Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
In English learning, “For many students reading is the most important skill of the fourbasic language skills, it is true especially in ESL or EFL” (Carrell, 1989:68). Among thebasic language skills, reading is a kind of input skill as well as listening. Many researchersagree that reading is not only the most fundamental method of modern people to perceivethe outside world but also the most basic foreign language application. In China, readingplays an irreplaceable role in foreign language learning, because students acquireknowledge and information mainly through reading. The Senior High School CurriculumStandards requires that students should achieve Level Seven in reading at the end ofEnglish study in senior high school, including the ability of getting and dealing with themain information from general articles; understanding the gist and author’s intention;overcoming the difficulty in words to comprehend the discourse; reasoning the tendencythrough clues in the article; getting information from network resources according todifferent requirements; comprehending English newspapers or magazines suitable for highschool students; mastering comprehensive multidisciplinary knowledge and so on.Therefore the new curriculum standards are stricter with senior high students in Englishlearning.
………….
1.2 Research purpose
Nowadays, many senior high school students’ reading efficiency is rather low andthere are many defects in reading process. The worse is that they have no effective orefficient strategies to deal with the questions in the text. Face with the growing difficulty inreading comprehension of the test paper, the main purpose of the thesis is by means ofdesigning an experiment to apply the Schema Theory to activate students’ existing schema,complement its deficiency and reconstruct a new schema.Scholars have made valuable suggestions on how to apply Schema Theory toclassroom use, yet there is still a lack of available and reliable books in China about theapplication of schema- theory- based reading activities to reading teaching in senior highschool. The author intends to help to promote senior high school English reading teachingin theory and practice. Therefore, this study is conducted to help teachers have a betterunderstanding of Schema Theory and know how schemata operate, how help studentsactivate the prior schemata and how to apply the theory to enhance English reading abilitymore effectively.
………….
Chapter Two Literature review
2.1 The study on Schema Theory
Schema was firstly put forward by the German philosopher Kant in 1781. He definesschema as the third party which unifies the perceptual experience and rational ability.According to Kant’s theory, schema is a vehicle to connect the concept with its Reference.He claims that the schema is stored in human’s memory in an interrelated way and somenew ideas and new notions are meaningful only when they are linked with one’s priorexperiences. In the 1930s, Bartlett conducted a study about memory, which was regarded as theclassical exploration to build Schema Theory. Based on the Gestalt Psychology, Bartlettdelivers his work Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932).Bartlett defines schema as “an activ，英语论文范文，英语论文范文
|
