A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory In English Reading Teaching Of Junior High School

Quite a few English teachers think the main problems existing in English reading of junior high school students are related to their lack of language knowledge and reading input.Therefore,they often take the methods of irrigating a vast amount of language knowledge and doing a lot of reading comprehension to enhance the reading level of junior high school students.Apparently,it violates the emphasis of New English Curriculum Standards for Junior High School(2011)on cultivating students’ English reading interest and reading ability and focusing on their emotional development as well.If things go on like this,students will feel extremely exhausted and gradually lose interest in reading English.Actually,in the process of teaching English reading of junior high school,in addition to teaching language knowledge,teachers should also cultivate students’ reading interest,reading techniques,cultural awareness,and so on.Formed in the 1960 s,schema theory refers to the theory built on knowledge representation and storage pattern,which are organized around a certain topic.Since the 1980 s,many scholars abroad and at home have explained the reading process on the basis of schema theory and thought reader’s reading comprehension is not only affected by linguistic knowledge,but also by cultural background knowledge and textual knowledge.Though there are many researches on schema theory,the research on the application of schema theory in English reading teaching of junior high school is seldom seen.Thus,this thesis tries to connect schema theory with English reading teaching of junior high school to improve students’ English reading skill,cultivate their English reading interest and enhance their English reading level.The research subjects are students of two parallel classes in grade three from the Junior High School Affiliated to Zunyi Normal College.One class is the controlled class(CC),and the other is the experimental class(EC).Before the experiment,the author is based on the questionnaire to find out some problems of students in the EC and the CC from English reading habits,reading skills,background knowledge,and so on.These problems result in their poor English reading level,which is hard to enhance.During nearly four-month experimental period,the author takes the traditional teaching method of English reading in the CC,while the schema theory-based way is adopted in the EC.In order to develop the schematic thoughts of students in the EC and consolidate their existing schemata,the author makes multiple teaching designs and repeatedly creates scenes to consolidate their learned contents in the whole process of pre-reading,while-reading and post-reading activities.After the experiment,students in the EC and the CC are tested again.Through comparing their test scores,the author finds that English reading achievements of students in the EC are obviously higher than that in the CC.To some extent,it is proved that English reading teaching based on schema theory contributes to improving students’ English reading ability and cultivating their thinking ability and reading interests as well.The author expects that the research could provide references for English teachers of junior high school in English reading teaching and also help junior high school students enhance their English reading level effectively.