| In recent years, many scholars have explored the effects of the application ofschema theory to the teaching of English writing. However, these studies have somelimitations:1) most of the studies are quantitative, lacking qualitative studies;2) theinsufficient quantity of language input and inauthentic language input result in theineffective construction of schema in the process of writing. According to Aston(1995), the construction of schema is a process in which learners should analyze andsynthesize language data constantly. This process requires the constant exposure tothe authentic language materials in the similar context. With the emergence and thedevelopment of corpus, corpus can meet this condition and provide a platform forschema construction because corpus not only has abundant resources for schemaconstruction, also has rich information that can be retrieved quickly (He Anpin,2010).On the basis of schema theory, the Input Hypothesis and data-driven learningtheory, this study designs the schema approach assisted by corpus, and then applies itto the teaching of college English writing. Two corpora involved in the present studyare the CEAWSE and the COCA. The whole system of the new approach includesthree parts:1) Preparation: the design of the CEAWSE and students training on therelevant skills of corpus;2) Teaching procedures: the pre-writing, the while-writing,and the post-writing stage; the following six steps run through these three stages:schema investigation, schema introduction, schema comparison, schema diagnosis,schema revision, and schema consolidation;3) Teaching strategies: the concretestrategies of formal schema, content schema, and linguistic schema constructionassisted by CEAWSE and COCA.The aim of this study is to explore the feasibility and effects of the new teachingapproach.85first-grade students from two regular classes in Schools of Food and Engineering, Shenyang Normal University are chosen as participants. Randomly,Class1is arranged as the experimental group (EG) with42students; Class2isarranged as the controlled group (CG) with43students. Having received the trainingcourses, most of the students in EG can use the two corpora and the software skillfully.The result of the pretest shows that English proficiency of the two groups is relativelyequal. The experimental group receives the schema approach assisted by corpus; thecontrol group receives the traditional teaching approach. AntConc3.2.1w, two corpora,English writing tests, the questionnaire, and the interview are employed for the study.SPSS18.0is employed for data analysis.This study is designed to answer the following three questions:1) What effectsdoes the schema approach to the teaching of college English writing assisted bycorpus have on students’ English proficiency from the aspects of organization, content,and language?2) What effects does the schema approach to the teaching of collegeEnglish writing assisted by corpus have on three different level groups (the high scoregroup, the middle group, and the low score group)?3) What are students’ attitudestowards the schema approach to the teaching of English writing assisted by corpus?The data results show:1) compared with the controlled group, the experimentalgroup makes significant progress on English writing proficiency from the aspects ofcontent, language, and organization;2) schema approach to the teaching of collegeEnglish writing assisted by corpus has different effects on three subgroups (the highscore group, the middle group, and the low score group);3) students in EG havepositive attitude towards the new approach. Therefore, schema approach to theteaching of college English writing assisted by corpus is feasible and effective.The findings highlight the need for:1) the cultivation of schema awareness;2) alarge quantity of comprehensible input;3) the design of a small corpus by teachersaccording to the teaching needs. However, the study still has some limitations thatneed further improving. |
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