Schema Theory and Learning ESL/EFL

Considerable attention has been devoted in recent theories of second language acquisition to learners' background knowledge. One of the important theories of learning is called schema theory, which has used in many studies as it has a great unique impact. This is because of its influence on perception and learners' memory. The significance of schematic knowledge is now widely acknowledged in foreign language teaching and many researches in the schema-oriented area of ESL/EFL teaching have been carried out. This theory has various definitions and the three types of schemata are content, formal, and cultural which are closely related to learners ' reading and listening comprehension in acquiring L2. Before going further, it is essential to have a background view of Schema Theory. In 1932 schema theory was introduced by Frederic Bartlett during working on constructive memory (Psybox Ltd, 2002). He regarded schemas a part of top-down processing. Furthermore, Bartlett (1977 cited in Landry, 2002)considered schemas to be structures of knowledge stored in the long-term memory (Psybox Ltd, 2002). Moreover, Rumelhart (1977 cited in Landry, 2002) has illustrated schemata as "building blocks of cognition" that are used in the process of understanding sensory data, in repossessing information from memory, in organizing aims and sub-goals, in allocating resources, and in leading the flow of the processing system. What is more, Rumelhart claimed that if our schemata are unfinished and do not offer an understanding of the incoming information from the text we will have troubles processing and understanding the text ((Psybox Ltd, 2002).

The schema theory believes that people do not observe any reality straight, however just via a perceptual framework. A psychological schema is the perceptual framework that people use to make sense of the globe around them. Here is an example of how this theory works, for example everybody has their own personal schema and when they get a perception they attempt to fit into their schema. The perceptual framework and the context provide meaning to what people perceive. Therefore, schema theory is significant in many areas for instance communication and learning. For example if there is different in schemas of people it will be easy to misunderstand each other. When a person says "I like riding", referring to horse, another may think he is saying he likes bicycle! (Landry, 2002). From above examples, it is likely to say that are various efficacious ways of defining schema. Schema thoery is a theory of how knowledge is obtained and processed. It deals with preexisting or prior knowledge that is stored in our mind. (Nassaji, 2002 documented in AlIssa, 2006). 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 (Widdowson, 1983). It mirrors the experiences, conceptual understanding, attitudes, values, skills, and strategies [we] bring to a text situation (Vacca & Vacca, 1999, cited in Al-Issa ,2006). This theory is grounded on the belief that every act of understanding includes of one's Knowledge of the world (AL-Issa, 2006). From the exceeding definitions, we might bring to a close that schema is the pre-existing knowledge gained through experiences stored in ones mind. It is an abstract structure of knowledge. Plainly, schema theory claims that all knowledge is organized into units. Within these units of knowledge, or schemata, is stored information. Each separate schema is an advice for representing knowledge

of a concept, long with specifications for relating it to a proper network of connections that seem to hold all parts of that particulate concept. In general, there are three main types of schemas, explicitly, formal schemata, linguistic schemata and content schemata. The formers, which are also called textual, relate the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written texts (Jun, Xioa-hui and Wei-hua, 2007). They contain knowledge of various text types and genres and as well, they consist off knowledge of different types of texts use text organization, language formation, vocabulary, sentence structure and level of formality differently (Jun et al. 2007). Formal schemata are defined as knowledge of language and linguistic conventions, containing knowledge of how texts are structured and what the key characteristics of a particular genre of writing are (Alderson, 2000; Carrell, 1987; Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983).A person can use formal schematic representations of a text to understand information in a new text. A study of formal schema proposes that texts with familiar rhetorical organization should be easier to read and comprehend than texts with unfamiliar rhetorical organization (Carrell, 1987:464 revised in Etern and Razi, 2009). 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 (Brown, 2001revised in Erten and Razi, 2009). On other words, they refer to the familiarity of the subject matter of the text. They contain an understanding of the topic of the text and the cultural-specific constituents required to interpret it. Content schemata can additionally be divided into two different types: background knowledge and subject matter knowledge. The earlier refers to the knowledge that may or may not be relevant to the content of a particular text, and the final is straightforwardly related to the text content and topic

(Alderson, 2000 cited in Erten and Razi, 2009) Content schema is an element of the individuals 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). While a language is not only the simple mixture of vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar but also the bearer of dissimilar levels of the languages culture. To some extent, content schemata can compensate for the lack of language schemata, and hence aid learners comprehend texts by predicting, selecting information and eliminating vagueness (Jun et al. 2007). The third type of schema is cultural schemata. It is also called abstract schema (Nassaji, 2002; Oller, 1995 quoted in Etren and Razi, 2009), story schema (Mandler, 1984 revised Erten and Razi, 2009), or linguistic schema (Ketchum, 2006 documented in Erten and Razi, 2009). Yule (1996: 87cited in Erten and Razi, 2009) points out that cultural schemata are developed ...in the context of our basic experiences They are defined as the pr-existing knowledge about cultural elements of the language being acquired. It is suggested that cultural schema as a culturespecific extension of content schema since they refer to the role of cultural relationship that is required to completely understand the meaning intended by the author conceptual in nature, cultural schema brings about cultural familiarity and helps a person to restructure the story line through referring to more personally and culturally appropriate scripts (Oller, 1995 cited in Erten and Razi, 2009). To interpret a text, suitable culture schemata considered to be essential. Generally, schema can affect our life .Schemas permit for us to structure impressions. They influence how we may observe, perceive, and also interpret information. Unluckily or luckily schemas may bias encoding of social knowledge. For instance, people who come from different countries or backgrounds may understand a situation in one way whereas

others, based on previous experience, may consider it to be something entirely different. Schemas as well depend on encoding. Encoding is how we code what we may notice, hear, smell, or touch in our minds (Rober and Rober, 2001). An individual can rely on schemata in his life when he faces information that stick out. We also may depend on schemas when something encoded in our minds was lately used or that is used regularly. The individuals have schemata for every thing. Before coming upon any new information, they develop units of knowledge about everything they experience. Schemata become theories about reality. Schema theory has a big impact on second language acquisition field. It provides with a way to think about the representation of some structures of complicated knowledge. It has concentrated attention on the role old knowledge plays in acquiring new knowledge, and has highlighted the specific techniques in the reading process in L2. A number of studies in second language instructions have derived their strategies from schemata theory. The most important implication of schema theory is the role of prior knowledge in processing especially on reading skill. They have proposed that relevant knowledge should be activated before reading; that instructors should try to offer prerequisite knowledge; and that more attention should be given to teaching higherorder comprehension processes. The very important role of background knowledge on reading comprehension is noted by Carrell and Eisterhold (1983) and Anderson (1999 revised, Erten and Razi, 2009), that a readers comprehension depends on her/his ability to relate the information that she/he gets from the text with prior knowledge. There is a strong relationship between reading process and schemata' types. As mentioned earlier, formal schemata include the knowledge of organizational forms and rhetorical structure of a text. Carrel (1984 cited in Al-Issa, 2006) confirmed that explicit instruction of the text structure can improve students reading

comprehension. . An appropriate employment of formal schemata plays a significant function in reading. Content schema which defined as knowledge of content can be the key understanding of a text. Jun et al. (2007) argue that:
'' content schemata affect comprehension and remembering more than formal schemata do for text organization. Readers remembered the most when both the content and rhetorical forms were familiar to them while unfamiliar content may cause more difficulties in correct comprehension.''p.21

Carrell and Eisterhold (1983), state that second language readers try to provide schemas to make sense texts. They (1983) emphasize that in ESL/EFL classroom teachers should be sensitive to reading process and should provide their learners with texts that evoke their schemata. Using schemata can be also applied in listening process and it is beneficial for it. An investigation on this area, has confirmed that the accumulation of schemata contributes most to effective comprehension and retention of new listening material which are getting more difficult as students progress along the way (Rumelhart, 1997 documented in Ya-jun, 2007). Application of schema theory in listening teaching has revealed that comprehension relies significantly on listeners successful activation of their former knowledge (schemata). Psycholinguists conducting research on listening also encourage teachers to help students construct more schemata in their memory to achieve better comprehension in listening. (Ya-jun, 2007).It can be concluded that it is urgent for ESL/EFL teachers to supply suitable schema building to effectively reach the goal of building and activating learners' schema knowledge. In conclusion, Schema theory is described as theory of individuals' prior knowledge which is classified into different types of knowledge. There is no doubt that schema has positively affected the educational field. Particularly, schema theory has great impact on teaching

strategies of reading comprehension and listening process. Therefore knowledge of schema theory is of a specific importance to teachers who are accountable for recommending materials for reading instruction mainly on his or her ESL teachers ability to activate the students related schemata through classroom activities and teaching techniques. Finally, on my point of view I recommend that teachers should be aware before deciding on which reading and listening materials are to use in L2 classrooms.

References:
Al-Issa, A. (2006, July) Schema Theory and L2 reading comprehension: implication .for teaching. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 3, 7, 41-48 Carrell, P. L., & Eisterhold, J. C. (1983). Schema theory and ESL reading. TESOL .Quarterly, 17, 218232

Erten, I.H and Razi, S. (2009, April). The effects of cultural familiarity on reading ,comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 1539-05787, 211 .60-70 Landry, K. (2002). Schemata in second language reading. The Reading ,Matrix,Vol.2 No.3, Retrived from:www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/article/thoeriesreading

Jun, W., Xioa-hui, L. & Wei-hua, W. (2007). Analysis of schema theory and itsinfluence on reading.US-China Foreign Language, 1539-8080, 5, 11 ,Serial No.50 School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University of Technology China. Psybox Ltd (2002). Schema [Electronic version] Retrieved 13 November - 2009,from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/theories-reading Reber, A. S., & Reber, E. (2001). The Penguin dictionary of psychology (3rd ed.). London: Penguin Books Ltd., England. Retrieved 11 November 2009, from www.psychology.uiowa.edu Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Learning purpose and language use. Oxford: Oxford .University Press -Ya-jun, Z. (2007, June).Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for non-English major undergraduates. Sino-Us English Teaching1539-8072, 4, 6, 32-46.

Dhofar University College of Education and Applied Science Master Program

EDUC 611 First Paper

Submitted to: Dr. Ahmed Al-Shafee