A Study On College English Reading Based On Tasks From The Perspective Of Schema Theory

Reading comprehension is an important part of college English teaching,which plays a significant role in improving students' competence of analyzing and solving problems.The traditional mode of college English reading teaching pays more attention to the learning of English vocabulary and grammar rather than the role of students and their existed knowledge.The application of Schema Theory to college English reading based on tasks is adopted in this study to stimulate the role of students or their existed knowledge,the purpose of which is to provide some instructions for the reform of college English reading teaching mode.The purpose of the research is to study the effects of the Schema Theory and TBLT on college English reading teaching.The researcher reviews previous studies of the Schema Theory and TBLT and applies them to college English reading.The research questions are:(1)What is students' current situation of English reading,in the aspects of students' attitude toward English reading,reading style,dealing with difficulties in the process of reading and reading strategies.(2)Can the application of Schema Theory to college English reading based on tasks improve students' reading performance?(3)Are there any changes in the aspects of students' reading interest,reading style,dealing with difficulties in the process of reading and reading strategies?And what are students' feelings about the application of Schema Theory to college English reading based on tasks?In this research,the researcher conducted one-semester empirical teaching study,in which the participants are 65 non-English major freshmen selected from two natural intact classes of Shenyang Normal University,with respectively 33 and 32 students in each class as EC(the Experimental Class)and CC(the Controlled Class).They share the similar experience in English reading and have a similar sex ratio.The instruments of the study are questionnaires,tests and interview.During the teaching experiment,the Schema Theory and TBLT were applied to English reading teaching in EC while the students in CC received the traditional English reading method.After a semester's experiment,the researcher collected all the data from the pre-test and the post-test between EC and CC and analyzed them with SPSS 19.0.Statistics show that,compared with the students in CC,the students in EC made bigger progress in English reading,and students' attitude toward English reading,reading style,dealing with difficulties in the process of reading and reading strategies also improved a lot.The results testified that the application of Schema Theory to college English reading based on tasks can improve students' reading performance efficiently.Besides,students' attitudes toward English reading,reading style,dealing with difficulties in the process of reading and reading strategy also improved a lot.In the end,the researcher proposed the limitations of the whole research,summarized some implications in the process of reading,such as enhancing students' reading interest,stimulating students' schema knowledge,and offered some suggestions for the further study in the area of college English reading teaching.