The Language Teacher
December 2000
Building Schema in a Reading Class
Yuka Homan
Musashi Institute of Technology
QUICK GUIDE
Key Words: Schema, Motivation, Vocabulary
Learner English Level: Intermediate
Learner Maturity Level: Adult
Preparation Time: Approximately 60-90 minutes
Activity Time: Two class meetings
Schema theory asserts that background knowledge facilitates reading comprehension for language learners. This article introduces an activity in a reading course which is designed to take advantage of students' background knowledge, and eventually lead to reading fluency.
In a Current Affairs English reading course that I teach at a university, one of the major purposes is to draw the students' attention to domestic and international affairs by reading English newspapers. Unfortunately, after experiencing less than satisfying results in past courses, I realized that it was not easy to use the students' schema in reading comprehension because most students did not have a solid background about current issues in the first place. In fact, in questionnaires about their reading habits, more than 90% of my students answered that they never read Japanese newspapers on a daily basis, let alone English newspapers. Nation (1990) indicates that if learners read about familiar topics, they will cope with unknown words in context easily. However, when they encounter unknown low frequency vocabulary in a newspaper article, lack of schema prevents them from skipping over these unknown words to grasp the meaning of the text. This article introduces a schema-building exercise in which the students acquire the background knowledge deliberately, both inside and outside the classroom.
Reading Material
Newspapers are the major material source in this activity. The most significant requirements of reading material are timeliness and authenticity. If the material is up-to-date, the students are likely to be interested, because the topic is authentic both in and out of the classroom. When the students happen to watch a Japanese TV program related to a topic that they are learning in class, they will pay more attention to it. Then, once they understand the general issues of the topic, they may become stimulated by their curiosity to learn more in English about more profound aspects such as culture, religion, and history. Thus, this development of the students' interests and motivation to learn about current topics is important in the process of overcoming their lack of background knowledge.
The English written texts I use are extracted from the Daily Yomiuri and the Asahi Evening News, which are issued from major Japanese newspaper companies, the Asahi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun. Since many of the articles in these English language papers are basically identical to the Japanese originals, they are easier to read when the students use their background knowledge than other international newspapers issued abroad. Editorials, especially, can become useful materials for this particular activity because the English version of an editorial is often directly translated from the original Japanese version.
Procedure
Step 1: Teacher' s explanation of the exercise (15-20 min)
The teacher should make sure the students understand that the aim is to build new schemata about current topics both in Japanese and English. Thus, the students are expected to read and watch the news in Japanese outside the classroom before they come to class in order to perform the activity well in the classroom. It is very important for the students to understand the procedure clearly at this stage.
Step 2: Pre-reading -- guessing words from context in Japanese text (15 min)
The entire class receives a written Japanese text from a Japanese newspaper. The text includes about ten cloze blanks. The students individually fill in the Japanese meanings they think appropriate. After 15 minutes, the class forms pairs to compare their answers. Then, the teacher randomly calls upon some students to give the results of their guesses.
Step 3: Reading 1 -- guessing words from context in Japanese/English text (15 min)
After they have a solid basis of knowledge in the particular topic, the students receive a Japanese text, this time with English key words in terms of context and vocabulary frequency. The article is different from the previous reading but shares the same topic. The students individually guess these English words in context, and compare answers in pairs. Then, the teacher calls upon some students to give their answers.
Step 4: Reading 2 -- guessing words from context in English text (15-20 min)
The students receive an English text similar to the Japanese one that they used in the previous reading. The students individually fill in the missing target words. The first letter of the target word may be indicated for the students to guess more easily. After ten minutes, the students compare with their partners, then the teacher checks their guesses by calling upon some students to give their answers.
Benefits of the Activity
This activity is characterized as providing students with background knowledge in Japanese before studying a topic in English. Furthermore, different texts with the same topic enable the students to have opportunities not only to understand the context but also to experience repetitions of the same vocabulary. As Nation (1990) emphasizes " repetition and attention" of words for vocabulary learning, this schema-building activity helps to encourage vocabulary development.
Other effects of this activity are a sense of achievement and confidence that most students will have by the end of the course. The students' accomplishments will encourage them to learn about other world issues, which will inspire the learners' motivation to learn English. It is undeniable that this activity definitely requires time and effort for both students and teacher. However, the gains in students' knowledge of current affairs and of reading skills make it worthwhile.
References
Nation, P. (1990). Teaching & learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House.
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