their self-confidence in English reading learning.The change of students’ interest in English reading has also led to the improvement of their English reading scores to some extent.This proves to some extent that the primary school English reading teaching under the guidance of schema theory is feasible.At the end of the paper,the author’s enlightenment and the limitations of this study are discussed,which need to be further explored and improved.