Applying Schema-oriented Reading Instruction In Senior High Schools In The New Curriculum

Reading is a quick and convenient way of getting information from the society. And reading ability is one of the most important skills that students must improve in senior middle schools. Nowadays, a new policy—"one curriculum, various textbooks"has been carried out in our country, which is a big change to the curriculum. In various textbooks, each unit is organized with the reading material as the center. What's more, in 2007 national entrance English exam,"reading and expression"will be tested for the first time. Therefore, more and more importance is attached to the training of reading comprehension, and the role of schemata in reading comprehension has attracted more and more attention. The knowledge stored in man's mind is called schemata. Linguists and instructors abroad and at home have done many researches in this field. Their researches show that schemata play a very important role in improving students'reading ability. Students can predict, infer and test the content of the reading material with the schemata stored in their mind.Influenced by various implications of schemata, some English teachers misunderstand that the task of English reading teaching is mostly a matter of providing learners the right background knowledge and encourage them to make full use of it in decoding texts and then only emphasize content schema. Meanwhile, some English teachers regard linguistic knowledge, especially vocabulary and grammar, as the only factor to improve the students'reading comprehension, and thus pay much attention on linguistic schema. What is the biggest obstacle, linguistic schema or content schema, in students'reading comprehension? This study intended to explore the critical factors about the schema theory in improving senior English reading comprehension mainly by questionnaire in three middle schools which use three different textbooks. From the analysis of the data of the questionnaire, the author has made the following findings:1. Linguistic knowledge is EFL learners'greatest need and difficulty. Content schemata cannot work in all conditions. They are useful only when the readers have sufficient knowledge about the language. It is the readers'linguistic schemata and content schemata that make them understand the meaning of a text. Readers will not be able to read efficiently until they develop enough language proficiencies in the target language, which is the threshold of linguistic competence. So the main factor that influences the senior English reading is the lack of linguistic competence.2. Cultural differences and stereotypes constantly perplex our English readers. And they often prevent the readers using their stored schemata effectively. Schemata are culturally specific. Both cultural differences and stereotypes have a negative effect on cross-cultural reading comprehension. The variables of the same schema are always different among people in different societies.3. Reading strategies, especially the schema-oriented strategies, are vital to achieving reading comprehension. Skilled readers are those who are able to use their schemata to make predictions about the text and check these against the text.4. The text itself plays a vital part in activating schemata that the reader holds. According to schema theory, readers'schemata may interact with a text in many ways to produce varying degrees of non-comprehension or miscomprehension. If a text is too difficult, even if a reader has the schemata matching with the text, it is still impossible for him to activate them and get successful comprehension.Based on the analysis of the researches done by other linguists and instructors as well as the empirical study conducted by the author, the author gives some suggestions on how to apply schemata to English reading comprehension correctly. On the one hand, English teachers should develop students'linguistic competence; on the other hand, students'background knowledge, especially cultural differences should be activated and built. Reading strategies should also be emphasized. What's more, English teachers should select interesting and challenging but not too difficult reading materials for the students.In a word, the author hopes both teachers and students can use schemata correctly so as to guide senior English reading instruction and improve students'independent reading ability.