As we all know, at present, reading comprehension plays an increasingly important role in middle school exams, but reading learning has always been a weak link for middle school students. Therefore, as a teacher, how to effectively cultivate and improve students' reading ability is an interesting problem. Based on schema theory, it should be a meaningful attempt to explore how to better apply schema theory to foreign language teaching in order to improve students' foreign language reading ability.

First, the definition of schema theory

"Graphics" was first put forward by Kant. He thinks schema is "a skill hidden in the depths of human mind". Schema is an empirical knowledge network in the human brain and a knowledge structure containing general information about objects and events. [1] As Rummelhardt said, icons are the cornerstone of cognition, and all information processing should be based on icons. [2] This theory holds that the language material itself is meaningless, and it only provides a guidance on how to extract meaning from the material based on previous knowledge and experience. Later, widdowson and others further enriched Rummelhardt's theory and put forward diagrams of language knowledge, including readers' mastery of vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

Second, the three categories of schema theory

As far as reading is concerned, icons can be divided into three types: language schema, content schema and formal schema.

(A) the language schema

Language schema refers to the language knowledge that readers already have when reading materials. At present, the main problem in the process of foreign language learning is the lack of certain vocabulary and grammar knowledge, which an excellent learner should have. This knowledge of language is helpful to better decode related words and grammatical structures in reading. However, as a foreign language learner, the ability to process this information is limited. Therefore, teachers should pay attention to the combination of reading teaching and developing decoding ability in the teaching process.

(2) Content mode

Content schema refers to readers' understanding of the background information and themes of reading materials, including customs, behaviors, culture and politics. Many studies show that readers with certain background knowledge perform better than those without any background knowledge in the reading process. Therefore, we can see that graphic content is very important in the process of reading comprehension.

(3) Formal schema

Formal schema, also known as rhetorical schema, refers to the knowledge about the text structure of various articles, and refers to the reader's familiarity with the genre and text structure of reading materials. [3] For example, poetry, fable, drama and other genres have their own unique structure and characteristics. If readers have some formal schemata in mind, they will well predict the next story according to different genres in the reading process.

Thirdly, the enlightenment of schema theory to English teaching.

At present, in the process of English reading comprehension, the main problems faced by learners are the lack of relevant schemas and the understanding of the background and cultural knowledge of the target language. In the teaching process, teachers should provide students with relevant information as much as possible to help them understand the reading materials, stimulate some useful knowledge in students' minds, and help them build and expand their own charts.

(A) to activate the correct background knowledge

Dyslexia is not caused by the lack of icons themselves, but by the fact that the related icons in the mind are not activated correctly. Usually, we analyze the reasons why readers can't understand an article correctly from three aspects: first, the author of the article doesn't provide sufficient clues, and the reader's illustrations can't play a role, thus causing readers to be vague about the article; Second, the reader has no relevant diagrams at all and can't understand the meaning of the article; Third, readers can't handle the interpretation of the article flexibly and fail to understand the author's real intention more deeply. For example, "dogs" are usually regarded as "friends and partners" of people in western countries, but they are regarded as "livestock" in China, which fully shows that people with different cultural backgrounds have different understandings of the same content. Activating correct background knowledge is considered to be the basic factor of reading comprehension, and teachers should play a guiding role in the teaching process to help students activate relevant background knowledge.

(B) to provide students with relevant cultural background knowledge

Language is the carrier of culture, and the understanding of language depends largely on the understanding of cultural traditions and customs. There is a certain gap between Chinese and western cultures, which often leads students to misunderstand the article in the process of reading, even distort the original intention, and cannot make correct inference, judgment and prediction on reading comprehension. Therefore, in the process of English teaching, teachers can't just stick to textbooks, without the cooperation of a lot of reading and the infiltration of cultural background. Teachers can recommend some books about "culture" to students and ask them to read after class, such as books about English culture such as language culture and western customs. In addition, students are encouraged to attend some lectures held by foreigners, so that students can accumulate some specific cultural illustrations well.

(C) Let students fully understand the rhetorical structure of English articles

There are many genres of English articles, and different reading materials have different stylistic features. In the teaching process, we should pay attention to cultivating students' ability to read different genres of articles and the diversity of reading materials. Argumentative writing, narrative writing and expository writing are three common styles in reading materials. These three styles have many similarities in the way of writing questions, such as examining the main idea of the article (which of the following can best summarize the main idea of the article? /This article is mainly about. /What is the best title of this article? ); Guess the meaning of individual words (which of the following is true about x? ); Ask some detailed questions (why the author. . ? ); Inference question (what can we get from the article/paragraph x? . . . ) and so on. [5] Various genres of articles have their own characteristics in setting questions and answering questions.

In teaching, teachers should make full use of schema theory. This paper discusses how to help students activate and construct their own schemas more scientifically, cultivate and improve their reading strategies, increase their understanding of the target language culture and gradually improve their reading level from three aspects: language schema, content schema and formal schema.

References:

[1] Liu, Shui Rende. Thinking psychology [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.

[2] Zhang Juntang. On Schema Theory and Discourse Analysis Theory [J]. Educational Theory and Practice.

[3] Liu Bo. Innovative application of schema theory in English reading comprehension teaching [J]. Liaoning Public Security Judicial Management Cadre College.

[4] Wu Xiangyun. "Schema" Theory and English Reading Comprehension Teaching in Senior High School [J]. Science Education.