The Application of Schema Theory to Junior English Listening Teaching

Acknowledgements

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to achieve this paper and to make the conclusion for my four years’ education. Through writing this paper, I have gained much more knowledge than I supposed. First and foremost, my sincere thanks and respects are given to my supervisor, Professor Li Xuefeng, for helping me to clarify my thought and sharpen my thinking, for her professional guidance and encouragement.

Then I also want to express my thanks to all teachers who have ever taught me knowledge and other reasons,

Finally, I would like to give my thanks to my friends who gave me much help and support. Thank you! Abstract

This task takes former research to schema theory, English listening teaching and their relationship as basis and then does deeper discussion to the application of schema theory to junior English listening teaching. It is vital to understand and use schemata

correctly, activate students’ background knowledge and set up new schemata during the listening process. According to Questionnaire I and Test I, some problems existed in listening teaching have been discovered. Aimed at these problems, this task takes 40 students in Grade 7, Class 4 in Mayu Middle School as experimental objects to carry on experimental lessons based on schema theory for 10 weeks. And then Questionnaire II and Test II are used to verify the impacts taken to junior English listening teaching by the application of schema theory. Based on the research data and analysis, some enlightenment can be gained from the practice of schema theory. Key Words: background knowledge, listening comprehension, activate and set up schemata, listening teaching 摘 要

本课题以前人对图式理论和英语听力教学以及两者关系的研究为基础，进行了更深层次对图式理论在初中英语听力教学中的运用的探讨。如何正确理解和运用图式理论、如何激活学生在听力过程中所掌握的背景知识以及创建新图式是本课题的中心关键。通过调查问卷I和测试I，发现了英语听力教学中仍然存在的问题。之后以马屿中学七年级四班的40名同学为研究对象进行了为期十周的以图式理论为指导的实验课堂。进而用调查问卷II和测试II来验证图式理论的应用对初中英语听力教学带来的作用。通过对数据的分析和研究，从图式理论的实践中得到了一定的启示。

关键词：背景知识，听力理解，激活和建立图式，听力教学

Contents TOC \\o \ 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature 2

2.1 Schema Theory 2

2.2 Listening Comprehension 4

2.3 Relationship Between Schema Theory and Listening Comprehension 5 3. Research Methodology 6 3.1 Instruments 7

3.2 Research Questions 7

3.3 Subjects and Teaching Materials 9

3.4 Teaching Procedures of One Experimental Lesson 9 4. Results and Discussion 12

4.1 Analysis of Data from questionnaires and Tests 12 4.2 Discussion to Experimental Lessons 16 5. Conclusion 17 Bibliography 19 Appendixes

The Application of Schema Theory to Junior English Listening Teaching 1. Introduction

Whatever the language is, listening is an efficient way to receive information from the outside world. As the important part of English language teaching, listening is the basis of other language skills

such as reading, writing and speaking. According to statistics from W. M. Rivers and M. S. Temperly, listening in human communication is about 45%, speaking 30%, reading 16% and writing 9% (Zhou 24). Therefore, improving listening comprehension ability is always necessary and important. However, for most English learners, listening is truly a stumbling block. So the effect of listening teaching greatly affects students’ language cognitive level and communication ability.

The comprehension process of listening is to link up existing information and new information. The ability of listening

comprehension depends on the activation level of background knowledge to a large extent during the listening process. Background knowledge is previous knowledge which people have already got. The more

background knowledge one has, the easier one understands the material; the more background knowledge is activated, the more thoroughly one

understands the material. Schema refers to the structure of knowledge stored in people’s mind. Schema theory exactly emphasizes the significance of background knowledge.

Schema theory is applied widely in the field of psychology of reading. Because it can greatly express mental phenomena in reading and

understanding, establish one schema to analyze、describe and predict the complicated interpretative procedure which may be occurring. On account of many common grounds between reading comprehension and listening comprehension, the schema theory can also be used in English listening teaching to improve students’ listening comprehension ability.

This paper focuses on the application of schema theory to junior English listening teaching. It mainly researches the relationship between schemata and listening comprehension, and then applies schema theory to junior English listening teaching according to their relationship and some existed problems in teaching. Questionnaire

approach, test method and case analysis method are used in this paper. On the one hand, schema theory can be applied into junior English listening teaching in order to make listening teaching get rid of bored and inefficient traditional teaching ways such as “play the tape---listen---check answers---listen again”. After a period of practice, students can spontaneously use the way of constructing

schema and activating schema in every listening exercise. Only really understanding the listening can students use English into actual communication with others. On the other hand, it’s helpful for teachers to use schema theory in teaching. Schema theory offers new train of thought to teachers which help them innovation in class. Every enlightenment from practice of schema theory may take positive influence to the development of junior English listening teaching. 2. Literature

In this part, schema theory, listening comprehension and their relationship are briefly introduced. 2.1 Schema Theory

Schema, one of cognitive psychology terms originally, was firstly appeared in philosopher Kant’ s work in 1781. Kant pointed out that schema was product of pure transcendental imagination or structure of knowledge learners used to acquire (Kang 181). What’ s more, Kant considered that concepts combined with personal given information can

be significative. In 1932, psychologist Bartlett put forward schema theory in his work Remembering. He thought schema was a positive organization to former reaction or experience, which can also be

referred to the process that one kind of information react to another stored in learner’s brain and the process that learner absorb new information. In the 1980s, the American human intelligence expert Rumelhart made a further development and perfected this theory. He regarded schema theory as a theoretical model which researched the role of long term memory in comprehension process systematically and deeply.

Each of us carries in our hands mental representations of typical situations that we come across. When we are stimulated by particular words, discourse patterns, or contexts, such schematic knowledge is activated and we are able to recognize what we see or hear because it fits into patterns that we already know (Harmer 199).

For example, when Tiger Woods are talked about, golf ball will be easily associated. Therefore, to put it simply, this background knowledge activated while you read or hear one sentence is called schema.

To sum up, cognition of human beings to the world is stored in brain as transcendental schemata. Transcendental schemata can be

assimilated to an enormous file system. It classifies and stores one’s personal knowledge and experience into brain. When brain receives new information, it will set up a new file to save this

information. So in fact, transcendental schemata are background knowledge. Schema theory emphasizes the importance of background knowledge. Schema theory is about how to use background knowledge to learn more new things and get richer knowledge in the applying process.

It’s generally considered that there are three types of schema: linguistic, formal and content. Linguistic schema is learner’s knowledge about the foundation of a language such as sounds, vocabulary and grammar. As Carrell defines, formal schema is

background knowledge about the formal, rhetorical, organizational structures of different kinds of texts(83). Formal schema refers to the knowledge about writing styles or figures. Content schema is the main idea or background of context. Content schemata are less

abstract and presumably about the physical world of discernible objects and action (Ni 10).

Schemata are made up of many slots. Slots can be seen as the elements in a structure of knowledge to store background knowledge and new accepted information. Slots will be filled up to activate pre-existent knowledge and input new knowledge. That is to say, schema can give rise to process to new information. On the basis of original schema, new content can be added and it will update in order to form new cognition. Second, once the schema comes into being, it possesses quite high stability. This stability does not mean schema won’t

change easily, it means schema won’t disappear easily. Third, schema decides the tendentiousness and preference when people face the

choices of information. People tend to choose the information which is similar to stored knowledge. And that may influence people’s further prediction. What’ s more, schemata can be embedded with

other schemata. If there is something new, the fresh information will be added to previous schema. If there is nothing different, existing schema will be intensified. If there are some differences, previous schema will be adjusted with fresh information. If there is no

relation between accepted and existing information, new schema will be constructed.

According to features of schema, it has following functions: First, schema will affect listener’s choice. Usually, information related with existing schema can be the center of attention. Second, schema will influence listener’s memory. Which are meaningful to listener or already understood can be more easily remembered. Third, schema will play a role in self-perception. Listener will process relevant information according to the existing schema. 2.2 Listening Comprehension

Usually language skills can be divided into receptive skills and productive skills. Speaking and writing belong to the range of

productive skills, while listening and reading are in the range of receptive skills. For receptive skill, it asks people to receive and understand the information accepted into brain accurately. Actually, listening comprehension is a positive and purposeful procedure. Brown, G. pointed out, “When the listener do listening, they will search the meanings actively. These active listeners will use all related