The traditional view is that listening comprehension is a process to input information from low to high, from small to large. In other words, our brain recognizes and decodes inpidual phoneme or vocabularies, and then, it combines these phonetic units to larger ones like phases, sentences and paragraphs, which completes sense-making of the whole discourse. On this view, the process of listening is that listeners receive phonetic symbol passively and literally. However, this view has its limitation. Virtually, authentic and natural listening comprehension is a process where the listener listens actively, and utilizes prior knowledge to select to explain specific input information. Thus, the listener’s prior experience and common sense count a lot on the rapidness and accuracy listening comprehension.
Schema theory is aimed at explaining cognitive psychological process, formed in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the application is extend to language teaching from the psychological area. It becomes a theory directing reading teaching and effects well. It is found that listening comprehension is the same as reading comprehension. They both are the interaction between the content and readers’ or listeners’ prior background knowledge and memory schemata. In the last decades, plenty of researches emerge about applying schema theory to English listening teaching.
A lot of researches are focus on the effect of a teaching mode on students’ listening ability, in a long period. However, researches about to what extent one listening teaching class can make a difference are unsustainable. Besides, students’ attitude towards the listening teaching from mental degree is studied less. Based on this point and existing document researches, the paper set to study. The study will combine theory and practice, and try to create efficient English listening class.
2. Literature Review
In order to create an efficient listening teaching mode, which is applied with schema theory, the principle of schema theory and listening comprehension are required to state logically. The author makes a review of previous literature.
2.1 Schema Theory
2.1.1 The Concept of Schema
The concept of schema was raised by Kant, a German philosopher and psychologist, in 1781. In Kantian philosophy, a transcendental schema is the procedural rule by which a category or pure, non-empirical concept is associated with a sense impression. In 1932, schema was initially introduced into psychology and education through the work of the British psychologist Bartlett. Bartlett thought that many recalls were not accurate, but involved the substitution of unfamiliar information with something more familiar. They also contain many inferences that exceeded the information given in the text. Bartlett proposed that people have schemata, or unconscious mental structures, which represents an inpidual's general knowledge about the world, in order to explain these findings. It is through schema that old knowledge influences new information. An important step in the development of schema theory was taken by the work of D.E. Rumelhart describing our understanding of narrative and stories, who demonstrated that the schema-driven expectation of the presence of an object was sometimes sufficient to trigger its erroneous recollection . According to Cook, schema is pre-existent knowledge, or background knowledge. Pearson thought that schema is the image emerged in people’s mind, when they get certain information by listening or reading. The descriptions of schema differ a lot among different scholars, while the essential comprehension is the similar. In conclusion, schema is a kind of mind storing, where a person put all of knowledge he’s got before.
2.1.2 The Types of Schema
Schema can be pided into three types: linguistic schema, content schema and formal schema.
Linguistic schema means that language knowledge and skill possessed by a learner. Certain language proficiency is the premise of comprehension. In the same situation, the higher a learner’s language proficiency is, the better and the faster the learner can comprehend. Thus, accumulation of language knowledge and enhance of language skill is the key of improving the ability of listening comprehension. 图式理论在初中英语听力教学中的应用(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_48536.html