ChapterⅠ Literature Review
1. Overview of Schema theory
Scholars of different schools have different understandings of schema. In general,schema is a form of knowledge representations. Additionally, for the convenient ofstoring and processing information, the brain organically organizes the new facts,existing knowledge and experience and forms the representations stored in it. Thenthese representations, in other words, these schemata function as structures which newinformation could be filled in and on the other hand, these schemata instruct theprocess of filling. The following parts are detailed introductions about schema theoryfrom the aspects of the history, types, functions and features of schema, and also itsinformation processes models. Schema theory goes through a long history of development. The word schemacomes from Greek, and it first appeared in some philosophy and psychology works ofancient Greek. Before psychology separated from philosophy, the concept schemawas prominently discussed in philosophy by German philosopher Kant in 1781. Heconsidered schema as a bridge between perceptual intuition and intellectuality. Earlydevelopment of the idea in psychology emerged with Jean Piaget and some Gestaltpsychologists. Gestalt psychologists applied schema theory in the testing of people’svisual perception. ‘Schema’ as a term was first introduced by Piaget, a Swisspsychologist when he studies the cognitive development of children in 1926.According to him, ‘schema’ could be considered as the hardcore of cognitive structuretheory. In other words, the development and change of schema was just the essence ofcognitive development. In 1932, British psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett developedthe concept of schema in a psychology sense.
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2. Overview of English Poetry Appreciation
Poetry is the earliest forms of literature. The language of poetry is quite explicitwhile the images included are quite rich. Though poetry is usually not of great length,it is full of abundant thoughts and feelings. Its content always epitomizes and reflectsthe social life in an intensive way. Since this thesis will study English poetry, thefollowing part will introduce poetry, mainly English poetry, from the perspective of itsdefinition, characteristics and review the traditional ways of poetry appreciation. According to Wikipedia, poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic andrhythmic qualities of language---such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, andmeter---to evoke meanings in addition to , or in place of, the prosaic ostensiblemeaning.Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumrian Epic of Gilgamesh. Earlypoems evolved from folk song such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retelloral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedes, Zoroastrian Gathsa, and the Homeric epics, theIliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics,focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attemptsconcentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasizedthe aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively-informative, prosaicforms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been moregenerally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.
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Chapter Ⅱ Schema Theory in Text Comprehension
1. The Activation of Schema in Text Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a complex mental activity and a process of processinginformation. And in this activity, the first thing one should do is to activate relevantschemata. While one tries to comprehend a text, there are mainly two factors takingeffect: one is about the text itself, which mainly concerned with the linguistic part; theother is things that come from outside the text, for instance, social and culturalsurroundings, and mental factors of individual etc. These two factors could both betalked under schema theory. Anderson and Pearson have put forward threeassumptions about activation. The first is that any single word concerned with certainschema could make one think of the whole schema, and this kind of words is helpfulin reading comprehension. While reading a text, a word or phrase or the title could bea hint to certain schema, and if the reader could process these information then theschema will be activated, and the comprehension will be easier. For instance, whenone sees “All the day thy wings have fann’d/ At that far height, the cold thinatmosphere”, the image of a bird appears in front of him; the second is that the wholeschema can be activated when two or more key words are mentioned. Under thiscircumstance, a single stimulus is not enough to activate one’s schema, or precisely,the single stimuli could activate several schemata and when there are other stimuli thereader could get and focus on one specific schema; the third is that once a schema isactivated, it might remind people of the component parts about this schema. Forinstance, when one see images like “apron”, “chair”, he would think about the schemaabout kitchen. While when he sees other images such as “brush” and “chip”, theschema about haircutting will be activated.
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2. The Significance of Schema Theory in Texts Comprehension
Schema plays an important role in text comprehension. It explains reading as aprocess, in which the reader’s background knowledge interacts with reading material.According to the test of Anderson (1983), schema has the following four functions inreading comprehension.First, it provides information frame for the assimilation of new information.Second, it helps the selecting, noticing and remembering the important information.Third, it helps the reader to infer information which is not expressed explicitly in texts.Fourth, helping the reader to memorize and recall information.The following part will discuss functions of schema theory by referring toAnderson’s opinion.
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Chapter Ⅱ Schema Theory in Text Comprehension .... 23
1. The Activation of Schema in Text Comprehension..... 23
2. The Significance of Schema Theory in Texts Comprehension......... 24
3. The Application of Schema Theory in English Poetry Comprehension......... 27
Chapter Ⅲ Further Study about Application of Schema Theory .............. 56
1. Analysis of the Failure to Achieve Schema in Reading Comprehension ....... 56
2. Limitations about Schema Theory.......... 59
3. Enlightenments of Schema Theory on English Teaching.......... 60
Chapter III Further Study about Application of Schema Theory in English Poetry Appreciation
1. Analysis of the Failure to Achieve Schema in Reading Comprehension
The above parts show the importance of schema in poetry comprehension, whilethere are failures in achieving schema, and in this case, the comprehension of poetrywill be hard to achieve. This part will try to analyze these failures. Generally speaking,there are mainly three reasons: lacking relevant schema, choosing wrong schema andimperfection of existing schema. Also, if the poet does not give enough clues inpoems, it is also difficult for the reader to activate their schema. The lacking of some essential schemata that is necessary for interpreting text isthe most common reason why one can not comprehend a text. In the process ofcomprehending a text, there are mainly two factors taking effect, one is theinformation given by the text and the other is schemata knowledge or cognitivemechanism stored in readers’ brain. It is obvious that the basic condition of beinggood readers is their good linguistic competence, that is, the ability to understand thebasic meaning and get the connotative meaning. This paper has talked about linguisticschema in poetry comprehension mainly from the perspective of musicality of poetryand figures of speech. Musicality is more language sense than knowledge. Once thereader knows how to pronounce words, it is not difficult to get the musicality about apoem. While if the reader wants to get a professional comprehension about a poem, itis necessary for him to know the relevant theories especially the items about rhyme orrhythm. Devices such as omission are often used in English poetry to achieve therhyme. While due to the special pronunciation of Chinese character, it is common forChinese to lack such schema.
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Conclusion
English poetry is an important part of foreign literature. As a special literatureform, the condense language in poems always contains rich information. ReadingEnglish poems are a good channel to understand western culture also a good way tofeel the beauty of English. Though the uniqueness of poems makes it attractive, it isalso difficult to get a fully understanding or find a systematic way to comprehendEnglish poetry. As a result, many readers give up poetry in their reading and it iscommon to see that in China English poetry takes a small part in English teaching,and some teachers even give up the teaching of this special literature form. In order tosolve this problem, many scholars make much exploration about how to appreciateEnglish poems easily and efficiently.There are many essays and these talking about English poetry appreciation. Atbeginning, many scholars studied this mainly from the perspective of the languageused in poems, for instance, the special rhythm and rhetorical devices. Then scholarsin China tried to get rid of the traditional thinking of research, that is, study Englishpoetry in a purely belletristic way. They began to interpret and analyze English poetryfrom a cross-cultural and cross-discipline point of view. The study point of Englishpoetry is not only the texts themselves but also the readers and the interaction betweenreaders and the poets. For instance, Professor Li Shankui makes a strict argumentabout the forming and development process of appreciating a poem. He talks aboutthe mechanism of poetry appreciation, and emphasizes the mutual adaptation betweensubject and object. His studies make readers think more about poetry appreciation andprovide new ways of poetry appreciation. The use of semiology, formalism andstructuralism in his book also show the influence of linguistics.
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