Schema Theory in L2 Teaching

Abstract

The article is about the importance of applying schema theory in English as a second language teaching especially in reading teaching. The experiences of teaching adults especially college students in China also provide samples and knowledge in reality which supports the hypothesis and opinion largely. Therefore the article tried to present the assessment in this way. On the other hand， the article also uses observation research method in order to get qualitative and quantitative answer of the efficiency of using the schema theory in reaching teaching class. Therefore this paper not only contains the knowledge in the MA TESOL but also shows some creative idea in the principles and practical of English language teaching field.

Key words：schema theory; L2 learns; efficiency

1 The importance of schema theory

The reason why it is essential to describe the importance of schema theory is because it’s the main reason of using schema in English teaching. Why it’s popular of using schema all over the world? What are the advantages and strong points? However， before talking about the crucial points it is high time that defining what is schema theory. As McDonough and Shaw (2003:99) stated in Material and Methods in ELT: schema theory， which according to this theory， people’s background knowledge and experience of the world form their own “schemata”. These can be enlisted to help students understand a text. Asking students to carry out activities such as discussing the topic of a text prior to reading will help to activate the their schemata. In other words， everybody including the L2 learners have the basic background knowledge of the society， life， human beings as well as the language. By activating their background knowledge in their memories and guide them understand and learn language with the certain schemata that’s what schema theory in the L2 language teaching area. Then， why it is important and efficiency to use schema in teaching English? The first advantage is schema provides a quick and easy way to teach language to the learners. For example， imagine some ones are in the beginners of English as a foreigner language class. If teachers want to teach a word “panda”， it would be extremely efficient of using schema theory in the vocabulary teaching. They could implied learners the panda is a kind of animals with thick hair. Then learners can roughly know what kind of thing of panda that panda is living animal. If the teacher continue to tell them the hair of panda has two colors: black and white. They eat bamboo and they also are the cherish animal in China. In this way learners will learn this vocabulary quickly. Then， the teachers would use the pictures of panda to give them ideas what is panda. Learners study this word by using their own background knowledge which gives them ideas about characters of panda. Besides， the common sense of the appearance of panda will help them remember this word by activating the memories. In another example of teaching English language is about teaching reading. A large numbers of Chinese L2 learner think only if they are able to understand every word in the text they can understand the article. Both of Jeremy Harmer and Penny Ur suggested that there are different kinds of text， such as: introduction， advertisement， academic papers， etc. When people are reading the extensive reading such as a tourist guide or advertisement， even though they usually are not sure what the products and details exactly is but they still can use the common sense and background to get the conclusion what the they probably talk about. Similarly， schema theory usually helps us predict the type of the text， what the topic probably is， what aspects the text may discuss and what the main idea the author with. Not only in the time limited English test or in reality schema helps students activate their memory and background knowledge as well as help them read efficiently. In general， schema theory benefits the learners study language in many aspects as well as they use the language.

2 The example of using schema theory in English teaching

From Ur (2003) and Harmer (2007)， it is very crucial to teach students the skills in reading. Not only for an efficient way of reading but also help them to learn reading better.

There is an simple example of a part of an English class. At the beginning of this class， the teacher gave students a title of the text on the blackboard and asked what type of the article could be? And what aspects the text would describe and discuss next? They were not the simple questions in that the teacher’s aim was to activate their memory and background knowledge just with a single title. With the answers said by a student， “it probably a tourism dairy describing what the author saw in the journey and how he/she thought and get after travel to Europe，” the teacher gave him feedback that he provided the almost exactly answer the text really was. At exactly that moment， the teacher implied the learners when they met a new knowledge， there was no need to feel tired up or nervous in that learners always had the background knowledge related to the new. Every point could be present by using the old knowledge and common sense which gives learners more opportunity to learn better. Most people had the experience of travelling， so the teacher asked them to read the first paragraph and then guess the structure and content of the article. Obviously， the teacher used the schema theory in reading. The learners used their own memories and experiences to imagine what the main idea in the text or understand the whole text meaning. After reading， the learners needed to arrange a travel plan with the useful information from the text. From this task students could review all the knowledge they learnt in this class and in this way they would know some the reading skills would help them to learn language， especially schema theory could be an efficient way of learning. Ur (2003) also stated that when teachers teach the skills of language it is wise to mix some of the language skills instead of using single skill all class. So the teacher could combine the schema theory and other methods. These methods would help learners master the text deeply.

3 Conclusion

From the discussion: it’s an efficient way by using schema theory in teaching English especially in reading will be optimistic. Chinese teachers could used schema theory in ELT class， and help L2 learners master English well.

Bibliography

?Brown， H.D. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching， 2007， Fifth Edition， Pearson Education， Inc.

?Harmer， J. The Practice of English Language Teaching， Fourth Edition， Pearson， Longman

?McDonough， J and Shaw， C. Materials and Methods in ELT， 2003， Oxford: Blackwell

?Ur， P. A Course in Language Teaching， 2004， Cambridge University Press， Cambridge

?Yule， G. The Study of Language， 2010， Fourth Edition， Cambridge University Press， New York

作者簡介：高夢瑤（1986-），女，山西太原人，桂林電子科技大學外國語學院，助教，研究方向為教育學