A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory To English Reading Teaching In Rural Junior Middle Schools

Reading ability plays an important role in English teaching,and the cultivation of reading ability has become the most important part of English teaching.The main purpose of English reading teaching is to teach students correct reading methods,reading skills and cultivate students' reading ability,so as to lay a solid foundation for students to continue learning and using English.However,in the current rural English reading teaching,teachers mostly adopt the traditional teaching method in the reading class,paying attention to the teaching of grammar points and neglecting the cultivation of reading skills and strategies,which results in the students' half-success.In order to change the bad situation of English reading teaching in rural junior middle schools,this study applies schema theory to English reading teaching.The purpose of this study is to explore whether schema theory English reading teaching has a positive impact on improving students' English reading level,improving students' English reading attitude and enhancing students' confidence in English reading.In this study,80 students from two parallel classes of ninth grade of Nanao Middle School in Pingding County were selected as the experimental subjects.The experiment lasted one semester from September 2018 to January 2019.Firstly,the author found out the basic situation of students' English reading through questionnaires,and made a pre-test of the students' reading performance in the two classes.Secondly,the author randomly selected one class as experimental class and the other class as control class.The author applied schema theory teaching method to reading teaching in experimental class.The control class adopted traditional reading teaching method.Finally,the two classes of students' reading scores were tested after the experiment.Questionnaires and interviews were sent out again to compare the changes of students before and after the experiment.The research tools were questionnaire,tests and interviews.The research questions included:(1)What impact does the reading teaching method guided by schema theory have on rural junior middle school students in terms of their emotional attitudes and reading habits towards English reading?(2)Can the reading teaching method guided by schema theory enable rural junior middle school students to acquire some English reading skills and strategies? If yes,how?(3)What impact does the reading teaching method guided by schema theory have on rural junior middle school students' English reading performance?The results showed that English reading teaching guided by schema theory can change rural students' attitudes towards English learning,help rural students build up confidence in reading,stimulate rural students' interest in English reading and cultivate their reading habits;English reading teaching guided by schema theory can enable rural students to acquire some English reading skills and strategies;English reading teaching guided by schema theory can also improve the English reading performance of rural students.After the experiment,the author made some reflections: English reading teaching is a complete teaching process,which requires teachers to consider all aspects of reading teaching and requires students to cooperate actively with teachers so as to achieve ideal reading results.