图式理论和大学英语阅读教学(2)

3.TheApplicationofSchemaTheorytotheCollegeEnglishReadingTeaching
3.1TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryatthePre-readingStage
Pre-readingisadirectlinkofreadingteaching.Schematheoryemphasizestheimportanceofaccumulatingknowledgeandexperience,butit’smoreimportantforthestudentstopredictthewholearticlebyknownknowledge.Therefore,theteacherhastwothingstodoatthepre-readingstage.
Oneistosupplythestudentsthebackgroundknowledgeandhelpthemtobuildthenewcontentschemata.BecausethestudentsareshortofEnglishbackgroundknowledge,maybetheywillhavenocontentschematatostartintheirreading.Now,theteachermusthelpthestudentstobuildthenewcontentschematainordertocomprehendrightly.Forexample,thereisonesentence“Beingateacherisbeingpresentatthecreation,whentheclaybeginstobreathe”(takenfromCollegeEnglishIntensiveReading,BookIIIUnit3,WhyITeach).Thestudentsmayhavedifficultyinunderstanding;therefore,theteachercanpidethestudentsintoseveralgroupsandaskthemtocollecttherelatedmaterialstothestoryabouttheGodcreatedtheman.Intheprocessofcollecting,thestudentsmaygetsomeinformationaboutthestory.ThentheteachercantellthestoryabouttheGodcreatesthemanfromBible“ManwascreatedbyGodoutofclay,whenGodbreathedthebreathoflifeintotheclay,itbecamealiveandthecreationofmanwascompleted’.[9]HeretheauthorcomparesthejobofteachertotheworkofGod.Itimpliesthatwhiletheparentsgivethechildthebody,itistheteacherwhohelpsthestudenttobecomearealmanorwoman.Afterexplaining,thestudentscannotonlyunderstandthesentence,butalsoknowthestoryabouttheGodcreatesthemanwhichisthenewcontentschematheyhavebuilt.
Theotherthingfortheteacheristoactivatethesuitablecontentschematawhichthestudentshavehad.Atthepre-readingstage,theteachershouldusetheeffectivewaytohelpthestudentstoactivatethecontentschematathattheyhavehadandmakethemtoassociatetherelatedcompositionwiththecontentschemata,inordertohaveagoodcomprehension.Forexample,thereisanarticleinCollegeEnglishIntensiveReadingBookIUnit1,HowtoImproveYourStudyHabits.Thistopicisfamiliarforthestudents.Theymusthavemanyopinions.Theimportancefortheteacherishowtoactivatethesuitablecontentschematathatthestudentshavehad.Therefore,theteachercanaskthestudentstodiscussingroupsandrequireeverygrouptochooseonestudentastheirleadertotelltheiropinionsafterdiscussion.Duringdiscussing,thestudentswillstarttheircontentschematawhichtheyhavehadforthisquestion.Atlast,theteachercanputtheiropinionsontheblackboard:

Previewthelesson.
Takingnoteswhilereading.
Readingthenewwordsandexpressioninthemorning.
Reviewingthewholelesson.
Listeningtothetapeintheevening.
WritingEnglishdiary…
Afterstartingthecontentschematathatthestudents’havehad,theywillbeinterestedinreadingandfinishthereadingmuchbetter.
3.2TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryattheWhile-ReadingStage
While-readingisthestageofschemaconcretized.Atthisstage,themainroleisthestudents,it’simportantforthestudentstocomprehendthewholearticleall-roundandrightly.Sotheteachernotonlyneedstoteachtheknowledgeoflanguageandform,butalsoneedstoanalyzeandgraspthewholearticle.Therefore,toenrichthestudents’schemaisveryimportant.
Somearticlesdon’thavethecomplexsyntacticconstructionandmanynewwords,butthestudentsstillcan’tunderstandthecontentorcatchthemainidea.Theycangraspthedetailswell,butmakemistakesonmainideaofthearticle,themeaningofsentencesandtheeffect.Itshowsthestudents’readinglevelisstillonthelevelofunderstandingtheappearanceofthesentences,notthewholearticle.Onlyfromthecontent,thewordsandsentencescandeveloptheirvalue.Thereadingmaterialsconcernallkindsofstyles,suchas,news,poem,novelsandreports.Eachstylehasitsfeatureanddifferentrequirementsforthereaders.Accordingtotheschematheory,readingcomprehensionisnotonlyinfluencedbythelanguageandcontent,butalsobytheform,that’sformalschema.Inreading,it’shelpfulforthestudentstogetthestyleofarticlesfirstly.That’sbasedonthefactthatthestudentshavegraspedallkindsofstylesofarticlesandhavehadrichformalschemata.Therefore,it’snecessaryfortheteachertoenrichthestudents’formalschemata.Ifthearticleisexpository,theteachermustguidethestudentstoactivatetheformalschematatounderstandtheobject,theorderandthemethods;ifthearticleisanargument,theteachermustremindthestudentstopayattentiontotheessentialfactorsandthemethods.Forexample,Bushauthorizescallingupofcoastguardreserve.
Washington(Reuters)-PresidentBush(news-websites)onThursdayauthorizedTransportationSecretaryNormalMineta(news-websites)tocallupCoastGuardreserviststoprotecttheU.Scoastagainstterroristattacks.BushsignedanexecutiveordergivingMinetatheauthorityto“managepersonalrequirementsinamannerconsistence”withaSept14orderthatallowedDefenseSecretaryDonaldRumsfeldtousemilitaryreservistsforthewaronterrorism,WhiteHouseofficialssaidtheorderallowsMinetatocallupCoastGuardreservistsforcoastalpatrolduties…

TheexampleisaboutPresidentBushauthorizedtocallupCoastGuardreserviststoprotecttheU.Scoastagainstterroristattacks.It’seasyforthestudentstojudgethatthereadingmaterialisapieceofnews,buthowmuchdotheyknowthestyle.Atthewhile-readingstage,theteachercanexplainthestyleofnews.Newsisastyletoreportthelatestandvaluablefactquicklyandrightly;ithasaspecialstructurethatisaccordingtotheinfluencetoarrangethematerials;therefore,themostimportantandlatestpartisoftenputatthebeginning.Ifthereadersknowthiskindofstructures;theywillunderstandthenewsquickly.Butforthereaderwhodoesn’tformtheschema,heorshewillneedalongtimetoreadthewholenewslikereadinganarration.Withthehelpoftheteacher,thestudentscangraspallkindsofthestylesgraduallyandtheirformalschematawillbemuchricher.
Maybeintheprocessofreading,thestudentsoftenmeetthesituationthattherearen’tanyobstacleoflinguisticandsyntacticconstructioninonearticle,butafterreadingthewholearticle,thestudentshavenoideasaboutit.Theshortageofonecontentschema,theycan’tofferinformationtomatchthereadingmaterials,itcausethereadingdifficult.Facingthesituation,theteacherneedstoenlargethestudents’kenandinputthebackgroundknowledge,soastoenrichthestudents’contentschemata.Themorecontentschematathestudentshave,theeasiercomprehensiontheywilldo.Therefore,inreadingteaching,theteachermustintroducesomerelatedbackgroundknowledgewhichbaseonthetextbooktothestudents.Forexample,whenthestudentshavethelessonLessonsfromJefferson(takenfromCollegeEnglishIntensiveReading,BookIIUnit3),themainroleinthisarticleisthePresidentJefferson.AsweknowtherearemanyfamousPresidentsinthehistoryoftheUSA.Therefore,theteachercanasksomestudentstotellstoriesaboutthesefamousPresidentsthattheyknow.MaybesomestudentsareinterestedinstudyingthehistoryoftheUSAandtheywouldhaverichknowledgeaboutthePresidents,sotheywillliketosharetheknowledgewiththeirclassmates.Thestudentstellthestoriestothestudentsthatwouldmakethestudentsbecomeactive.Aftertheinteractionamongthestudents,theteachercansupplementsomestoriesaboutthePresidents,suchas,Washington,Lincoln.Inthisway,theteacherhelpsthestudentstoenrichtheircontentschemataaboutthePresidentoftheUSAandtheywon’tfeelstrangeanymorewhentheyhavethesimilarreadingmaterialslater.Accumulatingoveralongperiod;thecontentschemawillbemoreandricherinthestudents’mind,whichthestudentscanshifttherelatedcontentschematofinishthereadingsuccessful.

3.3TheApplicationofSchemaTheoryatthePost-ReadingStage
Post-readingisasyntheticallystageofconsolidatingschema.Asweknow,thetimespendsonthewhile-readingstageisquitelimited.Sotheimportanceofpost-readingcan’tbeignored.Atthepost-readingstage,theteachercanholdkindsofactivitiesbyconnectingthereadingmaterialswiththestudents’experience,knowledge,interestsandopinions.MaybetheteachercansetupsomeEnglish“extra-curriculum(ECA)”[10]groups.ThepurposeofsettinguptheseECAgroupsisnotonlytofosterstudents’interestsinlearningEnglishanddeveloptheirforeignlanguageabilitiesandskillsindifferentways,butalsotomakethemconsolidatetheknowledgeofschematatheyhavehad.Thestudentsaregroupedmustbe“thecreams”amongtheirpeersandextremelyinterestedinEnglish.TheEnglishECAgroupsmightbetheoralEnglishgroups,whichmightengageinEnglishgames,suchas,wordguessing.Vocabularyisthebasisofexpressingandbuildingallkindsofschema.Withoutthelinguisticschema,thewords,phrasecan’tbeactivated;thecontentofarticlecan’tbecomprehended.Linguisticsistheweaklinkoftheforeignlanguagelearning.However,it’simpossibleandunnecessarytograspalltheEnglishvocabulary.Therefore,it’snecessaryandimportantfortheteachertomakethestudentstograsptheskillofguessingnewwords.Andaccordingtotheschematheorythemeaningofthevocabularyisnotthesimpleexplanation,butthecomprehensivedefinitionofoneword,contextandbackgroundknowledge.Therefore,theteachercangivethestudentssomesentencesandaskthemtoguesstheword.
Thefirstexample,sheseemedratherpiquedwhensheknewshehadn’tbeeninvited.Inthissentence,“piqued”isanewword,butwecanknowfromtheexperienceand“whensheknowshehadn’tbeeninvited”thatsomebodyhadn’tbeeninvited;heorshewouldbeunhappyandangry.Therefore,wecandeducethemeaningof“pique”issimilarwith“angry”.
Thesecondexample,surprisingly,theoldladyisquitefriendlyandhospitable.”Inthissentence,“friendly”and“hospitable”isparataxis.Therefore,“hospitable”shouldhavethesimilarmeaningto“friendly”.
Thethirdexample,nowadayspeoplecanmakeartificialtreesandflowersinplaceofrealones.Accordingtothearrangementof“artificialtreesandflowers”and“realones”inthearticle,wecandeducetheywouldbetheequalorcontrastiverelation.And“inplaceof”canmakeusthey’rethecontrastiverelation.Therefore,“artificial”istosay“notreal”“notnatural”or“madebyman”.

Afterguessing,theteachercanmakeasummaryhelpthestudentstograsptheskillofguessingwords.Therearetwowaystoguessnewwords:fromthecluesofthecontentandtheword-building.Oneisaccordingtothedefinition,experience,generalknowledge,retellingcontent,therelatedinformation,synonym,antonymandexamplestoguessnewwords.Theotherisaccordingtothepartsofcompoundwords,rootofderivativeandaffixtanalysisthemeaningofthenewwords.
TheECAgroupsmightbetheEnglishwall-papergroups,whichareinchargeofgatheringanddiscussingtheEnglishreadingmaterialsthatcovermainlywhatstudentshavelearnedinclass.Asweknow,thesocialsystem,familycomposition,livingwaysandreligiousbeliefinthewesterncountryaredifferentfromthoseinChina,andthedifferenceswillbereflectedinlanguage.SomeoftheChinesestudentsusetheirmotherlanguagetolearnEnglishanditsculture.Itwillcausethemisunderstandingandfault.Therefore,culturecontrastingisagoodwaytohelpthestudentstogetridofobstaclesandimprovetheirreadingcapacity.Forexample,theteachercanguidethegroupstomaketwoEnglishwall-papers.OneisaboutChristmas;theotherisaboutSpringFestival.Intheprocessofmaking,theteachercanmakesomeintroductionsproperly,becauseSpringFestivalisfamiliarforthestudents,theteachercanintroducethesuitablebackgroundknowledgeofChristmasinordertohelpthembuildorenrichcontentschemaofChristmas.Thentheteachercanaskthestudentstocontrasttwopapersandsummarizethesimilaritiesanddifferencesaboutthestyles,languagesandsoon.Intheprocess,thestudentscangothroughthepsychologicalprocessagainandconsolidatetheschemata
4.Conclusion
Thelearneristhemostimportantfactorinlearninglanguage,andthebestteachingisnotbasedonthestaticknowledgebutfocusedontheflexibleuseofthelanguage.Therefore,theeducationofthesecondlanguagenotonlymakesthestudentsgraspsomelanguageskills,butalsohelpsthestudentstoimproveacapacityoflearning.Theapplicationofschematheoryistotrainanddevelopthestudents’effectivereadingskill,thentoimprovethestudents’capacityofreadingcomprehension.Theteachershouldnotonlyunderstandtherelatedschemaandthefeaturesofarticles,butalsounderstandthestudents’psychologyandencouragethemtousetherelatedbackgroundknowledgeabundantlyinordertomaketheirheartslinkedtotheauthor’sheart.Thestudentsgetthesuccessafterimprovingtheircapacityofreadingcomprehension.Itwillactivatethestudents’enthusiasmandgetthefinalgoalofEnglishreadingteaching.

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