An Action Research On Schema Theory Applied To Improve Senior High School Students’ English Reading Ability

There are some clear requirements in The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017)"Language skills are an important part of ability to use language.Through reading,we can learn language,humanities and science knowledge,expand thinking through reading,and improve the ability of aesthetic appreciation and evaluation." At the same time,English reading accounts for a large number of points in the College Entrance Examination,while the students’ relevant language knowledge,English style and relevant background knowledge are relatively weak.The author took on the task of English teaching in the class,and the specificity of action research is that it does not need to use the control class,but to solve the problems of the students of the class.Therefore,action research paradigm is adopted to solve the fear and exclusion of students in this class for English reading comprehension,focus on the positive role of schema theory in English reading,and then improve the English reading ability of high school students.So it is necessary to use the Schema Theory to improve senior high school students’ English reading ability.In view of this,the author carried on the questionnaire survey and the interview to the students in the school,confirmed the question,used the Schema Theory,and implemented the two stages action research to enhance their reading ability.The research questions of this action research are:(1)How about senior high school students’ English reading ability before the action research?(2)How does Schema Theory improve senior high school students’ English reading ability in the action research?(3)After action research,does Schema Theory improved senior high school students’ English reading ability? If so,what are the dimensions?In the process of action research,the author used Schema Theory in the process of action research to teach English reading and divided action research into two stages.Before the action research,the students who are the first grade students of He Bigeneral public high school in the action class were interviewed in order to further understand the current situation,and the action research program in the first stage was designed to be applied to English reading training from three dimensions: Language Schema,Formal Schema and Content Schema.After the first stage of action research,the second stage of action research program was adjusted and improved according to the teachers’ interview and students’ weekly record forms feedback.The second stage of action research adopted the use of the overall Schema Theory and the way of students’ making up the students’ deficiency.The results of this action research were more scientific and reasonable by combining quantitative and qualitative data.The quantitative data mainly came from: questionnaire survey,limited time English reading test,and used the SPSS 19.0 for analysis;the qualitative data mainly came from: teachers’ and students’ interview,teachers and students weekly record forms,and then collected,classified and analyzed the texts.The conclusions of this action research are as follows:(1)Students’ English reading performance improved,using the SPSS19.0 to analyze the pre-and pre-limited English reading test(t =-6.549,df = 47,p < 0.05): the score of English reading pretest was significantly lower than the post-test(MD =-6.313),mainly reflected in the formal schema and linguistic schema dimension.(2)The frequency of using Schema Theory strategies was significantly increased,and there was a significant difference in the use of Schema Theory before and after the action research(t =-16.662,df = 29,p < 0.05): the pretest score of the Schema Theory was significantly lower than the post-test(MD =-7.80).(3)There was a correlation between the improvement of students’ reading performance and the training of Schema Theory.Pearson’s correlation analysis was made between the test results of time-limited English reading and the scores of Schema Theory questionnaire by using SPSS 19.0.The results showed that there was a moderate positive correlation between the scores of time-limited English reading and the Schema Theory(r = 0.564,P < 0.05)(4)Students’ English reading habits in the action class were improved: in the 16 th week of action research,author interviewed the action class students again.After learning,the students now use different reading methods according to different styles.Afterreading,they will classify and summarize the words in the text according to different contents,and actively recite relevant contents after class,which also reduces reading anxiety.The conclusion of this study has some enlightenment for English teachers and students in senior high schools.English teachers in the senior high schools need to update their reading teaching ideas,enrich the classroom teaching forms,and strengthen the supervision of students.In addition to their hard work,senior high school students should strengthen the learning and application of related skills,and make great effort to improve their reading ability.The expected goals of this action research are largely accomplished,but small sample size and short research period are its limitations.Therefore,the research of Schema Theory on improving reading ability of different levels and grades still needs further research.