Research On Schema Theory And College English Writing

This study is to explore the implications and applications for schema theory in EFLwritingin order to provide a new wayto improve English learners'abilityof English writing.Based on schema theory, the author also researches the effect of schema theory on discourseinputandhowtoapplyschematheorytowritingteaching.Theauthoranalyzes 108 samples writtenby27students accordingto different test topicsto find out the common problems in their writing. This is because they are lack of relevantschemata in writing. And then, we carry out the questionnaire to the participants from a fewaspects of lexis, grammar, paragraph structure and conjoining methods, which aims atknowing how the learners'mother tongue influences the development and acquisition ofEnglish. By comparison and contrast methods, the two masterpieces written by English andChinese writers are analyzed to discover the similarities and differences in opening anddevelopingmethods inwriting.Basedontheinvestigations, questions forthecurrent researchwere set up, which are as follows. 1. Whether is schema theoryapplied to English writing? 2.In what way and which schema does schema theory explain the common problems ChinesestudentsencounterinEnglishwriting?3.IsthereaneffectivestrategytoenrichschematheoryincollegeEnglishwriting?The author at first reviews the concept of schema and schema theory and theirdevelopment history,and thencarries out theclassification,analyses, evaluation,finally, findsout the relevance by the way of integrating schema theory with EFL writing. It can beconcluded that by empirical studies the application of schema theory to EFL writing is thefeasibilityand necessity. Under the guidance of schema theory, three types of schemata in theschematheoryall haveguidingfunctions inwriting. Linguisticschemataareusedtosolvethecommon problems made by students in their writing such as"Chingling", the effect of themother tongue on expressing English and lack of coherence and consecution; contentschemata can help learners to reconstruct new background knowledge; textual schemata areemployed to explain lack of syntactic conjoining means and the affect of Chinese paragraphon English paragraph structures. Integrating writing with reading to enrich schemata theoryisaneffectiveway.ThepaperactsasapromotingfunctioninacceleratingtheprofoundresearchandcombinationofschematheoryandEFLteaching.