图示理论与英语听力教学.doc

Abstract

Considering the fact that the understanding of listening materials is the interactional result of the listener’s language and schema knowledge, schema theory now is used widely in the research area of acquiring a second language. The paper aims to explore the applications of schema theory during the teaching of English listening from the perspectives of the schema theory, its effects on the teaching of English listening, the strategies guided by schema theory in listening teaching. By implementing a comparative study and analysizing its results, the author has finally come to a conclusion: The teaching model of English listening based on schema theory is more effective to improve students’ listening skills than the traditional teaching model; the background knowledge produces a great impact on the promotion of listening comprehension. Based on such findings pedagogical implications have been made in the hope of helping teachers and students to use schema theory to ameliorate the traditional teaching model and finally to apply the techniques and skills guided by schema theory to practical teaching and learning.
Key Words: schema theory; teaching of English listening; effects; experimental research; teaching model
中文摘要

鉴于听者对所听材料的理解是其语言知识和图式知识相互作用的结果，图式理论如今被广泛应用于第二语言教学研究中。本文试图从图式理论及其对英语听力教学的影响，图式理论支持的听力教学策略等方面来探讨图式理论对英语听力教学的启示。笔者通过进行对比实验以及分析实验数据，得出以下结论：以图式理论为基础的英语听力教学模式比传统的英语听力教学模式更能有效地提高学生听力理解能力；教授听力材料的背景知识对提高听力水平影响颇深。基于这些结论笔者对提高现有英语听力教学给出了相应建议，希望能够使得教育者与学习者有意识地利用图式理论来改变传统的教学模式，最终将在图式理论指导下的学习策略和方法运用于实际教学中。
关键词：图式理论；英语听力教学；影响；实验研究；教学模式

Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Listening is one of the critical language skills that are mostly used in our daily life. Students and teachers have become more aware of how effective listening functions in second language acquisition. However, the current teaching of English listening in China is not satisfying, since it is regarded as a static process and characterized by grammar–centeredness, which to a great extent has inhibited the development of students’ listening ability. It is very necessary to reform the inefficient teaching model and to explore useful listening instructions. After long-term studies, linguists have found that listening is an interactive process in which the listener could combine the new information with his previous knowledge and experience, in order to reach a full comprehension (Liu Yumei et Xiao Su, 2007). Therefore, studies on schema theory have gained great attention in the field of English teaching and have been evoked since then both in the foreign countries and in China. In this dissertation, the author has decided to associate schema theory with the teaching of English listening and to carry out a study in the hope of investigating the interaction between them.
1.2 Aim and Objectives
This dissertation aims to apply schema theory to the teaching of English listening and to prove the functions of schema theory by implementing a study. In general, the study has the following three objectives: (i) to study schema theory and its role in the teaching procedure, (ii) to explore the effects of schema theory on classroom listening teaching, and (iii) to present useful suggestions of transforming teaching models in the future teaching process.
1.3 Organization
The whole dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the research topic, the research background and the reasons and purposes of the study. Chapter Two is the detailed theoretical premises of schema theory from the perspectives of its concept, development and classification. Chapter Three is mainly about the interaction between schema theory and the listening teaching, including the analysis of three listening stages, three listening abilities and the effects of schema theory. Chapter Four is an elaboration of a comparative study which aims to prove how schema theory functions actively in the teaching of English listening. According to the analysis of the study in Chapter Four, Chapter Five focuses on the pedagogical suggestions, which can be divided into three categories in terms of students, teachers and teaching materials. The last chapter is about the conclusion where the research results are summarized.
Chapter Two Schema Theory

2.1 The Concept of Schema Theory
Schema theory has been one of the prevailing theories in the field of language teaching in the past twenty years. “Schema” refers to people’s general knowledge about the world, namely one’s “pre-existent knowledge” or “background knowledge”. The theory of how a reader or a listener utilizes his schematic knowledge to achieve efficient comprehension when reading or listening is called schema theory (Long, 1989). The application of schema theory in the teaching of listening by means of activating students’ previous schema stored in their brains or building new schema before listening will accelerate the construction of meaning and facilitate listening comprehension in the listening process.
Schema theory holds the view that listening comprehension is an active and dynamic process in which schematic knowledge plays an important role. Successful listening is achieved through interactive combination of listener’s existing schema and the incoming information of listening materials.
In addition, psychological experiments have proven that schema plays actively in listening comprehension and memory accumulation (Carroll, 1984). Firstly, schema presents a psychological framework for interpretation of information, namely, a positive state of understanding of new knowledge in the preparation, so that people can build a more specific schema by connecting it with the prior knowledge. Secondly, schema will help the distribution of attention. In the listening process, the brain is active on the one hand to process the prior information, and on the other hand to obtain new knowledge. If the brain is not guided by related schema for understanding the content, it is easy for learners to disperse the attention and to lose accurate memory. Finally, schema offers clues to interpretation, edition and summary. Listeners use the background knowledge and stylistic schema to make judgments and draw conclusions, in the purpose of speeding up and deepening their understanding. Because of their lack of relevant schema, listeners can not understand the listening text to a full and deep extent.
2.2 The Development of Schema Theory
Plato elaborated on the Greek doctrine of ideal types – such as the perfect circle that exists in the mind but which no one has ever seen. Immanuel Kant further developed the notion and introduced the word “schema”. For example, he described the “dog” schema: a mental pattern which “can delineate the figure of a four-footed animal in a general manner, without limitation to any single determinant factor as experience, or any possible image that I can represent in concerto”. Early developments of the idea in psychology emerged with the Gestalt psychologists and Piaget. In 1926, the term “schema” was used by Piaget in his theory of development, which deemed that “children adopt a series of schema to understand the world”. R. C. Anderson, a respected educational psychologist, also made contributions to develop schema theory. Schema theory was initially introduced into psychology and education through the work of the British psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett, with whose work the term came to be used in its modern sense. Further work on the concept of schema was conducted by Brewer and Treyens who demonstrated that the schema-driven expectation of the presence of an object was sometimes sufficient to trigger its erroneous recollection.
2.3 The Classification of Schema Theory
The schema that influence listening comprehension can be classified as three main types: language schema, content schema and form schema (Long, 1989).
2.3.1 Language Schema
Language schema refers to listeners’ prior knowledge of the language, which involved pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Without the knowledge of language, listeners will encounter obstacles in the listening comprehension. Language schema in foreign language listening functions more importantly than in the native language listening, because comprehension of a foreign language needs accurate decoding, which can not be obtained merely by experience.
2.3.2 Content Schema
Content schema is the content and the subject of the text, so it can also be called thematic schema. When listening to a fragment of a text, listeners usually predict its theme, which enables listeners to guess the general content of the text. To some extent, the theme of the text directly affects the level of comprehension of listening materials.
2.3.3 Form Schema
Form schema is equally important as the content schema. It refers to listeners’ knowledge in discourse and rhetoric. Understanding the schematic structure of the discourse helps listeners to grasp the main idea and to establish effective prediction and expectation. Taking “making reservation for a hotel room” for instance, learners will associate the theme to prior knowledge such as a hotel room, telephone, price, place, etc. The whole process of booking a hotel room normally involves several steps: opening, requirements, confirmation, closing. With the similar prediction guided by schema, listeners’ comprehension of materials will be greatly enhanced.

Chapter Three Schema Theory and Teaching of English Listening

In the history of language, people’s views on nature of listening have gone through many changes. They traditionally observe it as a passive process, in which the listener resembles a tape-recorder whose main task is simply memorizing what the speaker has said. Due to the studies of schema theory, listening is regarded as a process that deals with the new information by connecting it with the prior knowledge. Schema theory functions vitally in the teaching process of English listening. According to schema theory, the knowledge in our brain has been systemized to form a structure, in which all sorts of information are connected with each other. At the very beginning of absorbing new knowledge, people usually associate it with the relevant things through the active reflection of the brain, to activate the new schema which can improve understanding (Mendelsohn et Rubin, 1995). A successful listener is competent of combining the verbal system with the non-verbal system of knowledge, so as to get the most effective access to information.
3.1 Three Stages in the Procedure of Teaching Using Schema Theory
The procedure of listening teaching can be divided into three stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. Each of the three stages has its own features and functions in the listening process. In the first stage, teachers organize some warm-up activities such as the discussion of questions or key words, in order to help students to build the new schema and to activate the previous schema. In the second stage, teachers remind students to use some techniques and strategies to comprehend and to recall listening materials. In the third stage, teachers use some exercises of combining listening with speaking and writing to consolidate students’ impression of the given information (Rost, 2006). Therefore, exploring this type of teaching model correctly to emphasize the function of pre-existent knowledge in listening comprehension as well as the role of pre-listening and post-listening can improve the effect of listening teaching.
3.1.1 Warm-up in Pre-listening Stage
According to schema theory, schema has the function to predict in the process of listening by interacting the input information and the prior knowledge (Dong Guangzhi et Liu Lixin, 2003). Without enough preparation to activate the relevant schema, it is difficult for students to understand the content of listening materials. Therefore, warm-up activities serve to activate the schema in the minds of students as well as in the content of listening materials and to help students to build the new schema.
The construction of schema in a listener’ mind is the key to understand listening materials. The narrower scope of knowledge the listener owns, the harder he builds the new schema. Teachers should provide substantial guidance to students to activate the relevant schema according to specific listening materials. In the way, students should not only have a good command of language but also understand the differences between cultures, particularly between that of China and English-speaking countries, so as to gradually enrich and expand their schema.
In the pre-listening stage, teachers can guide students to preview materials, such as difficult words, special sentences, customary expressions and grammatical knowledge to help them develop a new relevant schema. Another good way to build and to activate the new schema is to provide related pictures and video, i.e. the background information of listening materials, which usually comes from supplementary materials and diversified exercises such as dictation, multiple choice, true or false (Mo Yunguo, 2002). In addition, a number of teaching activities can be organized to enable students to enrich their knowledge. For example, certain scenes can be set to make students use the new vocabulary and grammar, as well as discussions, debates and dialogues, which are very helpful for students to grasp the key element in the listening process.
3.1.2 Comprehension in While-listening Stage
In the while-listening stage of listening comprehension, listeners use both bottom-up and top-down processes to comprehend. Knowing the context of a listening text and the purpose for listening greatly reduces the burden of comprehension. At this stage, it is of great importance for students to bring the initiative into full play. Successful comprehension involves the following three main types of schema.
(i) Language Schema
Linguistic schema is the knowledge about linguistics, such as vocabulary, grammar and linguistic rules, without which will lead to misunderstandings. In the actual interaction in English, a good understanding depends on the prior linguistic knowledge, the certain content, the familiarity between the speaker and the listener and so on, instead of the understanding of each word. For example, if the listener is familiar with the phrase “a fish out of water”, he will correctly understand the purpose of the speaker and won’t interpret the phrase from its literal meaning.
(ii) Content Schema
Content schema plays a predominant role in the listening process, since it determines the content in which the language is used. For example:
M: Good morning, Mrs. White, what can I do for you?
W: Could you please look over my watch? It sometimes gains and sometimes loses.
Q: What did the woman want to have done?
A. To sell her watch.