The Application Of Schema Theory To The Teaching Of College English Reading For Non-english Majors In A Vocational College

Reading is an essential part in our study and daily life. Thus, it has become one of the aims of college English teaching to improve students'reading ability. Based on schema theory and taken vocational college students as subjects, the thesis explores the application of schema theory to teaching English reading for non-English majors in a vocational college in China.Schema is thought to be the general knowledge about the world, which is stored in human mind. Cook (1989) states that schema is the pre-existent knowledge or background knowledge stored in readers'mind. According to Carrell and Eisterhold's theory, schema includes linguistic schema, formal schema and content schema. Reading comprehension process involves the interaction between readers'prior knowledge and the incoming textual information. During this process, based on the existent knowledge and experiences, readers predict and decode the reading material, and then make the text comprehensible. Therefore, readers'accumulation of related schemata is needed in order to accomplish successful comprehension.In China, the three-year college education is an essential part of our education. However, not much research has been probed into the teaching of English reading in vocational colleges. Based on schema theory, the thesis conducted an experiment on English reading among the freshmen of non-English majors in Hubei Science and Technology College with the purpose of identifying the functions of the three types of schemata in reading comprehension.The result of the experiment demonstrates that schematic knowledge has positive effect on English reading and can effectively improve students'English reading ability. According to the result of the experiment, the author proposes some teaching principles and measures to guide the teaching practice in vocational college. For example, focus on student-centered teaching approach and encourage students to read extensively; guide students to enlarge their vocabulary size with schematic knowledge and reinforce their awareness of textual structure; adopt activities to enrich cultural background knowledge. It hopes that the thesis can give teachers some implications on how to teach English reading effectively and efficiently.