Application Of Schema Theory

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

The study attempts to find a new efficient way for the English writing teaching to improve the junior middle school students’ English writing, and to activate students’ interests in the English writing at the same time. The author has carried out an empirical study by applying the schema theory into the junior middle school students’ English writing teaching. The study mainly deals with the following two research questions: 1. If the schema theory is suitable for the English writing teaching in junior middle school and if schema theory can improve students’ English writing? 2. After the schematic writing training, what kinds of schemata can have a more significant development?

The author has adopted both of the qualitative and quantitative research methods in this study. Before the experiment, the author has conducted a questionnaire investigation among the 80 students of the two classes. The purpose of the investigation is to know the situation and the problems of the students’ English writing learning, so that the author can arrange proper teaching methods in the experiment, and help students achieve more significant improvement. Then, the author has conducted a pre-test and a pro-test for both of the classes. And finally, all the data is collected and analyzed with the SPSS software. The analytic methods include Independent Sample T-test and Paired Sample T-test. After the experiment, the author also conducted an individual interview with 10 students from the controlled group.

From the analyses of the data collected and the summary of the interview, the author obtains some significant findings:

(1) It shows the schema theory does have a positive and significant effect on improving students’ English writing.

(2) It is much easier to improve students’ formal schema through the schematic teaching approach. But it is relatively less significant on the development of content.

Key words: schema theory, schema activation, English writing teaching, junior School Students

中文摘要

本文旨在探索提高初中学生英语写作教学效率的新方法，以提高初中生的英语写作水平，并同时激发学生的写作兴趣。作者把图式理论应用于初中学生的英语写作教学中进行了实证性研究。主要探讨研究以下两个问题：1. 图式理论是否适用于初中生英语写作教学，能否提高初中学生的英语写作水平。2. 通过图式的写作教学训练后，学生的哪些图式知识更容易得到显著的提高。

在本研究中，作者同时使用了定性和定量的研究分析方法。首先，作者采用了问卷调查的形式，对两个班级80名学生进行了调查，调查的目的是了解初中学生的英语写作现状及问题，以便在实验中设计恰当的教学方法，以达到更好的教学效果。其次，作者分别为实验组和控制组两个班级进行了前测和后测。在获得实验数据后，使用SPSS数据统计分析软件对这些数据进行了分析。处理分析的方法包括独立样本T检验和匹配样本T检验。实验结束后，作者还抽取了实验组的10名学生进行个别访谈。

通过对实验结果的处理和分析，以及对个别访谈的总结，作者得出以下几点发现：

（1）实验证明，图式理论对提高初中学生的英语写作水平确实有明显积极的作用。

（2）图式理论能够更有效地提高初中学生的形式图式，但对内容图式和语言图式的提高并不太明显。

关键词：图式理论 图式激活 英语写作教学 初中生

Chapter I Introduction

1.1 Purpose of This Study

According to the new English Curriculum Standard of Compulsory Education, it’s one of the main tasks of training the students’ ability of writing with different common literary styles. And in the senior high school entrance examination, English writing is also one of the important parts.

However, we have to admit that English as Foreign Language (EFL) writing teaching is ignored in lots of junior middle schools most of the time. Teachers find difficult in teaching English writing, while students find difficult in learning how to wring in English. Lots of students have difficulties in writing. Having difficulty in writing compositions, students often feel worried and some even lose heart in writing, which affects the quality of English writing teaching.

Lots of Students express that they have difficulties in EFL writing, and these difficulties are mainly in three aspects. First of all, it’s their poor vocabulary. Second, lots of students don’t know how to use correct structure, content and lexical words in different literary style. They don’t know how and what to begin with. Third, they can’t think in English people’s logic so that they mostly write by translating Chinese into English. (Cai Huiping, Fang yan, 2006)

1.2 Significance of This Study

The current English Curriculum Standard of Compulsory Education clearly states that writing should be one of the integrated English ability. English writing is one of the essential factors for successful English learning. Writing is a good way as the feedback of English learning, which can hardly be replaced by other ways. Writing should run through the whole English learning process. However, in the current English teaching classes, especially in junior middle schools, there are very few English writing drillings or English writing lessons for the students. This is why English writing became the shortage of most students.

In fact, English writing is a hard work for most of the students. One of the most important reasons why students find hard in writing is that they are lack of practice and strategy of English writing. During the learning procedure, the teacher used to pay attention to the repeat drillings of the language structure but not the cultivation of language competence, while the students would like to remember things such as vocabulary. Students believe remembering words can improve their English (Hu Xiaomei). It is a great pity that lots of teachers don't know how to teach EFL writing, let alone using schemata theory.

In the EFL teaching, schema teaching is an effective way of improving students’ writing ability. However, even until now, schemata theory cannot exert its instructive effects in the EFL teaching.

Lots of teachers teach EFL writing just only by showing a sample article, and then students imitate the structures. Then students practice writing. In this way, students often feel bored and lack of interest in learning EFL writing. Some students commonly feel "I have nothing to write." Or "I want to write, but I don't know how to express myself." And teachers often feel that students get little improvement in writing though lots of works have been done.

As what we can see from the above, teachers and students have done lots of hard work in order to improve students’ writing ability. English writing can be difficult and consuming time for lots of students. However, if they have the right tools, writing can also be an easy job. And schema theory is one of the good tools for them.

The introduction of schema theory into writing research was a notable advance. Some researchers have been trying to use the schema theory to deal with EFL writers’ problem for years. For example, Li Chunlan has found that the application of schema theory can enhance college students’ interests in the English writing through her empirical study.

Chapter II Literature Review

2.1 Theoretical background

Schema (plural schemata) was first put forward as a philosopher conception in the works of the famous German philosopher Immannel Kant (1781). However, Kant used schema as a philosophic term instead of a pedagogic one. Since that time, many other terms have been used as well, including "frame", "scene", "scenario", "script", "model" and even "theory". The concept of schema or schemata was firstly used as a psychological term by lots of psychologists. The English psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932) was one of representatives. Bartlett studied and applied Schemata Theory at the earliest stages. He believes that schemata are abstract hypothetical structures that incorporate general knowledge into a systematically organizational framework.

However, during the 1920s to the 1960s, Bartlett’s description of schema was too vague to be applied into any testable researches or studies. Few people have paid much attention to his researches (Carrel, 1983).

The heyday of schema theory was probably in the 1970s. One of the main engines was artificial intelligence, which was engaged in getting computers to read natural text. From then on, Schema theory had also extended to some other fields. Schema theory has got some key theoretical developments in several fields, including linguistics, anthropology, psychology and artificial intelligence (Carrel, 1983).

Some researchers believed that Schema theory was a framework for the mental representation of our knowledge. Rumelhart (1980) called the schemata as the "building blocks of cognition", because they represent elaborate networks of information that people use to make sense of the new stimuli, events and situations. The "building blocks of cognition" were used in the process of understanding the information that we perceived. Rumelhart believed that schema was a significant notion in understanding the knowledge structure of our brains. Things that exist in our mind forms schemata hierarchies, and this prior knowledge is activated when we encounter new information. This is an essential point in understanding how schema theory works, and this fact has been investigated in the cognitive science field for decades.

It is a significant notion in understanding the knowledge structure of our brains. Cognitive scientists use schema to describe how people organize and store information in their memory. R. C. Anderson has also developed the schema theory. He views schema as an elaborate network of abstract mental structures represents one’s understanding of the world.

Piaget (2005) pointed out that the new knowledge is a linear accrual process in which more information is attached to the existing information in our brain. The individual also has schemata, and as new information become available, the individual usually modifies them to fit the new information into his or her schemata of that concept or idea. According to Cook (1992), schema consists of a set of expectations about how the world is organized; these expectations are applied to various stimuli. When people learn, they build their knowledge. People can either restructure new schemata or link their pre-existing schemata together in new ways. When there is new information, the brain will either set up a new directory, or send the new information into the directory of existing background knowledge. That is to say, schema is a kind of knowledge structure stored in mind, and it plays a crucial role in language intake and use.

The schema theory believes that people do not observe our globe straightly, but via a perceptual framework. And the psychological schema is the perceptual framework. People use it to make sense of the globe around them. For example, everybody has his own personal schema, and when he tries to perceive the globe around him, he usually attempts to fit the information into his existed schema. People get the meaning of what they perceived through the perceptual framework and the context. And we have to notice that people might get the different meaning of what they perceived, as the previous schema might affect their perception. For example, if there are some differences in two people’s previous schema, it will be easy to misunderstand each other. When a person says "I like riding", he might refer to horse, but another person may think he is saying he likes bicycle! (Landry, 2002). Therefore, schema theory is very important in many areas, such as communication and learning.

From the above examples, we may find that there are various effective ways of defining schema. According to Rumelhart (1980), a schema is a data structure for representing generic concepts in memory. Anderson and Pearson state that a schema is structured in the sense that it represents the relationships among its component parts (Anderson & Pearson, 1984). Widdowson (1983) says schema is a technical word used by cognitive proponents to describe how a person processes, arranges and stores information in his brain. Schemata concerns of how we organize information to long-term memory. This theory is grounded on the belief that every act of understanding includes of one's Knowledge of the world (AL-Issa, 2006). Although the definitions of schema are various, schema is generally described as skeleton knowledge structures that can be instantiated with particular details. We might bring to a close that schema is the pre-existing knowledge gained through experiences stored in one’s mind. It is an abstract structure of knowledge.

According to modern schema theory, schemata can be categorized into three types: content schemata, linguistic schemata and formal schemata.

Content Schemata

Content schemata refer to the background knowledge of the content area of a text, or the subject a text talks about such as knowledge about people, the world, culture, and the universe (Carrell, 1988; Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983). On other words, Content schemata refer to the familiarity of the subject matter of the text. They include every day knowledge, cultural knowledge and domain-specific knowledge. For example, the knowledge about driving a car, the history of China, the Mid-Autumn Day in China, the English subject and so on. Content schema is an element of the individual’s cultural orientation, and while culture influences all aspects of life, it undoubtedly has a major impact on all components of learning process (Al-Issa, 2006). Anderson et al (1977) have defined three functions of the content schemata. First of all, content schemata provide the basis for filling the gaps in a text: no message is ever totally explicit and schema permits a coherent interpretation through inferential elaboration. Second, schemata include the individual’s interpretation of ambiguous message. Third, content schemata are constructed on the correspondence between the things known (the existed schemata) and the given message.

Linguistic schemata

Linguistic schemata refer to learners’ prior linguistic knowledge and linguistic competence. In other words, linguistic schemata refer to the knowledge of a language about phonetics, vocabulary and grammar etc. Linguistic schemata are the foundation of commanding content schemata and formal schemata. Without linguistic schemata, one would not able to activate relating content schemata and formal schemata according to the given information, let alone language output (speaking and writing). If a second language learner wants to activate his relating schemata, he has to have certain language competence (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983). Therefore, it is understandable that we have placed much emphasis on linguistic knowledge in our traditional English writing teaching. However, the unduly neglect of the other two types of schemata (content schemata and formal schemata) usually undermine our writing. Language proficiency is one of the main indicators of linguistic schemata.

Formal schemata

Formal schemata refer to "background knowledge of the formal, rhetorical organization structures of different texts" (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983). In other words, formal schemata are "background knowledge about differences among rhetorical structures, such as differences in genre, differences in the structure of fables, simple stories, scientific texts, newspaper articles, poetry, and so forth" (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1988). There are also other terms for formal schema, such as rhetorical structure, discourse structure, macro-structure and genre schema.

Compared with the other two schemata, the formal schemata offer less power in the reading procedure (Carrell, 1984). However, formal schemata are a learner’s indispensable knowledge of the macro-structure or framework of a text. If a student is familiar with different genres and formats of different writings, it would be very easy for him to activate certain formal schema stored in his brain according to given information. He is likely to make a right judgment of the language style and structure of the composition he is required to write. Thus, the development of the formal schemata can improve the automaticity of his writing significantly. Therefore, in the process of writing, the existence of relevant formal schemata can facilitate text planning, and in contrast, the absence of relevant formal schemata may result in a mass of words and expressions signifying nothing.

2.2 Previous Researches at home and abroad

2.2.1 Previous Research abroad

Immannel Kant is the first person who mentioned the term schema in his works. The development of schema theory has witnessed its contribution from a group of scholars. They are Piaget, Bartlett, Rumelhart and Ausubel.

Jean Piaget introduced the word schema into psychological areas. On his research about intellectual potential develops, Piaget first used this term. A child is born with a few highly organized reflexes such as sucking, looking, reaching and grasping. Rather than discussing individual occurrence of any one of these reflexes, Piaget chose to talk about the general potential to do such thing. The potential to act in a certain way was labeled as schema. Schema was an extremely important term in Piaget’s theory. A schema can be thought of as an element in the organism’s cognitive structure. The schemata available to an organism will determine how it can respond to the physical environment.

In the book Memory, Bartlett described the fascinating studies of memory and presented the theory of schema which informs much of cognitive science and psychology today. According to Bartlett (1932), the term "schema" refers to "an active organization of past reactions, or past experience." But Bartlett was vague about just how schemata work.

In the 1970s, the schema construct was reintroduced into psychology though the work of the computer scientist Marvin Minsky. Minsky was attempting to develop machines that would display human-like abilities. In the course of trying to solve these difficult problems, he came across Bartlett's work.

Minsky’s work in computer science had a strong and immediate impact on psychology and education. In 1980, Rumelhart elaborated on Minsky’s ideas and turned them into an explicitly psychological theory of the mental representation of complex knowledge. He defined a schema as "a data structure for representing the generic concepts stored in memory" (Rumelhart, 1980). And he also stated that "there are schemata representing our knowledge about all concepts: those underlying objects, situations, events, sequences of events, actions and sequences of actions."

Ausubel was influenced by the teachings of Jean Piaget. Similar to Piaget’s ideas of conceptual schemes, Ausubel related his studies to the explanation of how people acquire knowledge. He believed in the idea of meaningful learning as opposed to rote memorization. However, Ausuble’s meaningful learning cannot be explained without prior knowledge. In this aspect, meaningful learning is similar to schema theory and the anchoring idea can compare with schema.

Current research, such as the study of student problem solving in familiar and unfamiliar context by Price and Driscoll (1997), suggest that Schema Theory is a valid metaphor for explaining students’ knowledge structure and ability to recall information.

Price and Driscoll (1997) found that at the beginning of their study, 10.5% of subjects could solve a particular type of problem (a selection problem) in an unfamiliar context. However, 57.3% of those involved in the study could solve a very similar problem in a familiar context. The researchers then conducted three different treatments designed to help learners construct a function "problem solving" schema for solving selection problems regardless of context. The effect of these treatments was not significant, leading the authors to conclude that schemata exist but they do not powerfully influence problem solving (Price and Driscroll, 1997).

Cook (1992) examines the relevance of schema theory to literary theory in his book Discourse. He claims that schema theory suggests people understand texts and experience by comparing them with stereotypical mental representations of similar cases. The new experience is then processed in terms of its deviation from that structure or its conformity to it. Cook (1992) implies that we are not dealing with processes consciously, but with cognitive responses automatically given to external stimuli.

Carrell and Floyd (1989) suggest that the ESL teacher shall provide students with appropriate schemata that they are lack of, and the teacher shall teach students how to connect the existing knowledge with the new knowledge. They propose that the teacher can facilitate students’ reading by activating background knowledge.

Schema theory is unlike some other learning theories (such as behaviorism or cognitive dissonance), it does not seek to explain the acquisition of only certain types of knowledge (such as behaviors or attitudes). The instructional strategies based on schema theory can be applied to any learning situation.

2.2.2 Previous Research in China

Carrell (1984) and some other investigators have begun to suggest a variety of content schemata to improve ESL reading comprehension. And of course, there are also some scholars in China begin to contribute themselves to the research of applying the schema theory. However, in comparison with the investigation and empirical research conducted abroad, domestic study in China is lacking, especially the study for writing research.

The significant development and application of schema theory in China is since 1980s. Schema theory was firstly used in the teaching of college English reading. Many teachers have got a number of implications for the teachings of the first language and the second language. They have written a lot of papers about the schema theory in order to improve English Foreign Language. For example, Schema Theory-The Theoretical Basis of Pre-reading Activities in Teaching English Reading by Yu Caisheng (2000); The Schema Reading Theory and Reading Teaching by Wang Ping (2006); Reading Comprehension Teaching in College English Assisted by Schema Theory by Xie Li (2006); On Application of the Schematic Theory of Reading Comprehension in the Reading Teaching of College English by Lin Xue (2010); The Application of Schema Theory to English Reading in High School by Song Wan’an and Zhou Jianping (2011); Improve Teaching Effect of Reading in American and British News Publications with the Application of Schema Theory of Reading by Li Ling (2012) and etc. Although there are so many scholars studied the schema theory in China, we can also find that most of these studies are mainly in the teaching of reading. There were few articles about the application of schema theory in writing were published. However, a lot of scholars have noticed this fact, and many researches on writing have been carried out in the recent years. And their researches are very useful for applying schema theory in writing.

Some scholars (such as Zhou Sui (2005), Li Yuanming (2001), Zai Shu (2005) and Xu Xuefen (2004) and etc.) propose the application of schemata to the teaching of college students’ English writing. They propose to improve the college students’ writing ability and efficiency by activating and constructing relevant writing schemata. In their papers, they refer to three types of schemata: formal schemata, linguistic schemata and content schemata. Their researches show that schema theory has a significant effect on improving college students’ English writing competence. Zhou Sui (2005) explores the role of schema on the foreign language writing, and analyzes the problems caused by lacking two types of schemata: content schema and formal schema. Zai Shu (2005) focuses on activating students’ existed schemata and constructing new relevant schemata. He presents how to use the schema to improve students’ writing ability. Zhang Anlu (2008), in his book, introduced the English text schemata (i.e. formal schemata) and techniques for improving the writing. He states that students can improve the English writing by using them appropriately. Moreover, Zhao Yali (2006) has done an experimental research to prove the feasibility of application of schema theory into college English writing teaching. He also points out the methods of activating students existed schema and structuring the new schema to enhance students’ writing ability.

As we can see from the above, these researchers believes that English writing is closely related with certain schemata, and they all try to adopt different ways to accumulate, enrich or activate relevant schemata in a writer’s mind. These researches are of great value to the present experiment on using schemata theory to improve the Junior Middle school students’ writing competence.

2.3 English Writing Teaching in Junior Middle School

2.3.1 Some Common Problems in the EFL Teaching

Writing is an integrated ability. It is a reproduction procedure that bases on students’ various knowledge. It is also one of the most important social communication abilities. Students’ writing ability can only be improved step by step.

Students with written expression difficulties are often seen as untidy, messy, slow and reluctant writers. For some students, EFL writing is a nightmare. Writing problems can have a significant impact on any student, as approximately 60% of the school day involves writing and the majority of examinations depend on the ability to reproduce your thoughts on paper.

However, some students who I have interviewed express that they are willing to write, but they don’t know how to write. They don’t know how to begin. They don’t know how to express in English. Their minds are empty when they try to write. They feel worried especially in the examination.

Writing is a complicated process that involves the interaction of motor and language skills. It relies on good fine motor functioning, visual-motor planning, attention, sequencing, thinking, memory, and knowledge of grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary and the purpose of writing. Difficulties in one or more of these areas can inhibit written expression. Students who experience problems with writing or find writing an effort often try to avoid the task and their self-esteem may suffer.

In short, junior middle school students mainly have three aspect problems: the linguistic problem, the cultural problem and lack of interests.

2.3.2 The Features of the EFL Teaching in Junior Middle School

Nowadays, although the educational ministry has passed law to take a reform in junior and senior high schools, the majority of rural schools still adopt traditional teaching methods. English teachers pay more attention to students’ ability to get high score, but less to their ability of actual communication and writing. As a result, students just are capable of doing multiple choice questions, but not of writing. For many years, a teacher taught students only with a book and an old teaching case. Lots of teachers just explain the grammar of a text from the very beginning to the end. Most of the time, teachers have put too much attention to the grammar but neglect the actual practice and drillings of writing.

When teachers are lecturing, they usually explain grammar and copy sentences. At the same time, students write the notes, hardly have chance to speak or discuss. English teachers use the approach focusing on grammar, thus it makes students poor in writing and reading. So, many students are not interested in learning English.

2.3.3 Some Reflections on the Current English Writing Teaching

English writing is one of the four basic skills "listening, speaking, reading and writing" and is becoming more and more important. It is an important social intercourse method to deliver the information and exchange emotions with writing. Writing has been born in the need of communication, and it has a documented history of over 6000 years. Writing can help develop one’s mind and stimulate one’s thinking. The improvement of writing can facilitate one’s other skills, such as listening, reading, speaking, translation and etc. (Yao Sanlian and Zhong Yan, 2006).

However, the procedure of writing has been ignored for a long time. Many teachers seldom make use of the Schema theory in writing teaching. The communicative competence hasn’t been widely valued yet, not a few students are in need of the motive of writing.

Successful standards in learning English not only mean the knowledge of English which students have remembered, but also mean if they can speak and write what they have learned creatively, in other words, they should not only be receivers of language, but they should be generators as well, and here the foundation goes forward in analysis, synthesis, judgment, reconstruction and recreation.

With regard to English writing, it is difficult for Chinese students to output what they think, including key words, contents and text structure. Writing forces us to confront issues, to define and redefine our own feelings and positions, and enables us to express ourselves to others in more effective ways.

As we can see from the above, writing is very important in our daily life. Both teachers and students should do greater and harder work in order to improve students’ writing ability. Writing can be difficult and consuming time for many students, but as any complex job, writing is easier if you have the right tools.

Chapter III The Empirical Study

In this chapter, an empirical study of applying formal schema theory to junior middle school English teaching will be introduced. First of all, it is the significance of the empirical study. Then, it’s the hypothesis of the study. Besides, the subject and the instrument of the study are also stated here. And at last, the procedures of the data collection and the experiment are described in detail.

3.1 Significance of the Empirical Study

3.1.1 The theoretical Significance

As we all know, writing is one of the most important skills for the junior middle school students in learning English. The importance of writing in English has been fully recognized for a long time. However, the stress has mainly been put on the result evaluation. The process of writing is used to be ignored. And schema theory is rarely used in writing, especially on junior middle school students’ writing teaching. So, this experiment is meaningful in enriching the application of schemata theory in the junior middle school English teaching, and it may cultivate an effective way for teaching English writing in junior middle school.

3.1.2 The Practical Significance

Through this empirical study, it is hoped to help the English teachers in junior middle schools find a more effective way to improve students writing competence. And at the same time it can renew English teachers’ teaching conceptions about writing teaching and change their current writing teaching methods. Above all, it is hoped that this study can offer an effective way to help junior middle students improve their EFL writing ability.

3.2 Hypothesis

In this study, the schema-based writing presentation was compared with traditional writing for testing hypothesis.

H0: Schema theory is suitable for the English writing teaching in junior middle school and it can improve junior middle school students’ writing competence.

H1: Students can develop their linguistic schema, formal schema and content schema by writing trainings.

3.3 Subjects

About 80 junior middle school students from two classes of Grade Two will be chosen as the subjects of the study. They are from two parallel natural classes of Yuannan School, Heyuan. And their English level is almost the same (as the pre-test shows). One class will be the experimental group (EG) and the other will be the controlled group (CG). Both of the controlled group and the experimental group have 40 students. Before they took part in the experiment, both of the classes had finished one year’s study.

3.4 Experimental Instruments

Three kinds of experimental instruments are used in this study. 1. A questionnaire is used before the study to investigate the Junior Middle School students’ writing problems. 2. Interviews with the students of the experimental class are carried out to get further information of the study. 3. Two different English writing test papers which are the same writing genre of narration are used to test the experiment results. 4. Pre-test and post-test are carried out to find whether there is evident effect of the experiment. Here are the detailed descriptions about these instruments.

3.4.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire was administered before the experiment. By making this questionnaire survey, the author plans to collect information about the current situation of English writing learning and teaching in junior middle school, including the problems the students meet in English writing, their attitudes toward EFL writing, and their views about the current teaching methods the teachers use during writing classes. Through this survey, the author also intends to settle down the methods to be used in the following experiment.

The questionnaire that the author chose was taken form Liu Runqing’s study (Liu Runqing, 2002). The questionnaire is to investigate the situation of students’ English writing. In this questionnaire there are 24 questions (See Appendix I). Among these 24 questions, question 1-7 are cognitive problems, question 8-21 are problems about writing skills, question 22-24 are about their attitude toward English writing.

3.4.2 Interview

After the post-test, an interview involving ten subjects was carried out to investigate their attitudes toward the schema-oriented methods used in the experiment. All of the subjects were chosen randomly from the experimental group. The author had mainly designed nine questions for the interview.

Several "yes/no" questions were asked. The purpose of this interview was to find out the attitude of the students toward the schema-oriented English writing approach. The author also wants to know if it’s effective in applying the schema theory to the English writing teaching. Also the survey is aimed to know if students have applied the schematic method in their writings. Following are the interview questions:

(1) Do you have a clear idea of the concept of schema and schema theory?

(2) Do you find your interest in English writing has been greatly aroused?

(3) Do you want to be taught in the same way next semester?

(4) Do you find any improvement in your English writing ability?

(5) Do you think you have formed the habit of consciously accumulating, constructing, and activating your schemata to facilitate your learning of English?

(6) How did you feel in the post-test?

(7) Which one do you think is more helpful to construct your schemata, reading the passages related to the writing assignment or discussion within group? Why?

(8) Which one do you think is more helpful to activate your schemata, reading the passages related to the writing assignment or discussion within group? Why?

(9) I think the idea of creating and activating my schema has particularly helped me in my English writing from the perspective of ______. Why?

A. choosing proper words and widening the vocabulary of my composition

B. organizing the article

C. finding sufficient evidence to support my viewpoint

3.4.3 English Writing Test Paper

In this study, the author used six writing papers. The content of the writing test papers are collected by the author from the papers of the standard final exams of the city of the past years. The writing genres are mainly the narration, description and argumentation. The author used these papers for pre-test and post-test to see if it’s effective after the schema-based English writing teaching and training. And in order to avoid the intervening variables, the author plans to teach only one writing genre for only one month. So, there is a pre-test and a post-test of the same writing genre for both the classes every month.

3.4.4 Pre-test

Before the experiment, the author has conducted a pre-test. The pre-test lasts for 30 minutes. The topic of the pre-test is chosen from the Standardized Final Test of Heyuan City of the past years. In the pre-test paper, there are some materials related to the topic for students to read.

The pre-test is held on the same day morning in order to provide the students with a fare testing environment. After the test, their writings were then collected and evaluated. The scores of 80 students are collected. The evaluating methods and results will be discussed later.

3.4.5 Post-test

After the one-semester experiment, the author decided to hold a post-test for the two groups of students.

In order to compare with the pre-test, the experimental group did the test first. The test lasted 30 minutes for both of the groups. For the experimental group, there was also material for the students to read, discussion between peers and instruction from the teacher. For the control group, the writing process was similar to the ones used during the experiment. The purpose of adding these activities was to test that whether schema-oriented methods have obvious effects in improving English writing ability, and whether the students in the experimental group had mastered the skills of constructing and activating proper schemata.

3.5 Determination of the variables

Before the experiment, it is necessary to determine some variables. The followings are the variables determined by the author:

1. Independent variables: method of English writing teaching (application of formal schema to junior middle school English writing teaching)

2. Dependent variables: English writing ability of the 40 students.

3. Control variables: the same training time of the English writing lesson.

4. Intervening variables: the subjects’ English writing ability will naturally improve after a long time of study. Besides, the subjects’ interest and willing of learning English may also affect the validity of the study.

3.6 The treatment to prevent the influence of intervening variables

In order to prevent the influence of the intervening variables, the training of the writing genre is restricted to only one type. The author chooses teaching the narration, as it is one of the main genres in junior English writing. The training can be divided into three stages: the first stage is the pre-experiment which serves as a pre-test of the students’ writing ability of certain genre. The second stage is the while-experiment which focuses on training of the writing. The third stage is post-experiment which aims to get the result of the training. The writing topics of the pre-test and post-test are chosen from the previous grade eight standardized test papers.

3.7 Experimental Procedures

The experiment lasted for about a semester. In each week, the students would have one English writing class on Friday. Each of the writing classes lasted for 45 minutes. In order to verify the viewpoint that schema theory can be applied in English writing teaching, the experimental group was taught through schema-oriented teaching methods. In contrast, the control group was taught by traditional methods which are commonly used in junior middle schools in China. In the experiment, the author chose Ren’ai Project English (for Grade 8) as the main teaching material, and the topics were selected from this book.

The author has conducted the experiment for one semester, and mainly teaching the narration writing genre. In the experiment, the author follows the following steps for training students’ English writing:

3.7.1 Activate the students’ relevant schemata

The students have learnt Chinese and English for several years, which means that the students have certain schemata of writing in their mind. The first and most important step is to activate the students’ existed relevant schemata. It can improve students’ writing efficiency. For example, when we teach the students how to write a narration paper, we may ask them firstly: what is the most important element in writing a narration article? As the students have learnt how to write a narration article in Chinese, this question may activate their schemata about how to write a narration article. For instance, this question may remind the common structure (formal schema) of writing a narration: 1. Introduction: the background reasons and preparations. 2. Body: the actual incident and follow-up of one event. 3. Conclusion: the end or the later understanding of the episode.

3.7.1.1 Help students activate existed schemata

The Grade Eight students have learnt English for several years. Students may have certain background information or knowledge about a topic. It is one of the most important parts to activate students existed schema when they are writing. Once the schemata are activated, students may feel easy to write. For example, when teaching the students to write a topic "A happy Sunday", the teacher can firstly help students activate their schemata (background information or knowledge) about the "Sunday". Figure 3.1 is an example schema about the "Sunday" listed by the students:

Sunday

Advantages:

1. Have a rest.

2. Do something interesting.

3. Get together with the family

4. Learn something useful.

5. Develop hobbies.

…

Don’t need to go to school

A day for outdoor activities

Disadvantages:

1. Feel tired the next day.

2. Have lots of housework to do.

3. Watching too much TV.

4. Too many people in public places.

…

Activities:

Watch TV, go hiking, mountain climbing, visit friends, go swimming, study and etc.

The weekend.

Last day of a week.

Figure 3.1 The Schema of "Sunday"

The teacher can help students activate their schemata by these ways:

(1) Brainstorming. Brainstorming is a very effective way for activating students existed schema. The teacher can conduct the brainstorming activity before the writing, and let students write down whatever they think of in their mind when they are represented to a topic.

(2) Make use of words to activate schemata. For example, when we teach the word "Sunday", we may let students to think whatever relevant to it. Students may come up with "a relaxing day", "a happy day", and "a day for doing outdoor activities" and so on. This way of activating the effective schemata can laid a strong foundation for their later writing.

(3) Asking questions. Students can activate their schema by either teacher-asking or peer-asking. Teacher-asking means that the teacher asks student questions and students answer. Peer-asking means that students ask each other questions.

(4) Predicting the topic. Students can also activate their schema by predicting a topic. Before students’ writing, the teacher can show students some stimulating materials, such as pictures, title, photos, texts and videos. They can help students remind the relevant information (schema) of a topic.

3.7.1.2 Help students activate proper schemata

Activating existed schemata is helpful for students’ writing, but that doesn’t mean all the schemata are good to students’ writing. The teacher shall also remind or guide students to select the proper schemata. As the above example shows, "A happy Sunday" shall emphasis on the word "happy". It shall be about how I have a happy Sunday. And it shall be a narration. So, some of the information may not be useful for students’ writing, such as the disadvantages.

3.7.1.3 Help students activate content schemata

Some students feel hard to write because they have nothing or no content to write. But that doesn’t mean they really have nothing to write. Some students just "forget" what they have learnt. It is an urgent task to train students how to "remind" and activate their own content schema. As the above example, when some students read the topic "A happy Sunday", the first reaction is to say "I don’t have any happy Sundays." But is it true that they don’t have any happy Sundays? Certainly not. When I ask them "What’s your happiest day?" or "Have you ever done something interesting with your parents/ brother/ sister/ classmates on Sunday?" most of them know how to write soon.

3.7.2 Build up the new schema

A piece of good writing is the good combination of both the flexible form and rich content. That is to say a good writing needs the integration of the two schemata. So it is very important for the teacher to activate and build up the relevant schemata in students’ mind in our daily English writing teaching. It is very helpful for the students to enrich and complete their formal schema and content schema in the future.