the-study-of-oral-english-teaching-strategies--based-on-schema-theory--学位论文.doc

黑龙江东方学院

毕 业 论 文 （设 计）

设计题目:The Study of Oral English Teaching Strategies Based on Schema Theory

黑龙江东方学院本科毕业设计

Abstract
In foreign language teaching, the four basic skills have been greatly improved on the part of Chinese college students in the past decades. However, speaking is still the most difficult skill for the majority of college students. In spite of this, the application of schema theory in college spoken English teaching should provide more convenience for good learning effect on learners.
According to schema theory, a schema is an active organization of past reactions or past experiences. Language comprehension depends largely on learners' background knowledge. Therefore, schema theory plays an important role in information activation and spoken English output. On the basis of schema theory, this paper aims at investigating whether schema-oriented teaching is effective in college spoken English teaching and revealing the function of schematic knowledge through the analysis.
Focusing on schema activation, based on schema theory in cognitive psychology, the thesis explores the nature of speaking comprehension and points out that speaking comprehension is an interactive model of both bottom-up and top-down models. Speakers use both bottom-up and top-down approaches to interpret speaking message. In speaking comprehension process, speakers should activate their background knowledge and use the knowledge to interpret the new text. The speaker's schemata determine what he comprehends, how well he comprehends, and whether he can comprehend at all.

Key words: schema theory; schemata; spoken English.
中文摘要
过去几十年的时间里，中国高校学生听、说、读、写四个方面的基本技能通过外语教学得到了极大的提高。然而各方面的语言能力仍存在发展不平衡的状况，尤其在英语口语表达方面，大部分学生存在欠缺。虽然如此，图式理论在英语教学领域的广泛运用使得基于该理论的大学英语口语教学模式成为一条解决问题的有效途径。
根据图式理论，“图式”是学习者记忆中的己有信息对新信息发生作用的过程。人们在理解吸收输入信息时，需要将所输入的信息与大脑己知的信息(或概念)，即背景知识联系起来。因此，图式知识在大脑己知信息的提取和口语输出方面扮演着重要角色。本项研究基于图式理论，目的在于探究该理论在高校英语口语教学中的有效性，同时揭示图式化知识体系的重要功能。
本研究以图式理论为基础，分析了图式理论及其在英语口语教学过程中的应用。图式理论认为说者的背景知识对他理解新的文章起着关键的作用。根据图式理论，口语理解的过程是一种互动模式，它包括自下而上与自上而下两者结合的互动模式。根据这种模式，口语理解过程就是说者的背景知识与所阐述文章相互作用的过程。因此，图式理论对口语教学有着指导意义。在口语理解过程中，说者应该激活自己的背景知识，并利用它们来理解新的文章。说者的图式决定他要理解的内容，理解的程度，以及能否理解。

关键词:图式理论;图式;英语口语

II

黑龙江东方学院本科毕业设计

Outline
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………I
中文摘要……………………………………………………………………………………II
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1
A. Background of this research…………………………………………………………1
B. Purpose and significance of this research……………………………………………1
C. Structure of the research………………………………………………………………2
Ⅰ. Literature review…………………………………………………………………………3
A. The present situation of the teaching of spoken English abroad………………………3
B. The present situation of the teaching of spoken English in China……………………3
C. The limitations and developing trends………………………………………………4
Ⅱ. Theoretical foundation……………………………………………………………………4
A. Schema theory………………………………………………………………………4
1. Linguistic schemata………………………………………………………………5
2. Formal schemata…………………………………………………………………5
3. Content schemata…………………………………………………………………6
B. Spoken English and spoken English teaching…………………………………………6
1. Features of spoken English………………………………………………………6
2. Elements affecting spoken English teaching………………………………………7
Ⅲ. English teaching strategies based on schema theory …………………………………7
A. The application of schema theory……………………………………………………7
B. The importance of speaking…………………………………………………………8
C. Schema theory and spoken English teaching…………………………………………9
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………11
References……………………………………………………………………………………12

III

The Study of Oral English Teaching Strategies Based on Schema Theory

A. Research background
Speaking is an important component of the English language learning and is interwoven with reading, writing and listening abilities, and also it provides the basis for developing in reading, writing and listening abilities. Since every phoneme has its distinctive features, segmentation can be used in speech. However, this model does not always make a sense in speaking comprehension, for speech flow is quite different from the written form. First of all, speech is succession and it is hard to syncopate it into separate sound units. Secondly, a segment is not always immutable. Thirdly, the reaction between segments and segmentations are not one to one. Finally, speech flow has its own speed and features. In a word, speaking comprehension is a complicated physical and physiological process. Continuous speaking comprehension is not a passive psychological process absorbing acoustic signals, but is an active one involving in composing and analyzing. Speaking is a complex skill that operates at various levels, which involves a series of strategies and micro-skills that learners use at different times for different purpose巴特莱特著，黎炜译.记忆:一个实验的与社会的实验学研究[M].杭州:浙江教育出版社，1998.第89页
.
Though speaking is difficult in foreign language learning, it is virtually important whether in daily life or in language acquisition. As the development of our economy and the ever-increasing cross-cultural communication, the requirements of people’s mastery of foreign language, the ability of communication especially, also have increased dramatically. However, speaking comprehension is always one of the most difficult parts in English learning though language skills are drawn special attention nowadays.
B. Purpose and significance of this paper
According to the statistics made by the world famous linguists, Rivers and Temperley, think of communication is carried out through listening. It can be seen that communication by mouth and ear is the basic behavior of human beings, and listening and speaking are the basic means of communication. As a productive skill, speaking English is considered to be one of the most difficult aspects of English learning. How to improve and develop college spoken English teaching in China has become one of the most important issues in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), and has drawn great attention of both teachers and educators. They have tried to put various teaching theories and methods into practice to improve the teaching of spoken English, but not much progress has been made so far.
In view of the above elements, teacher and educators have been considering the application of various theories in the process of spoken English teaching. One of these theories is schema theory. The application of schema theory, emphasizing the connection between background knowledge and incoming information, is quite different from the traditional approach. According to schema theory, language comprehension depends largely on learner's background knowledge because any text does not by itself carry meaning, instead, it only provides directions for learners as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning from their own previously acquired knowledge (Rumelhart, 1980) Rumelhart, D. E.‘Schemata: The Building Blocks of Cognition' [A]. In Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce, and William E. Brewer (eds.) Theoretical Issues in Reading Comprehension[C]. Hillsdate, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1980.p10

. In general terms, oral communication can be defined as an interactive and dynamic verbal use of language for a particular communication purpose.
C. Structure of the paper
The effects and strategies in applying schema theory in spoken English teaching are still under investigation. The systematic schemaoriented spoken English teaching practice and approaches have not been established yet. This thesis tries to make an effort to contribute to this research and help spoken English learners at colleges improve their spoken English proficiency. In Chapter 1，status of spoken English and spoken English teaching is discussed, including the existing condition and major problems. Besides this, the background, purposes and significance of the research are introduced. In Chapter 2, the essential theory of this research is introduced, highlighting the relationship between schema theory and spoken English teaching. Chapter 3 is included “the application of schema theory”, “the importance and characteristics of speaking” and “schema theory and spoken English teaching” these three parts. A conclusion is made in Chapter 4. Whereas, it is impossible to find an end as the technology and the context are keeping on evolving. What this thesis can do is to make a helpful trial in a practical effort and to show an outlook for the further study.
Ⅰ. Literature review
A. The present situation of the teaching of spoken English abroad
Bartlett (1932) is the first psychologist to use the term of schema in his book Remembering. He believes that our memory for discourse is not based on straight reproduction, but is constructive. Bartlett defines schema as "an active organization of past reactions or past experiences" (Bartlett, 1932: 20) Bartlett, F. C. Remembering: A study in Experimental and Social Psychology [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932.p30
. Its basic claim is that a new experience is understood by comparison with a stereotypical version of a similar experience held in memory. The new experience is then processed in terms of its deviation from the stereotypical version.
A Schema is an abstract knowledge structure. A schema is an abstract in the sense that it summarizes what is known about a variety of cases that differ in many particulars. A schema is structured in the sense that it represents the elations among its component pats.
A schema is to be a frame with many slots. In the view of Markham and Latham, once the new information is integrated with the existing background knowledge and is put into the appropriate slots, the schema is considered as being activated. For example, if a person bought some fruit one day, this event itself then is an instantiation of the schema "buy". Hence, the person will be put into the slot of "buyer", "fruit" into that of "goods" while "fruit shop" into "seller". When the elements of a schema do not appear in the text or discourse, the listeners may assign default value (i.e. the most neutral or common possibility). For example, when people hear a tape-recording concerning a dinner in a Chinese restaurant, they possibly tend to make such an inference as "chopsticks must be used", and the "chopsticks" will be the default values assigned by people.
B. The present situation of the teaching of spoken English in China
With the further opening up of China, especially after its entry into WTO and its successful bid for the Olympic Games, a higher standard has been set for the students' spoken English and greater importance has been attached to the training of the speaking skill in education. According to the curriculum, the goal of the English teaching in education is to develop the students' integrated language competence, which requires the comprehensive development of the four basic language skills一listening, speaking, reading and writing. Different objective-based studying stages are given following the ordinary methods advocated in the world, which is very helpful in oral designing.
The Standards prescribes the goal of the teaching of the speaking skill as improving the accuracy, appropriateness, fluency and coherence. It also explicates to what extent the spoken English of students in senior middle schools should be improved in different stages.
C. The limitations and developing trends
Despite the requirements mentioned above and the fact that the spoken form has gained primacy of status in language sciences this century to the point where there has been a merging in applied linguistic, and wider research circles, of the concept of `speaking' with language, speaking still remains the least emphasized skill.
First and foremost, higher standards set for students' spoken still not placed on the top of their agenda English, the teaching of spoken despite the English is simply because speaking is not embodied in the National College Entrance Examination as the other skills.
Second, the notion of how spoken genres are structured and what forms are most typical of them is difficult to establish. Teaching forms which are unique to the spoken form are seen as a marginal activity, rather like the situation where idioms or colloquialisms are introduced into the syllabus to enliven a lesson.
Third, there is a great deal of speaking going on in classrooms, but the case is that the teacher is teaching English through speaking, which is different from `teaching speaking' or `teaching the spoken form of a language'
Therefore, how to effectively improve the students' spoken English to promote the integrated competence has been placed on the top of many researchers' agenda.
This research aims to improve students' oral output by helping them to construct linguistic, formal and content schemata instead of just getting them to learn grammatically correct sentences by heart. Linguistic schemata have functions such as helping learners to decide what intonation to adopt to articulate their intentions; formal schemata may allow learners to apply proper discourse model in accordance with their situational knowledge, thus making it possible for them to communicate better in English.
Ⅱ. Theoretical foundation
A. Schema theory
Comprehending words, sentences and entire texts involves more than just relying on one's linguistic knowledge. According to Anderson, the advantage schema offers language learners are:
a. providing learners with ideational scaffolding when perceiving information;
b. facilitating selective allocation of attention;
c. enabling inferential elaboration;
d. allowing orderly search of memory;
e. permitting reconstruction when there are gaps in memory.
Usually, the existence of a schema, which can accommodate new information, makes processing easier.
1. Linguistic schemata
Linguistic schemata refer to speakers' prior linguistic knowledge. In other words, linguistic schemata refer to the knowledge of language about phonetics, grammar and vocabularies as traditionally recognized, well as the cohesive devices, such as substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, lexical cohesion and their function across sentences and paragraphs, which play a basic role in a comprehensive understanding. Obviously, lack of such kind of knowledge contributes considerably to problems in learning.
The role of linguistic schemata is more important in foreign language learning than in native learning; this is because of the fact that "language is a major problem in second language learning, and that even educated guessing at meaning is no substitute for accurate decoding". In China unfortunately linguistic schemata have been emphasized too much that the comprehension is, to a great extent, inhibited because the other two types of schemata are unduly neglected.
2. Formal schemata
Formal schemata refer to "background knowledge of the form