A Study On The Application Of Schema Theory To English Pre-reading Activities In Senior High School

Reading,one of the four basic skills,is an important way for senior high school students to acquire knowledge.Meanwhile,it is also an important part of English teaching in senior high school.Although great efforts have been made in teaching reading,the senior high school English teachers still find themselves faced with the fact that students take little interest in reading,apply few reading strategies and have poor reading abilities.Besides,as the first step of English reading teaching,pre-reading activities are aimed at arousing students' reading interest and improving their reading comprehension.However,the current situation of English pre-reading activities in senior high school is not optimistic.In the current English reading teaching in senior high school,pre-reading activities are relatively monotonous and boring.Thus,it affects students' reading interest and reading comprehension.According to schema theory,if students' schemata can be activated or established in pre-reading activities,their reading comprehension abilities could be improved.Based on the previous studies of schema theory and pre-reading activities abroad and at home,this research applies schema theory to English pre-reading activities in senior high school.It is designed to explore the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities on senior high school students' reading interest?(2)What are the effects of schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities on senior high school students' pre-reading strategies?(3)What are the effects of schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities on senior high school students' reading achievements?The author chooses two parallel classes in Chengdu Longquan High School of Sichuan Province as research subjects and divides them into the control class and the experimental class.During the experiment,the traditional teaching method of English pre-reading activities is used in the control class while schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities are adopted in teaching the experimental class.The experiment lasts for three months,questionnaires,interview and tests are adopted to collect the data.Besides,the SPSS 19.0 is applied to analyze the data.Specifically speaking,to find the changes of the students' reading interest and pre-reading strategies,the author adopts the questionnaire both before and after the experiment in the two classes.Additionally,the author carries out the interview with different levels of nine students of the experimental class after the experiment.It aims to further analyze the effects of schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities on students' reading interest and pre-reading strategies.Finally,to find the changes of the students' reading achievements,the author conducts the reading test both before and after the experiment in the two classes.The research results are shown as follows: Firstly,schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities can enhance senior high school students' reading interest.Secondly,schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities can help senior high school students' grasp some pre-reading strategies,especially in prediction strategy and structure analysis strategy.Thirdly,schema-theory-based English pre-reading activities can improve senior high school students' reading achievements.Therefore,the research proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of schema theory to English pre-reading activities in senior high school.