On Application Of Schema Theory To English Listening Comprehension Teaching Of Higher Vocational Education

Listening comprehension is very important in the language learning, but it has long been neglected by students in the second language learning. In order to improve the listening comprehension competence of students, some principles of schema theory are used to guide the teaching of listening comprehension. For example, global and selective listening should be both applied; necessary preparations are vital; different listening materials demand different listening tasks, etc. In listening classes, in order to teach listening comprehension better, teachers should not only pay attention to language teaching, but also .pay attention to introducing some necessary cultural background knowledge etc. to students to establish relevant connections with listening materials. Schema theory holds that men's cognition, comprehension and memory are closely linked with men's background knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to apply schema theory to listening comprehension teaching and it is possible for students to obtain a lively illustration of some boring listening materials and much effective improvement of their listening abilities. This thesis focuses here on research on applying schema theory to English listening comprehension teaching and provides an effective way for the English listening learners in vocational colleges.This paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter one reviews current researches on English listening teaching in China, especially current researches on schema theory in English listening teaching. Chapter two introduces some key concepts of schema theory and the cognitive approach in linguistic research and three types of second language acquisition theories, presents some listening models and varieties from the perspective of schema theory, and pedagogically applies schema theory to English listening teaching. There are two types of schematic knowledge: formal schemata and content schemata. And there are three information-processing models, that is, the top-down process model, the bottom-up process model and the interactive information-processing model. According to schema theory, listening comprehension requires not only linguistic structure, but also the activation of contextual information and previous knowledge. Chapter three carries out an experiment in the light of schema theory on English listening comprehension teaching of higher vocational education and the collected data are analyzed to prove that schema theory is applicable to listening teaching. Chapter four focuses on some major findings and pedagogical implications in the teaching of listening comprehension. To some familiar schematic content, the listeners have the gist of a text, as a result, they should focus their attention on the linguistic features. To some unfamiliar schematic content, teachers should provide students with background knowledge to construct an overall sense of a text. And to some familiar schematic content, there are four strategies to help students pay attention to language systems, which are making predictions, guessing new words, identifying important stressed lexical items and paraphrasing and making repetition. To some unfamiliar schematic content, there are three strategies to help students get the general gist, which are providing background knowledge, listening for the general gist by identifying cohesive devices, and listening selectively to detect important details.In listening comprehension teaching of high vocational colleges, it is necessary for teachers to apply relevant principles of schema theory properly to guide teaching, introduce relevant cultural background knowledge and have the aid of various kinds of means to activate the former schemata in students' brains. In conclusion, the application of schema theory is of great significance in improving students' listening comprehension abilities and teaching results.