The Empirical Study On The Application Of Cultural Schema Theory In English Reading Teaching In Junior High School

In junior high school English teaching,reading teaching accounts for a considerable place in English teaching.Yet,in the current junior middle school English reading teaching,teachers pay greater attention to the explanation and analysis of grammar and language points.Although students have certain vocabulary and grammar knowledge,the reading ability and level are generally not prominent.Cultural schema refers to readers' cultural background knowledge.What become familiar with a particular culture can help readers understand a text that is highly relevant to the cultural background.Students' reading ability and level can be enhanced in the process of English reading teaching based on constructing cultural schema.The current research is proposing the application for English reading teaching the Cultural Schema Theory,intending to address the following three research questions:Question 1: To what extent does the cultural schema theory arouse junior school students' interest in English reading?Question 2: To what extent does the cultural schema theory improve junior school students' English reading scores?Question 3: To what extent does the cultural schema theory enhance cultural awareness through English reading?The subjects of this study are two paralleled classes of Grade 8 in Jinzhou F junior high school,Liaoning province.A total of 90 students participated in the two-month teaching experiment.They are divided into the Experimental Class and the control class.Questionnaires and teaching experiments are the principal forms of empirical research.The results of questionnaires and tests scores were analyzed by statistics analysis software.There are significant differences in reading performance between Experimental Class and Control Class.Students in the Experimental Class who were taught by reading teaching method based on cultural schema theory made greater and more significant progress of reading score.The results of the questionnaire One show that the students in the Experimental Class taught by cultural schema theory have a great increase in their interest in English reading.The results of the questionnaire Two show that the level of the cultural awareness of students in the Experimental class that were taught by cultural schema theory for reading teaching is significantly improved.