Reading Comprehension and Schema Theory.docx
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ReadingComprehensionandSchemaTheory
天津工业大学毕业论文
论文题目
TheRelationshipBetweenEnglishReadingComprehensionandSchemaTheory
(申请文学学士学位)
院别:
外国语学院
专业:
英语
学生:
谢振峰
指导教师:
张怡
职称:
讲师
天津工业大学外国语学院
2012年6月
TheRelationshipBetweenEnglishReadingComprehensionandSchemaTheory
AThesisPresentedinPartialFulfillment
oftheRequirementsfor
theDegreeofBachelorofArts
XieZhenfeng
UndertheSupervisionof
ZhangYi
ForeignLanguagesCollege
TianjinPolytechnicUniversity
June2012
Contents
Acknowledgementsii
Abstractiii
摘要iv
Introduction1
Chapter1DefinitionOFTitleVariables2
1.1DefinitionofReadingComprehension2
1.2DefinitionofSchema2
1.3SchemaTheory3
Chapter2TheNatureandModelofReadingProcess4
2.1TheNatureofReadingProcess4
2.3TheModelofReadingProcess5
Chapter3OverviewoftheSchemaTheoryofReadingComprehension6
Chapter4AnalysisofContentSchemaandItsRoleinReadingComprehension7
Chapter5TheActivationofContentSchema10
Chapter6TheActivationofCulturalBackgroundKnowledge13
Conclusion14
WorksCited15
Appendix17
Acknowledgements
Atthepointoffinishingthispaper,I’dliketoexpressmysincerethankstoallthosewhohavelentmehandsinthecourseofmywritingthispaper.Firstofall,I'dliketotakethisopportunitytoshowmysinceregratitudetomysupervisor,TeacherZhang,whohasgivenmesomuchusefuladvicesonmywriting,andhastriedherbesttoimprovemypaper.Secondly,I’dliketoexpressmygratitudetomyclassmateswhoofferedmereferencesandinformationontime.Lastbutnottheleast,I’dliketothankthoseleaders,teachersandworkingstaffespeciallythoseintheSchoolofForeignLanguages.Withouttheirhelp,itwouldbemuchharderformetofinishmystudyandthispaper.
Abstract
Readersconstructmeaningfromcluesfoundinatextwhichisrelatedtotheuseofbackgroundknowledgeinunderstandingthecontentofthepassage.Readingisaninteractiveprocessinwhichreadersconstructameaningfulrepresentationoftextusingtheirschemata.Schematheorydescribestheprocessbywhichreaderscombinetheirownbackgroundknowledgewiththeinformationinatexttocomprehendthattext.Allreaderscarrydifferentschemata(backgroundinformation).Readingtasksaredesignedtoactivatethelearners’schemata.
ThispapermainlyconcernshowschematheoryisappliedinEnglishasasecondlanguage(L2)reading.Byillustratingtheshema-theoreticviewofEnglishreading,thepaperuncoverstheschema'sconnectionto,aswellasitsapplicationin,bothEnglishreadingcomprehensionandinstructionintermsofthreeaspects:
1)theexpositionofschematheory,2)Thenatureandmodelofreadingprocess,3)thefunctionofschemata.
Keywords:
schemataschematheoryreadingcomprehension
摘要
图式是“先存知识”或“背景知识”,是人们存储于头脑中对世界的一般认识。
任何语篇或文本本身没有意义,而只是引导读者或听者,根据他们的图式知识来重新获取或构建文本意义,达到阅读理解的目的。
有关读者运用图式知识进行语言理解和文本解读的学说被称为图式理论。
本文在对图式和图式理论、英语阅读的本质与过程、图式的类型以及功能进行逐一探讨的同时,阐述了图式理论同英语阅读理解的关系,从而揭示了二者在提高学生阅读理解的过程中所起的积极促动作用。
关键词:
图式图式理论阅读理解
Introduction
Readingplaysavitalroleinsecondlanguageacquisition,whichisacknowledgedbymostprofessionals.Foralongtime,accordingtothe"bottom-upmodel",readingisastrictlyserialprocessfromthelowestunit,theletter,tothehighestunit,thepassage.Itconsidersthatreadingcomprehensionprimarilydependsonthedecodingofwordsandsentencesinordertoknowwhatthewriterwantstoconvey.That'stosay,inatext,ifthereadergetsoversuchbarriersasvocabularyandgrammar,hecancomprehendthetextwell.Masteringlinguisticknowledgeofphonetics,vocabularyandgrammarishelpfultodecodethewordsymbols.However,intheprocessofreading,manyChinesestudentsalreadypossesstheaboveknowledge,buttheystillcannotcomprehendthetextscompletely.Thereasonisthattheydonotactivatetheirschemata,especiallythecontentschema.
Thefirstgoalofthispaperistodefinethetermsreadingcomprehension,schema,schematheory.ThesecondgoalistoreviewthenatureofEnglishreadingprocess.Thethirdgoalistogiveabriefoverviewofsomeoftheliteraturethatdealswithschematheoryaspartofareadercenteredpsycholinguisticprocessingmodelforbothnativeandnonnativereaders.Thefourthgoalisrelatedtotheanalysisofcontentschemaanditsroleinreadingcomprehension.Thefifthgoalispertinenttotheactivationofcontentschema.Thelastgoalistodiscussthesituationofschematheoryinreadingcomprehension.
ThroughthispapertheauthorwantstocallontheEnglishlearnersmasterscientificreadingmethodssuchasdoingsomepre-readingactivitiesandattachmuchattentiontotheroleofcontentschemainreadingcomprehension.
Chapter1DefinitionOFTitleVariables
1.1DefinitionofReadingComprehension
Readingcomprehensionhasbeendefinedinmanywaysovertheyears.[7]suggeststhattheoverridingpurposetoreadingistogetthecorrectmessagefromatext–themessagethewriterintendedforthereadertoreceive.[3]statesthattheideaofreadinghaschangedandmovedfromwhatwasconsideredareceptiveprocesstowhatisnowaninteractiveprocess.Readingcanbedoneusinganumberofprocessesthatcanbedividedintotwomaincategories:
bottom-upprocessingandtop-downprocessing.Bottom-upprocessingreferstothereaderobtainingmeaningfromthelettersandwordsofatextandreconstructingtheintendedmessagethatway.Top-downprocessingreferstothereader’sabilitytolookatatextasawholeandtoconnectandrelateittohisexistingknowledgebase.Bothprocessesareneededtoobtainamessagefromatext.
1.2DefinitionofSchema
Backgroundknowledge–alsopriorknowledge–issupposedtoconsistoftwomaincomponents:
“ourassimilateddirectexperiencesoflifeanditsmanifoldactivities,andourassimilatedverbalexperiencesandencounters”[5].Schemataareacceptedasinterlockingmentalstructuresrepresentingreaders’knowledge[9]-[6]-[7]ofordinaryevents[6].Inthereadingprocess,readersintegratethenewinformationfromthetextintotheirpreexistingschemata[5].Notonlydoschematainfluencehowtheyrecognizeinformation,butalsohowtheystoreit.Accordingto[7],onlyaftertheschemaisactivatedisoneabletoseeorhear,becauseitfitsintopatternsthatshealreadyknows.Thenotionofschemaisrelatedwiththeorganizationofinformationinthelong-termmemorythatcognitiveconstructsallow.Schemataisthepluralformthatrefersanindividual’sbackgroundknowledge.Aschemaisthesingularformthatreferstoone“chunk”ofknowledge.Aschemaismadeupofsubordinatepartscallednodes.[8]explainthebasicprocessesofreadingcomprehensionanddevelopthenotionofschemaanditsrelationtolanguagereading.AndersonandPearsonmaintainthat“areader’sschemata,orknowledgealreadystoredinmemory,functionintheprocessofinterpretingnewinformationandallowingittoenterandbecomeapartoftheknowledgestore(p.255).”Theystatedthat“aschemaisanabstractknowledgestructure”andthatit“isstructuredinthesensethatitrepresentsrelationshipsamongitscomponentparts(p.259).”
1.3SchemaTheory
Schematheorydealswiththereadingprocess,wherereadersareexpectedtocombinetheirpreviousexperienceswiththetexttheyarereading.Sinceeachreaderhasdifferentbackgroundknowledge,itisculturespecific.SchematheorywasdevelopedbythegestaltpsychologistBartlett“...whoobservedhowpeople,whenaskedtorepeatastoryfrommemory,filledindetailswhichdidnotoccurintheoriginalbutconformedtotheirculturalnorms”[10].[2]formalizetheroleofbackgroundknowledgeinlanguagecomprehensionasschematheory,andclaimthatanytexteitherspokenorwrittendoesnotitselfcarrymeaning.[1]claimthat“atextonlyprovidesdirectionsforreadersastohowtheyshouldretrieveorconstructmeaningfromtheirown,previouslyacquiredknowledge.”Theveryimportantroleofbackgroundknowledgeonreadingcomprehensionisnotedby[7]thatareader’scomprehensiondependsonherabilitytorelatetheinformationthatshegetsfromthetextwithherpre-existingbackgroundknowledge.
Chapter2TheNatureandModelofReadingProcess
Readingisnotapassiveandmechanicalprocessbutaintricate,activeanddynamicpsychologicalprocess.Readingisalsoaprocessinwhichthereaderutilizeswhathavelearnedtoprocessthereadingmaterials.
2.1TheNatureofReadingProcess
FReadingisregardedasamajorsourceofcomprehensibleinputandastheskillthatmanyseriouslearnersmostneedtoemploy[3].[6]concluded:
1)Ourunderstandingofreadingisbestconsideredasaninteractiveprocessthattakesplacebetweenthereaderandthetext.Thebasicconceptisthatthereaderreconstructsthetextinformationbasedinpartontheknowledgedrawnfromthetextandinpartfromthepriorknowledgeavailabletothereader.
2)Readingasaninteractiveprocessreferstotheinteractionofmanycomponentskillspotentiallyinsimultaneousoperation;theinteractionofthesecognitiveskillsleadstofluentreadingcomprehension.Simplystated,readinginvolvesbothanarrayoflower-levelrapid,automaticidentificationskillsandanarrayofhigher-levelcomprehensionorinterpretationskills.[4]PointedoutthatL2readinghasoftenbeenaccusedofbeingaslavishimitationofthefirstlanguagereadingresearch.ThesecondlanguagereadingProcesshasreliedprimarilyuponexplanatorymodelsborrowedfromfirstlanguageresearch.Bernhardtassertedthatinthisprocessthereadercanbeinvolvedintheconstructionofmeaningfromatext,basedpartlyonnewinformationpre