Schema Theory and Its Application to Second Language Reading

本研究的主要发现如下：1）背景知识和语言知识的相互作用在阅读理解中起着至关重要的作用：2）缺乏适当的文化图式影响了阅读; 3）好的读者在阅读时会对图式进行重大修改。通过给大学生和高中生阅读文章，并在文章中提示以下内容，研究了背景知识和语言知识的交互使用过程背景知识和语言知识。背景知识以图片和短文摘要的形式给出。通过简化句子的语法和给出词汇的含义来提供语言知识。大学生认为摘要和词汇提示对阅读有帮助，而高中生认为图片和语法提示对阅读有帮助。2）在文化图式实验中，研究发现，对阅读文章缺乏适当的文化知识，不仅会影响阅读能力差的读者的理解，甚至会影响阅读能力好的读者的理解。对好的读者在阅读过程中所做的研究发现，他们从阅读的一开始就开始猜测文本的背景，并不断地修改图式。虽然在研究之初，我们的目的是将图式理论应用于听力理解、口语和写作，但在研究过程中，我们意识到阅读是图式理论的一个重要领域，因此我们决定将研究重点放在阅读理解上。我们在附页的小册子中主要介绍了阅读理解的研究结果，但我们计划在未来继续研究其他技能领域。

The major findings of the present research are as follows : 1) interaction of background and linguistic knowledge plays an essential role in reading comprehension : 2) the absence of appropriate cultural schema affects reading ; 3) good readers make major changes to the schema while reading.1) The process of interactive use of background and linguistic knowledge was examined by giving college and high school students reading passages with hints on background knowledge and linguistic knowledge. The background knowledge was given in the form of pictures and summaries of the passages. Linguistic knowledge was provided by simplifying the grammar of the sentences and by giving the meaning of vocabulary words. The college students found the summary and vocabulary hints helpful, while the high school students found the picture and grammar hints helpful in reading.2) In the experiment on cultural schema, the absence of appropriate cultural knowledge specific to the reading passage was found to affect not only the comprehension of poor readers but even that of good readers.3) The study of what good readers do while reading found that they start guessing the background of the text from the very beginning of the reading process, and constantly modify the schema. It is notable that they make major changes to the schema, too.Although at the beginning of this study, we aimed at applying our research of schema theory, to listening comprehension, speaking and writing as well, in the process of our research we decided to focus on reading comprehension because we realized that reading was an important area when schema theory is concerned. We have presented the result of our study mainly on reading comprehension in the attaeched booklet, but we are planning to pursue other skill areas also in the future.