The Application of Schema Theory to English Listening Teaching in Junior Middle School Abstract Schema theory has been one of the prevailing theories in foreign language teaching in the past twenty years. Schema is one’s generic knowledge about the world, namely a person’s “background knowledge” or “pre-existent knowledge”. The theory of how a reader or a listener uses his schematic knowledge to language comprehension when reading or listening is called schema theory.46754
On the basis of previous researches, the paper discusses the application of schema theory in the teaching of listening in detail. Listening class of three-stage model (pre-listening, while-listening and pot-listening) is described in detail. In the re-listening stage, the teacher lead students to do some warm-up activities like discussion about the listening topic with leading out key words, in order to help students build up the new schemata or activate the previous schemata. In the while-listening stage, the teacher helps students to apply some strategies while listening so that they can comprehend and recall better. In post-reading stage, what students have listened is consolidated by some exercises f combining listening with speaking and writing. They are asked to retell the listening content. The most outstanding features of this model are that it emphasizes the function of pre-existent knowledge in listening comprehension. Thus, it improves the effect of listening teaching.
In order to verify the effect of “three-stage model”, a control experiment and questionnaires are conducted. The subjects are 60 students from Hangzhou No.15 Junior Middle School. The “three-stage model” was used in the control class during experiment. After the experiment, the control class will be given questionnaires. Their sores of listening test will be analyzed by SPSS statistical package. The study confirms the positive effects of the class of three-stage model with schema theory on students’ listening comprehension.
The paper consists of six chapters. Chapter one is the introduction to the purposes and the significance of this paper. Chapter two is a brief review of literature. In chapter three the writer explores in detail how the “three-stage model” of teaching listening is applied and put forward the hypothesis. Chapter four describes the methods of a small-scale experiment and questionnaires. Chapter five records the results and Chapter six discusses about them. Then come conclusion and limitation in Chapter seven.
Keywords: schema; schema theory; listening comprehension; English listening teaching
摘 要图式理论是近二十年来在语言教学领域盛行的理论。图式指的是人们头脑中对世界的一般知识，也叫做“先存知识”或者“背景知识”。图式理论是关于读者或听者如何在读或听的过程中如何运用图式知识。
本文在已有文献研究的基础上，详细论述了图式理论在初中英语听力教学中的具体英语。其中详细叙述了三段式（听前，听时，听后）英语听力教学课堂的设计与实施。在听前阶段，为了帮助学生建立新的图式或激活已有图式，老师带领学生做一些热身活动，比如展开关于听力话题的讨论，其中会导入一些关键词汇；听时阶段，老师帮助学生在听力过程中运用一些听力技巧，以便于他们能更好地理解和回忆；在听后阶段，学生所听内容会以读写的形式来做总结，他们往往被要求复述听力内容。三段式听力教学最突出的特点就是其充分肯定了先验知识在听力理解中的功能。因此，三段式听力教学有效促进了听力教学的效果。
为了验证该听力教学模式的积极意义，本文开展了一次对照实验和问卷调查。被试者是来自杭州第十五中学的八十位初中生。三段式听力教学通过一组对照实验展开。试验后，实验组的学生被问卷调查。SPSS分析了两个班的听力分数。实验得出结论：基于图式理论的三段式听力教学模式对初中生英语听力理解有积极作用。 图式理论在初中英语听力教学中的应用:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_48536.html