Schema Theory and the Teaching of Reading

Schema theory indicates that prior knowledge forms a schema in the mind and this will inevitably influence reading comprehension. Therefore, in the teaching of reading, teachers should find ways to activate the schemata in the mind of the students. Titles, headlines and pictures in a text may serve the function. All texts are related to cultnre to some degree, especially in the case of texts introducing foreign cultures. Therefore, it is also important to integrate cultural factors in teaching, which will form new schemata in the mind of the students. Besides that, teaching materials should be chosen in accordance with the students＇ level of knowledge. New knowledge should be kept in an appropriate proportion to the old knowledge. Only in this way can the schemata stored in the mind of the students be activated easily, and new knowledge will also be acquired at the same time.