張 潔

（伊犁師范學(xué)院外語系，新疆 伊寧835000）

Listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life.Estimate that we listen twice as much as we speak,four times as much as we read,and five times as much as we write.(Cele-Murcia,1995).In second language learning,listening has also been considered as a very important part of English language teaching.However,listening course is not regard as important as other courses,like intensive reading or extensive reading until recent College English reform.Although many researches advocate for more attention for listening comprehension,it continues to be underrated in many teaching practices.

Undoubtedly,an effective teaching method must be explored to improve the current situation of college English listening teaching.As a hot topic in cognitive linguistics,schema theory has tremendous implication in English language teaching,especially on readings,which has brought about rich outcomes.This paper aims to explore an effective teaching method under the guidance of schema theory to improve the students’listening comprehension.

1 literature review

1.1 definition of schema

A schema is the knowledge stored in memory that plays an important part in the interpretation of new information.Bartlett defines schema,in his book Remembering (1932),as“an active organization of past reactions or past experiences”and schemata as “structures of information which exist in our memories” (Bartlett,1932：20).Its basic claim is that a new experience is understood by comparison with a stereotypical version of a similar experience held in memory.The new experience is then processed in terms of its deviation from the stereotypical version.

In other words,a schema is a way how knowledge is represented,or simply means one’s own existing knowledge and experiences.New concepts and ideas can be understood only when they are related to the learner’s prior knowledge.

1.2 Schema Theory

Schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help us make sense of new experiences.Carrell and Eisterhold define schema theory as a theory concerning the function of background information in language comprehension (Carrell&Eisterhold,1983).The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as schema theory (Bartlett,1932;Rumelhart,1980).According to schema theory,language comprehension depends largely on learners'background knowledge because any text does not by itself carry meaning;instead it only provides directions for learners as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning from their own previously acquired knowledge(Rumelhart,1980).

According to James (1892),Schemata or prior knowledge structure can be basically categorized into three types：linguistic schemata(language knowledge),formal schemata (rhetoric knowledge)and content schemata(topic knowledge).

Linguistic schema is the prior linguistic knowledge of listener’s.It contains language information in the materials.Generally speaking,linguistic schema is the knowledge of language about sound,vocabulary,phrase,sentence structure,grammar,etc.Formal schema,also known as textual schema,contains information on how rhetoric is or ought to be organized.In other words,it is the knowledge of the how the different genres are presented.In contrast with linguistic and formal schema,content schema contains general or specific information on a given topic,which means that it is the background knowledge of the topic and relevant social-cultural knowledge.

2 Functions of Schema Theory in Listening Com prehension Process

2.1 Expectation

One of the most important functions of schema is to expect and predict future events.Since schema is the way of knowledge storage that is abstract from concrete events,and it reflects the main frame and general structure of certain kind of event which have generality and representatives.If the listeners know something in advance likes the possible topic or related characters,relevant schema are activated in their minds,which stimulates them make prediction on the incoming information.

2.2 Inference

Another function of schema plays in listening comprehension is to fill in the information gap.Sometimes the listening materials may skip some self-evidenced detailed information,or may appear some new words that make the meaning of certain part incoherent.Listeners can bridge,or infer connections between things explicit in the text through activating the relevant schema that bear in their minds.

2.3 Memory

Schema can influence the process of memory.According to the schema,the new information that the listeners received will be matched with the schema,and the information related to the schema will be stored in long-term memory.When the topic of the listening materials coordinate with the schema bearing in listeners’mind,listeners can understand the structure of the materials much easier and can predict the incoming information.

3 The Application of Schema Theory in College English Listening Teaching

According to schemata theory,listen processing is neither exclusively top down nor exclusively bottom up;it is the process of interactive.A person arrives at the understanding of a text by simultaneously synthesizing information from both external and internal,which include word-level knowledge,syntactic knowledge,and various sorts of world knowledge he or she has internalized.Top-down and bottom-up processing operate simultaneously.This interactive model have now dominated teaching and strongly influenced teaching practice.This paper tires to apply the schema theory in college English teaching based on this model.

Generally speaking,the sequence of college English listening teaching are Pre-listening,While-listening,and Post-listening.The schema theory can be applied in each stage,especially the pre-listening stage which is a vital period for the activation of schemata.

3.1 Pre-listening stage

Pre-listening is the preparation stage for while-listening which involves a kind of preparatory work to make the context explicit,clarify purposes and establish roles,procedures and goals for listening.Carrel(1983)points out the pre-listening activities should accomplish two goals：building new background knowledge as well as activating existing background knowledge.In others words,that is to activate schema.

1)Activating Schema

The activation of schema in pre-listening stage plays a directing role in comprehension,which assists listeners to fix listening direction and present relevant knowledge so as to restrict listening into a less amount.It can also make listeners relax and build up more confidence.The following ways can be applied to activate the schema.

Introduction of key words and expressions are necessary in prelistening stage.Many students believe words and expressions are the first and most barriers in listening comprehension,once the linguistic schema is well activated in their minds,they may wipe out certain anxiety during listening practice.And key words and expressions have close relation with the topic of the text;they can help the listeners to activate the relevant schema stored in their mind.Therefore,the teacher can select some key words consciously before listening.

In addition,brainstorming is also a good way to activate schema in preparing stage.During brainstorming students will list all kinds of information related to the topic or context,and it can active all the prior knowledge stored ahead in students’long-term memory.

Let’s take the Listening in task1：Weather Forecasting in New Horizon College English Book1 for example.Teacher can establish a word-net which are associated with the topic,like the words：rainbow,vapor,snowy,foggy,twinkle etc.before listening.According to these words which are the main words in the passage,the students can predict the purpose of the listening is to tell the weather changes based on some natural phenomenon.This prediction can also activate students’person experience about weather forecasting based on their eyes and brains.Moreover various related information can be predicated through the brainstorm about the weather forecasting,like seeing a rainbow in rainy day in the evening,this is a sign that the weather will soon be clear or appearing fog in the morning indicate the day will be warm.The activated schema about weather will help student understand the task easier.

2）Cultivating Predicting Ability

It has been widely recognized that listeners are not passive in their listening.Instead,they are active mental builders,and always ready to draw inferences and make predictions with the help of their internal resources.The prediction can not only increase comprehension but also increase motivation.Teachers should assist students to predict what they will listen to by various ways,for instance,predicting content from title and given words or reading through comprehension questions in advance.There are questions chain schema in the listening task needed to be predicated,that is,who-when-when-what-why-how.More specifically the questions include the following ones：what is the passage mainly about?When?Where?Who is the speaker?What happened?What is the result?How does the speaker feel about?Students can speculate listening to what might be involved subjects and its contents by reading the options.

Take one of short dialogs in the basic listening practice in New Horizon College English Book3 Unit6 for example,the four options are：A)The man dislikes them while the woman sympathizes with them.B）The woman dislikes them while the man sympathizes with them.C)Both the man and the woman dislike them.D)Both the man and the woman sympathize with them.By reading the options,students can get a clear picture that the dialog should be a conversation between a man and a woman and they would show their attitudes toward certain thing.Therefore the attitude schema will be activated before listen to this dialogs,namely the attitude of hate,love,sympathy,indifference etc.

3.2 While-listening Stage

While-listening stage is the main part of the training of English listening skills.During this stage,students should receive the information and analyzing and decoding it correctly at given time.An effective listener should constantly check their understanding of message by making predictions,confirming predictions,making inferences,evaluating and reflecting until they make final decision.In order to improve the listening skills and efficiency,there are several things students can be trains to do：jot down key words or key phrases,or wonder what motivates the speaker has in saying it,or predict information expected to be included in the message,or decide whether the ongoing interpretation is consistent with their predictions,or summarize frequently in their minds what has been said,or identify the main points and the speaker’s organization pattern.In all of these above-mentioned activities,schema can be recalled to help enormously.

The proper on-line activated context schema will be helpful in this stage.Take the passage about job interview in New Horizon College English Book3 Unit4 for example;the listen task will be clearer as soon as the student grasp the topic sentence： “Here are some samples of questions and some advice on how to handle them properly”and the key words and phrases,like：“Why should we choose you?” “What are you weaknesses?”or “What are you strengths?”All the questions prompt students establish the schema of job interview immediately.

3.3 Post-listening Stage

Post-listening activities help reinforce students’understanding and help them store their new information concerned into long-term memory,which in turn function as existing knowledge,and enable them to achieve better comprehension of listening next time.In this stage,teacher can organize some tasks in speaking or writing forms to review what we have listened,like story-retelling,role-play,discussion or debate.However,time of the post-listening activities should be controlled and cannot take up much time of the whole class.During this stage the related schema can be revised and reinforced.Take the interview task again;the teacher can develop the listen task into the role-play by asking students to play as the interviewees or employers.Personalization is a good way to reinforce the schema.Meanwhile the speaking skill can be developed in the post-listening stage.

4 Conclusions

Listening comprehension is one of the most elementary procedures in language teaching,especially in the teaching of second language.In China,English listening has been neglected and bas long been the headache for many college students and many of them are demotivated in listening class.That is due to the wrong assumption that listening is a passive skill and the traditional teaching methods.Schema theory has many implications for the teaching of listening. Therefore,it is possible and feasible to apply schema theory as methodological guidance to the teaching of college English listening.Although schema theory contributes greatly to listening comprehension,it is still imperfect,for example,comprehension and inference may be misguided by schema.Therefore,much broader research in this area needs to be further studied.

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