The Application of Schema Theory to EFL Reading Teaching

Abstract

Abstract. This study was conducted under the guidance of the schema theory and based on the textbook (New Horizon College English (Second Edition) Book 1). The author investigated the effectiveness of using schema theory in the teaching of college English reading with a combination of descriptive qualitative and quantitative methods: a questionnaire, an experimental teaching practice and an interview after the experiment. The experiment lasted for sixteen weeks and it was conducted upon 80 freshmen in two groups with different levels of English proficiency, and each group consisted of two level-based classes. For formal schema, to analyze the different writing styles and features of different reading material, so as to help students to become familiar with the structure, the organization and the main idea of the text and to accumulate rich formal schemata.

The Application Strategy of Schema Theory in College English Reading Teaching

“…Schema theory suggests that the role of known information in cognition is mainly used to explain the process of language acquisition closely related to cognition, and it is widely applied in reading. By Anderson et al as a representative of modern schema, they summarize and perfect further on the schema theory, and puts forward the schema does not represent a thing or event exists objectively, but structural knowledge units exist in the mind, which is representative of a structural network understanding of the world, have certain generality and universality [4].…”