3.1.2 The Nature and Process of Reading 5

3.1.3 Reading Models 6

3.2 Schema Theory 7

3.2.1 Definition of Schema 7

3.2.2 Types of Schema 8

4. Research Methodology 10

4.1 Research Questions 10

4.2 Research Design 10

4.2.1 Subjects 10

4.2.2 Instruments 10

4.2.3 Procedures 11

4.2.3.1 The Teaching Treatment for Control Class 11

4.2.3.2 The Teaching Treatment for Experimental Class 12

5. Results and Discussion 16

5.1 Data Analysis 16

5.2 Discussion 17

5.2.1 Main Findings 17

5.2.2 Conclusions 18

6. Reflection 19

6.1 Limitations 19

6.2 Further Research 19

AppendixⅠ： 20

Reference 21

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the Research

    With the development of the whole society, since communication between countries has become increasingly frequent in recent years, to master a foreign language well is necessary in modern times, especially English. Owing to the fact that English is an international language as well as China and the US established diplomatic relations since 1972, China began to pay more attention to the teaching of English language. Nowadays, mastering a foreign language requires various skills, one of the most important one is how to improve reading skills. Reading is considered to be a receptive language process. It is a psychological process in which the reader decodes the message conveyed by the writer with the help of his former knowledge. English reading is widely seen as an important skill, which will definitely have a great impact on other skills, such as listening, speaking and writing. However, the traditional reading-teaching in most reading class of junior high school, focusing on the process of helping students analyze words and sentences, has been proved to be inefficient and less effective. Applying the method mentioned above comes to the consequences that students tend to have very poor reading ability with narrow scope of knowledge, the insufficient vocabulary, slow reading speed, inappropriate reading strategies together with bad reading habits. 

    The schema theory, a kind of reading theory popular recently, has found out that background and prior knowledge of students can help them reconstruct their understanding of the text. By using the schema theory, teachers are able to activate the students’ background knowledge and help them analyze the text. Till now, many studies have shown that the importance of schema theory, but its relevant study of its application in junior high school English classroom is still lacking.

1.2 Significance of the Study

    In China, according to the current Middle School English Curriculum Standards, the aim of teaching reading is “to train students to read more efficiently and to develop students’ appropriate habit and strong interest in reading”. And both teachers and students have realized the importance of reading abilities in English teaching. However, teachers are accustomed to explain the text words by words, sentence by sentence, analyzing the whole structures. Therefore, looking up the new words occupies most of students’ time, and students are more likely to focus on the single language points but forget to understand the whole content and culture meaning of the texts. Obviously, it will lead to the failure of students’ reading comprehension. From the above, students’ low reading ability largely comes from the traditional teaching method.