背景知识对英语阅读理解能力的影响和积累方法(3)
2017-01-27 01:02
导读：3.2. The Influence of Formal Background Knowledge on EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension Understanding texts is not only based on the learner’s content background knowledge, but also on the learne
3.2. The Influence of Formal Background Knowledge on EFL learners’
Reading Comprehension
Understanding texts is not only based on the learner’s content background knowledge, but also on the learner’s formal background knowledge.
This is an example of a paragraph, which indicates the influence of formal background knowledge on EFL learners’ reading comprehension.
(2) He kept on climbing until he reached the top of the doogledorph. He was suddenly engulfed by a dense sleechy. As the wind carried it away, he found himself gazing out over a breathtaking panorama; white peaks surrounded him, some with fluffy sleechies seeming to be skewered on their prints. The klem was a deep blue, and everything seemed to sparkle as the bright sun beamed down. As he looked down into a valley, he saw a two----humped gleep ambling along the riverbank. It was the most unusual one he had ever seen, but he was sure that it was a gleep. He wondered what a gleep was doing in a doogledorph area. They usually inhabited only desert areas.
It is easy to see that this paragraph contains four nonsense words: doogledorph, sleechy, klem and gleep. Few EFL learners can recognize these four words. But if they have enough background knowledge of mountain scenes, camels, and their habits and also can grasp the passage’s main thread of thoughts, they may guess the meaning of new words by referring to the words or the sentences before or after these four words. With adequate background knowledge and guessing words skills, EFL learners can guess the words’ meanings, which may be mountain, cloud, sky, and camel, respectively.
The above two examples demonstrate the existence and operation of schemata in the process of reading comprehension. Therefore, conclusions can be made that it’s a particular schema or background knowledge, which functions at the time of reading comprehension.
Schema plays an important part in reading comprehension. So the main aim is that EFL learners should build up their background knowledge during their daily reading. The following chapter will discuss about some techniques on building up one’s background knowledge in reading comprehension.
内容来自www.nseac.com 4. The Approaches to Build up Background Knowledge for EFL learners’ Reading Comprehension
“According to schema theory, reading comprehension is an interactive process between the text and the learner’s prior background knowledge. The text alone does not carry meaning. Rather a text only provides guidance for learners as to how they should construct the intended meaning from their own previous acquired knowledge. Since comprehension involves not only the information in the text, but also the knowledge the learner already possesses, efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge, either content background knowledge or formal background knowledge.”[6] P204 The approaches to build up one’s content background knowledge will be discussed in the following chapters.
4.1. The Approaches to Build up Content Background Knowledge for EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension
