EFFECTS OF SCHEMA THEORY ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION
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EFFECTS OF
SCHEMA THEORY ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE IN
READING COMPREHENSION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
It is so
disheartening to note that the general performances of second language
learners‟ reading comprehension are declining. Hence, government, language
teachers, parents and public examination bodies are seriously frowning at the
situation. The situation has been one of the disturbing aspects of the Nigerian
educational system today. Language learning includes four dimensions:
listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
The present
study focuses on the dimension of reading as it relates to schema theory.
Reading can be seen as a receptive behavior in knowledge acquisition. Effective
reading strategies help build reading meta-cognition and increase reading
comprehension. Reading comprehension has been regarded as an important academic
language skill (Grabe and Stoller, 2001; Gu, 2003) and has received a lot of
attention in second language teaching.
It is
essential particularly to many English as a foreign language learners that
rarely have a chance to speak English in their daily lives (Richards and
Renandya, 2002; Razi, 2010). The present study is intended to determine the
effect of schema (background knowledge) on second language learners‟
performance in reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is a function of
the nature of the text itself and of the extent to which the reader possesses,
uses, and integrates pertinent schemata.
Background
knowledge in reading is a complicated, active thinking mental activity, a thinking
process involving experience, ability to predict, verify and acknowledge
information according to readers‟ previous information, knowledge and
experience, and also an interactive language communication between readers and
the writer through text. Learners‟ background knowledge (schemata) has greatly
been taking attention in recent theories of second language learners‟ reading
potentials. Hence, it is regarded as one of the significant theories of
learning.
It has been
the subject of considerable studies because of its impact on perception and
memory. In the same vein, schemata are the underlying connections that allow
new experiences and information to be aligned with previous knowledge
(McCarthy, 1991:168). Coherent relationships are required to make sense out of
a text. Hence, schemata can be categorized into three types-content, formal,
and abstract/linguistic. They are all in any text and a reader‟s experience
affects interpretation. Not possessing the proper schema or being unable to
activate it leads to inaccurate constructs. Readers may benefit from either
being more prepared for a text or the text itself could be modified for easier
comprehension (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983).
Prior
knowledge is used to complete, and enrich the reader‟s mental representation of
the text (Rapp & Van Den Broek, 2005). Thus, the importance of prior
knowledge in reading comprehension is indisputable. In order to understand
language, a reader must utilize direct and implicit information. Direct
information refers to words written down, while implicit information includes
knowledge of structures and words of a language in a text and knowledge of the
discussed topic and certain experience (Smith; 1985 cited in Yu-hui, 2010).
Reading
comprehension over the years, has been approached from different
angles-Bottom-up Model, Top-down Model, Interactive Model. Bottom-up Model
emphasizes that reader, taking reading materials as information input, starts
from letters and words recognition and then combine information continuously to
accomplish reading activity. In this model, readers‟ implicit information, that
is, one‟s knowledge and life experience, is neglected.
The Top-down
model takes concept theory as basis, and points out that readers predict
reading materials according to previous syntax and semantic knowledge and make
confirmation and modification during reading process. The model assumes that
reading process is based on readers‟ previous knowledge and is a circulating
process of predicting, verifying and confirming. Under the guidance of this
model, teachers would pay much attention to students‟ previous knowledge, that
is, implicit information in the reading process and overlook basic language
knowledge teaching.
Reading
comprehension is commonly known as an interactive mental process between a
reader‟s linguistic knowledge, knowledge of the world, and knowledge about a
given topic. For instance, Nuttall (1996) as cited in Pratami (2011) believes
that reading comprehension is a process of activating the knowledge of the word
combined with the appropriate cognitive skill and reasoning ability to get
ideas from the print. That is, the transfer of a message from writer to reader.
As a way of
buttressing and concurring to Nuttall‟s (1996) claim, it therefore, means that
the relationship between background knowledge and reading comprehension is
schema theory. Hence, this research work is strongly inspired by questions
language teachers do ask concerning the performance of students in reading
comprehension. Questions like: Why do students read so poorly? What are the
factors responsible for such reading performance? How can I as a teacher help
the students to overcome this weakness? These and many other questions have
strongly inspired the researcher in researching on the effect of schema theory
(background knowledge) on second language learners‟ performance in reading
comprehension.
The ability
to comprehend what one reads is essential but struggling to understand
everything and all kinds of materials equally is not a good way to apply one‟s
knowledge (Aliyu, 2001). Reading comprehension is the most practical way of
assessing how much of the English forms second language learners can
realistically wrestle with. Students who can read can equally communicate
easily with the minds that are not within the immediate environment. This
implies that reading comprehension depends on the students and the readability
of the text.
Within the
schema-theoretic framework, the process of interpretation is guided by the
principle that all new information is sampled against some existing schema.
What students already know about a topic of a text, as well as getting familiar
with the words and sentence structures used in the text plays important role in
reading comprehension. In other words, during the reading comprehension
process, the reader is actively trying to make sense of the relevant written
text by integrating previous relevant experiences (schemata) with the text
information.
Hence, some
of the advantages that can be taken from schema theory are: Schemata help the
students to connect their idea with past experience, or background knowledge
towards reading text. The second is that it helps the students in understanding
and interpreting new things based on the existing schema in mind. And the third
is that it helps students to understanding not only things and experiences, but
also, the language describing the things and experiences, including written and
spoken form.
Comprehension
is, consequently, a matter of activating, re-elaborating or constructing a
schema that provides a coherent explanation of the relations between the
objects and events mentioned in a discourse. Schemata are thus, necessary for
comprehension. Rumelhart (1980) as cited in Yu-hui et al (2010) proposed three
possible reasons why students cannot understand a text: first, students lack
proper schema.
Under this
condition, students cannot understand the meaning contained in the text at all.
Second, students may possess adequate schema, but the author does not provide
enough clues to activate the schema. Therefore, students still cannot get the
meaning. If adequate clue is provided, students can understand the text. Third,
students interpret the text in a consistent way but deviate from the author‟s
intention.
Under this
condition, students seem to understand the text but misunderstand the author‟s
intention. So, it will be better if the students have capability in
interpreting the author‟s intention deeply and also the students have more
vocabulary items to deny misunderstanding of the author‟s purpose or the
information that is given by the author in the text. It is based on Rumelhart‟s
(op.cit) points of view that this work investigates the effects of schemata
(activated schemata) on the reading comprehension ability of junior secondary
school two students in Zaria.
Also,
empirical research conducted by Plastina (1999) has proved that most of the
teachers are not trained to a level that they are equipped with the skill of
teaching students to activate their schemata while reading. As a result, the
objective of teaching reading comprehension becomes impeded leading to a
breakdown of students‟ reading comprehension ability. Also, reading
comprehension is a language tool used in testing comprehension. Students should
be taught how to activate and use their schemata when reading any text.
Empirical research, much of which has taken place in the context of “schema theory”,
has demonstrated that the comprehension of a text is significantly affected by
the reader‟s relevant background knowledge of the content area of the text
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From the
above, it is crystal clear to note that this research is borne out of the
researchers‟ hue and cry over the dismal poor application of schema to reading
leading to a low performance of second language learners‟ reading
comprehension. This unfavorable situation has spurred-up the researcher into
investigating whether activating background knowledge (schemata) could have any
effects on secondary school English learners performance in reading
comprehension in Zaria Educational Zone.
PROJECT
TOPIC ON : EFFECTS OF SCHEMA THEORY ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH
LEARNERS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Reading is
one of the language skills, and reading comprehension is a part of overall
language proficiency. It is necessary for teachers of English as a second
language to cultivate students‟ English reading skills by providing them with
effective reading strategies such as cognitive reading strategies and
meta-cognitive strategies in class. A number of studies on second language
learning reading shows some common obstacles encountered by learners.
Most
students at the secondary school level are uninterested in reading and this is
attributed to their inability to apply their schema while reading and this has
led to poor reading habit (Agumanu; 1980, Ikonta; 2004 and Odumuh; 2004). As
such, scholars like Akinbode (2006) observe that most of them perform poorly in
reading comprehension and essay writing. According to teachers of English in a
second language context like Nigeria, students read very slowly perhaps because
of their inability to relate their previous experience or failure to activate
their schemata (linguistic, content or formal schema) to the present text that
they are reading.
They do not
know how to guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words. Most of them adopt the
„word by word‟ reading strategy for interpreting a text. Though, they
understand the meaning of each word in a text, they are not able to comprehend
the whole meaning of the text (Cooper, 2000).This could perhaps, be the reason
why Chia (2001), reports that some students have no problem with understanding
both words and sentence structures of the paragraph, but they cannot reach
satisfactory interpretation of a text.
He stressed
further that most of college students rely too much on bottom-up processing of
individual words and analyzing sentence structures, but do not apply top-down
processing for the overall view of the text. This resulted from lack of
appropriate instruction and practice on the parts of the teachers to the
students in applying reading strategies. This of course have accounted for poor
reading attitude culminating into poor performance in general.
Most
students have no motivation for reading and do not have efficient
problem-solving ability in reading comprehension. Similarly, most students lack
clear and specific objectives for reading. They enter the reading class with
the phobia that reading is difficult and will not be able to read. The fact
that they already have a language they use for communication further compound
the problem.
Studies by
White, Graves and Slatter (1990) have shown that poor readers often lack
adequate vocabulary (linguistic schema) to understand what they read from a
text. Consequently, reading is difficult and tedious for them. This probably
may be the reason why Hart and Risely (2003) observed that young students who
do not have enough vocabularies or effective word-learning strategies often
struggle to achieve comprehension. Their poor experiences with reading and
linguistic schema set them into a cycle of frustration and failure that continue
throughout their
schooling.
However, if schemata are not acquired in great enough quantity, they may tend
to be frequently absent leading a child or a reader to think that his or her
knowledge is not relevant even in those cases where it might be. In the same
vein, even when an individual has a rich store of schemata, it is unreasonable
to think he or she will have a prepackage knowledge structure for every
situation that may be encountered. Sometimes knowledge structures will have to
be built (or at least altered) to fit the demands of a given situation.
Succintly put therefore, this study specifically seeks to tackle the problems
stated below:
Most
students at the secondary school level are uninterested in reading and they
have poor reading habit. This could be as a result of their poor knowledge of
linguistic, content and formal schema.
Some
students read very slowly possibly because of their inability to relate their
previous experience or failure to activate their schemata to the present text that
they are reading
Most
students do not know how to guess the meaning (using their linguistic schema)
of the unfamiliar words. They rely too much on bottom-up processing of
individual words.
Most
students have no motivation for reading and do not have efficient
problem-solving ability (schema step by step procedure for solving problems) in
reading comprehension.
Most
students lack clear and specific objectives for reading as such they tend not
to task their schema while reading.
Considering
the above issues, it would be necessary for second language learners to be
equipped with schema theory technique of reading comprehension because if they
are good at using effective reading technique, they may become active,
strategic, and independent readers who can adjust their strategies to different
reading situations, evaluating their products and behaviors for full
comprehension. Hence, the main focus of this research is to determine whether
the low performance of secondary school second language learners‟ in reading
comprehension can be improved if their schemata are properly activated and
utilized when confronted with a reading comprehension task.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The main
objective of this study is to find out the effect of schema theory on junior secondary
school English learners performance in reading comprehension. The specific
objectives are to determine the effect of schemata on second language JSS Two
learners performance in reading comprehension at the:
literal
level of comprehension.
inferential
level of comprehension.
critical
evaluation level of comprehension.
1.4 Research Questions
Referring to
the primary objectives of the study, the main research questions raised are as
follows:
What is the
effect of schema theory on second language JSS two learners‟ reading for
literal comprehension?
What is the
effect of schema theory on second language JSS two learners‟ reading for
inferential comprehension?
What is the
effect of schema theory on second language JSS two learners‟ reading for
critical evaluation comprehension?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
Taking all
the afore-mentioned research questions into account, the following hypotheses
were formulated for the study:
Schema
theory has no significant effect on second language JSS two learners‟ reading
for literal comprehension.
Schema
theory has no significant effect on second language JSS two learners‟ reading
for inferential comprehension.
Schema
theory has no significant effect on second language JSS two learners‟ reading
for critical evaluation comprehension.
1.6
Significance of the Study
The study is
intended for second language learners to learn to activate and use their
schemata when reading any piece of discourse as it would aid easy understanding
of the text being read. Thus, language teachers must bear in mind that schema
theory should be „functionally‟ beneficial in their teachings and could help
their students in learning more about any written piece of discourse. As such
the findings of this work could shed more light on better ways to improve
second language learners reading comprehension in secondary schools. By taking
these key issues into consideration, learners‟ level of reading proficiency may
remarkably be upgraded. In the same vein, the result of this research is
expected to be useful for lecturers, students, textbooks writers and curriculum
planners in the following ways:
For reading
lecturers/second language teachers, knowledge of the schema theory would become
teaching technique in increasing students‟ reading competence and can make
students interested in reading comprehension. These are expected to make
teaching and learning of reading comprehension in schools easier for the
language teachers and their students
For students,
knowledge of the study would greatly motivate them to develop their reading
ability and as well learn to activate their encyclopedic knowledge especially
in improving their reading comprehension. In the same vein, students could
learn from this study that each type of reading requires specific skills and
styles. Reading for inference demands a different style from reading for
critical analysis and so on. This again, implies that their performance in
reading comprehension would come out colorful.
For textbooks
writers, knowledge of the study would help them incorporate schema theory in
reading comprehension properly especially when designing and writing any
reading comprehension discourse of any kind. This they can achieve via thorough
study of the concept and the importance attached to the concept in the study of
reading comprehension.
For
curriculum planners/developers, the significance of the study is enormous
because the result of this study would help them to design the curriculum that
will reflect the objective and purpose of teaching reading comprehension via
schema theory. This could equally bring about a rapid improvement in the
performance levels of second language learners‟ in reading comprehension. The
study would equally guide them in re-examining the contents of the English
language syllabus with a view to taking care of the techniques of teaching
reading comprehension.
1.7 Scope
and Delimitation
The scope is
delimited to junior secondary school two students in Zaria Local Government.
The assumption is that they are already in secondary school and assumed to be
more matured in terms of reading of different materials. In the same vein,
students at this stage are expected to have been taught reading using other
methods. As such, it may help the present study to test learners‟ ability to
comprehend a text by teaching them reading comprehension via schema theory,
then presenting questions to assess if they understood what they read.
The study is
limited to two public secondary schools in Zaria Local Government Area of
Kaduna State. These are: Government Junior Secondary School, Aminu and
Government Junior
Secondary
School, Gyellesu. The researcher is compelled to select two schools because the
research involves teaching, monitoring and marking of scripts. Secondly, the
subjects represent not only the population of the two secondary schools but
also the entire population in Zaria Local Government. The “Hat and Draw” method
of selection was employed to avert being bias either by selecting schools because
of proximity or choice but minding the rules of giving equal opportunity for
every school to be selected as propounded by statisticians like Imosili (1996)
and Bello and Ajayi (2000).
Summary
Chapter one
presented the background to the study. It explored the four dimensions of
language paying attention on the aspect of reading from which schema theory
sprang. Three specific objectives, three research questions and three
corresponding hypothesis were stated. Problems such as disinterestedness of
students in reading, inability of students to activate their schemata while
reading, failure of students to spell out clearly their objectives of reading,
students poor use of their linguistic schema in guessing the meaning of
unfamiliar words rather they rely too much on bottom-up processing of
individual words; most students have no motivation for reading and do not have
efficient problem-solving ability in reading comprehension were raised for the
study.
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