A Study of English Reading Comprehension in Junior High School in Terms of Schema Theory Perspective

王盼盼

Abstract： During the teaching of reading， teachers may observed that although there are some new words and the students can understand the grammar structure， it’s not easy for them to understand the deep meaning of the reading materials. According to schema theory， comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader's background knowledge and the text. Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one's own knowledge. So， the absent of background knowledge will bring comprehension barriers.

The article adopts literature review and questionnaires to study the teaching process of reading comprehension in senior high school .by judging the experiment datum， it can be concluded that background knowledge teaching is important to senior high school students. This paper could give some suggestions to practical teaching and further research in this field.

Key words： reading comprehension; schema theory;cultural background knowledge; junior high school

1.Research Background and purpose of the study

For years， teachers hold that students ’failure in comprehending a text is mainly due to deficiency in linguistic competence. in many cases， students misunderstand or feel puzzled over the meaning a sentence conveys， even though they understand every single word and all the grammatical structures. Researcher and scholars have reached a consensus that readers’ cultural background knowledge could make comprehension of the reading materials much easier. So， in English reading classes， teachers should make students acquire cultural competence as much as possible. The purpose of this paper is on the basis of the relevant investigations and experimental studies by the use of educational psychology， schema Theory to explain the importance and necessities of cultural teaching.

2.concept and process of reading

There are two broad aspects when we are the involved in reading： the first one is using your eyes to understand words or visual signals o the book. The second one is finishing the task of interpreting the visual information according readers own language knowledge. And rebuilding the writers meaning ..

3. The schema theory model

The idea of schema was first existed in the minds of Plato . In the 19th century German philosopher Emmanuel Kant also put forward that everyone’s experiences are gathered in a terms of memory， forming a little higher order concepts.In the 1930s Frederic Bartlett tested memory for schema. From the 1970s to the 1990s， many researchers obtained a quantity of evidence to show that people’s behaviors are deeply influenced by experiences which were kept in their brains. After a long time of studying researchers found that human behavior are mainly conducted by their past experiences and stored rich knowledge in people’s brain. Studies also proclaimed that schema were conducted at vary levels. The especial personal experiences provide us different schema.

4.Relevant reading comprehension studies home and abroad

many of foreign linguists hold on vary opinions on the reading teaching on the basis of English reading comprehension theories. In 1979， Coady （1979） put forward a second language reading image. This model stressed that readers are active participants during the task of reading comprehension or communication. They can deal with the fore-experience to get an answer of reading materials. During this procedure，we can found the relationship between background Knowledge and reading comprehension.In China， language experts have also studied the theories on reading comprehension. experts Gao Yihong（1993） proposed that the foreign cultural are the major difficulties influencing students’ reading comprehension ability. And he also thinks that a well understanding of a target text needs abundant knowledge.so from all these theories we can concluded that it is necessary to teach culture knowledge in classroom.

The relevant studies abroad and home provides a powerful theoretical support to stress the importance of culture teaching in English reading comprehension. And in recent years， more and more English teachers and learners pay more attentions to the teaching of culture in the classroom. although not most of the teachers do like that now.

5.research methodology

In this procedure， the investigative questionnaire were adopted in the study. The questionnaire was conducted among 100 students to investigate their current learning situations about culture of all the questionnaires，100 sets are effective. the following form was addressed concerning cultural background knowledge in Xi Han Lin middle school.

6.experimental results and discussions

According to the experiment data， It shows that students expressed enthusiasm for learning foreign culture.48%of the students think that cultural background knowledge interfere with their language learning， especially their reading ability， meanwhile 47% students show their great interest in foreign culture. From above we can see our students are weak in cultural awareness. Thus， teaching the students’ cultural background knowledge is very urgent.

Item 1 is about students’ attitude toward foreign language classes’. Item2-13 is simply culture knowledge. Most of students think that textbooks， teachers， and teaching methods are not able to meet their learning needs .also， students complained that grammar and vocabulary still very important .45%students expressed that it is necessary to teach cultural background information. In English class only 20%of the students thought they learned much knowledge of cultural background. As for teaching materials， 25% of students argued that cultural background knowledge in test books are old， and not show in the current cultural background .Besides， 10% of the students complained that their teachers don’t have a system of cultural background knowledge， and only teach as textbooks order.

7.Summary

According to the investigation， most of the students are weak in foreign culture knowledge. The inadequacy and unsystematic of cultural knowledge make cultural instruction ineffectively. Thus， it is urgent to change the present situation-some students stress too much teaching of vocabulary and grammar. Teachers must regard all cultures equally and acquire both English culture and Chinese culture so as to build a frame of cultural pluralism in people’s brain. English teachers should improve their cultural background knowledge and use the basic methods of reading interactive mode based on the cognitive reading strategies. For students， in order to understand reading text thoroughly the techniques， such as skimming， scanning， guess the word， are very important.Students can develop their own language skills more fully if they understanding the cultural background knowledge. Among the modern teaching theories， co-operative learning should be promoted.

Questionnaire：

親爱的同学：

你好！ 本问卷是为此次研究而设计的，你的回答不会对你的学习和生活造成任何影响，你可以轻松作答。同时，您的回答将直接影响到调查结果的准确性，因此，请你务必根据你的真实情况如实填写。

1.你对英语国家文化知识感兴趣吗？

A.特别感兴趣 B.无所谓 C. 感兴趣

2.在西方国家被认为Unlucky number（不吉利数字）的是。

A.11   B.12   C.13    D. 14

3.在下列餐具中，哪一项在吃西餐中不需要用到的是。

A.chopsticks B.spoon C.knife D.fork

4.在欧美国家就餐时，餐巾纸只能用来擦。

A.餐具和汗B.餐具和嘴巴 C.嘴巴和鼻涕D.鼻涕和餐具

5.在美国打的坐在哪个位置，司机比较高兴。

A.前座   B.后座

6.下列不属于美国的货币。

A.美元   B.美角    C.美分

7.下列不属于英镑纸币面值的是

A.五镑 B.二十镑   C.五十镑 D.一百磅

8.Halloween（万圣节）是哪一天？

A.11月1日 B. 12月25日C.10月30日 D.1月20日

9.Thanksgiving Day（感恩节）是哪一天？

A.11月的第一个星期四  B.11月的第二个星期四   C.11月的第三个星期   D.11月的第四个星期四

10.美国人讨厌 ，认为它是吸血鬼和凶神的象征。

A.黑猫    B.大象  C.蝙蝠   D.狼

11.圣诞节是___月_____日。

12.圣诞老人是从_____下来给孩子们送礼物的，并把礼物放在_______.

13.你认为英语阅读教学中文化背景知识学习必要吗？

A.无所谓      B.一般    C. 很必要

14.你认为课本上关于文化知识的介绍能满足你的学习要求吗？

A.基本满足    B.一般     C.满足

15.课堂上老师对英语国家文化知识介绍多吗？

A.基本不介绍    B.有时介绍   C.介绍很多

References

[1] Coady （1979） Cultural schemas in L1 and L2 compliment responses： A study of Persian-speaking learners of English. Journal of Politeness Research. 4（1）， 55-80.

[2] Lipset， D. （1993）. Review： Culture as a hierarchy of schema. Current Anthropology， 34.4， 497-498.

[3] Malcolm， I.G. & Sharafian， F. （2002）. Aspects of Aboriginal English oral discourse： an application of cultural schema theory. Discourse Studies， 4， 169-181.

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