Jun 2007, Volume 4, No.6 (Serial No.

42) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN1539-8072, USA

Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for

non-English major undergraduates

ZENG Ya-jun
(School of Foreign Studies, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China)

Abstract: Both empirical research findings and teaching experiences show that most non-English major
undergraduates who are poorly aware of the cognitive psychological aspect of listening usually pay far greater
attention to their improvement of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. only in listening class. That might be
part of the reason, and the author will discuss the application of information-processing model theory, schema
theory in particular from the angle of cognitive psychology in listening comprehension course, hoping to remove
barriers in the listening procedure to achieve better progress for students in listening ability.
Key words: information processing model; schema theory; listening course; non-English major
undergraduates

1. Introduction

A common yet typical scenario concerning English listening classes for non-English major undergraduates in
China can very often add to the worries of both teachers and researchers. Teachers, fresh BA holders, are
complaining about students’ poor attendance, passive participation or even dozing off. University students who
have already been under great pressure either from their own determination to improve listening ability or from
the national CET-4 test itself, are struggling to concentrate on monotonous listening materials in a stuffy
classroom where teachers are presumably taken as the recorder/console controllers and exercise checkers.
Why is it the case? Is there a better solution to this long-time dilemma which troubles both teachers and
students?
In my teaching, I find it common that most non-English major undergraduates who are poorly aware of the
cognitive psychological aspect of listening usually pay far more attention to their improvement of pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammar, etc. only. Therefore, in light of research findings from the cognitive psychology (Anderson,
1983, 1995; Anderson & Lynch, 1988), I will discuss the application of information-processing model theory,
schema theory in particular in listening comprehension course. It is hoped that some major obstacles in the
listening procedure will be removed and better progress in listening ability be achieved for students.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1 A cognitive model for listening comprehension

Based on decades of empirical research, cognitive psycholinguists have come to a consensus that linguistic
information is processed by a number of cognitive systems: attention, perception, and memory (Rumelhart, 1997).

ZENG Ya-jun (1974- ), lecturer of School of Foreign Studies, Yangtze University; research fields: applied linguistics, second
language acquisition, theory & pedagogy in L2 listening.

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 Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for non-English major undergraduates

The information is transformed in various systematic ways in the working memory and meaning is created by
relating what is seen or heard to information stored in long term memory. It is also generally agreed that our brain
processes linguistic information in three ways: (a) Attend to signals (sounds or print) and identify them as words;
(b) Process information in the most efficient way (such as processing a unit of information at a time or handling
several units simultaneously); (c) Draw on knowledge stored in the long-term memory to act on the new
information (Eysenck, 2001). One way in which we may understand how some of these processes interact is to
consider a model of language comprehension proposed by J. R. Anderson, a cognitive psychologist. According to
this model, the comprehension process consists of three phases which represent different levels of processing:
perception, parsing and utilization. These three phases are recursive and there are extensive overlaps in most cases
(Anderson, 1995).
2.2 Schema
The term “schema” was first used by Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932) who studied the role of memory and
language processing in a natural context. Schema refers to an organized structure of knowledge consisting of past
experiences stored in our long term memory. It is the basis for learning and processing of new information. In the
field of cognitive science, schemata have been referred to as “the building blocks of cognition” (Rumelhart,
1997).
2.3 Schema listening model
Schema listening model is evolved from information–processing model that centers on two kinds of
cognitive process: input, or stimulus-driven, and knowledge, or concept-driven. The term bottom-up and top-down
processing are used by cognitive psycholinguists to refer to these two types of processes respectively.
Encountering explicit signals or stimuli in the environment (such as sounds or images) bottom-up processing is
applied to gather related information on phonology, lexis, syntax and grammar to build up an understanding of
what is perceived. Top-down processing, however, makes use of previous knowledge and experience (schema) to
predict, filter, analyze and interpret the information received. In listening, research has shown that bottom-up
processing generally considered to be low-level process is mainly used to recognize signals through lexical,
syntactic and grammatical knowledge of the listener. On the other hand, top-down processing is considered to be
high-level operations since it involves greater interaction of knowledge and stimuli compared with a mere
recognition of signals. Nonetheless, it is generally believed now that both top-down and bottom-up processing
occur at the same time in what is known as parallel processing (Eysenck, 2001). Since most university students
are generally weak in high-level cognitive operations while listening, top-down processing that emphasizes the
importance of listener’s background knowledge (schemata) and the activation of schemata in enhancing
comprehension of the input is preferred and explicitly explained.

3. Application of Schema Theory in Listening

It is beneficial for listening course teachers to bear in mind that activating students’ stored knowledge
structure (schemata) to enhance comprehension and creating new schemata are far more important than imparting
new knowledge of the language system. Research has also shown that the accumulation of schemata contributes
most to efficient comprehension and retention of new listening material which are getting more difficult as
students progress along the way (Rumelhart, 1997).
Schemata involved in listening can be categorized into two major types: language schema and knowledge

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 Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for non-English major undergraduates

schema.
(1) Language schema. As the basis for listening comprehension, language schema refers to the phonological,
lexical, syntactic and grammatical knowledge that students have already grasped. It is unimaginable to achieve
satisfactory comprehension of the listening material without proper storage of the four basic language knowledge
(Widdowson, 1978). The following are two examples.
Dialogue 1 (lexical schema)
W: Lots of people enjoy dancing, do you?
M: Believe it or not, that is the last thing I want to do.
Q: What does the man mean? (Original question from CET 6, Jan. 2002)
The underlined phrase is a must to know before the student can choose the right answer.
Dialogue 2 (grammatical schema)
W: Oh, my car broke down again! How can I get to the office?
M: Had my car been repaired, I would be happy to lend it to you.
Q: what does the man mean?
Schema about subjunctive mood is the key to correct comprehension in this mini-dialogue.
(2) Knowledge schema. In listening test, a lot of dialogues are taken from typical daily life situations. It is
generally believed that in these typical situations like hotel, restaurant, post office, hospital, book store, library,
airport, bank…etc., the relationship between interlocutors and ways of conversing are comparatively fixed. These
common knowledge when absorbed and stored in people’s memory are called schemata by cognitive
psychologists. The following is a good example taken from authentic exam paper.
W: Gorge, look at the long waiting line. I am glad you’ve made a reservation.
M: More and more people enjoy eating out now. Beside, this place is especially popular with the overseas
students.
Q: Where did the conversation most probably take place?
(original test question from CET-4, June 2003)
“Reservation” in line one quickly activates the schema of restaurant already stored in our memory, which is a
common occurrence in everyday life. With the confirmation of “eating outside” from the second speaker, students
can easily secure the answer to this question.
Cognitive psycholinguists argue that both language schema and knowledge schema are crucial for enhancing
comprehension. Put specifically, schemata are found significant in six aspects according to Anderson (1983): ①
an ideational scaffolding for assimilating text information; ② helpful for attention distribution; ③ helpful for
inferential elaboration; ④ enabling listener to search information from memory in an orderly way; ⑤ useful for
editing and summarizing; ⑥ helpful for inferential reconstruction.
The application of schema theory in my previous years of listening teaching also confirms its effectiveness
and efficiency. After being familiarized with schema theory, my students can easily come to a sensible
understanding that it is unnecessary for them to discern every phoneme, know the meaning of every single word
or to focus on the syntax of every utterance. Instead, they have learned to pay more attention to the matching of
stored schemata and new input information, which, of course, rewards them with both the key information and the
whole picture of the text with a much longer period of retention.

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 Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for non-English major undergraduates

4. Suggestions and Methods

Application of schema theory in listening teaching has shown that comprehension relies greatly on listeners’
successful activation of their prior knowledge (schemata). Psycholinguists doing research on listening also
encourage teachers to help students build more schemata in their memory to achieve better comprehension in
listening. The following are some suggestions to reach this specific goal.
4.1 Activate existing schemata
Since most university students are about 20 years old, who are already endowed with considerable
knowledge storage on society, culture, science and life experience, it can be argued that the key to listening
comprehension lies in the activation of their stored knowledge (schemata). Teachers can easily help students
achieve this through pre-reading activities. Included in the following chart (Table 1) are some successful
techniques developed from my teaching experience with help from relevant research literature on listening (Goh,
2002):
Table 1 Technique to activate stored schemata
Activity How to do Purpose
Brainstorming Call out related words or phrases to be put on the board or OHP
Mind-mapping Write down words or draw simple pictures in a web These
knowledge-oriented
Discussion Discussion similar or related issues based on prompt questions or pictures activities aims to
prepare students by
Games Simple word or information-gap games
encouraging them to
Guide-questions Guess answers to questions on the text activate stored
schemata or acquire
Picture/Diagram Complete illustrations with simple drawings or words relevant types of world
Prediction Predict contents, characters, setting or sequence of events knowledge, which will
facilitate top-down
Elimination Identify the odd one out from a group of pictures or words/phrases processing.
Skimming Read a related short text for gist

4.2 Build new schemata

New schemata can be built during both while-listening and post-listening periods. Goh (2002) suggests
teachers to help students build new schemata by either extending students’ existing schemata or introducing new
knowledge. For instance, after a listening session on Christmas, where the word “boxing day” is involved, a new
schema of people showing their thanks with boxed little gifts on the day right after Christmas to servants, postmen
and cleaners, those who offer them service can be built by relating to the happy Christmas schema. Through
extending the existing schema, students can surely achieve a better understanding of the true spirit of the
traditional western holiday, “Christmas.” Introducing new background knowledge has been proven to be a
successful way of helping students to build new schemata, the accumulation of which generally represents the
progress of students’ listening comprehension ability. The following are some proven effective techniques to
achieve this end: multimedia presentation (teacher using multimedia resources to introduce new knowledge); short
written texts (ask students to write letters, postcards, messages, diaries, dialogues, poems based on the listening
text or to extend it); summaries (students summarize the whole text or a pre-selected part orally or in writing); oral
presentations (students’ short informal presentations of listening outcomes); and role play (students continue the
story or situation by assuming the roles or people in the text, new and unexpected occurrence with due relevance
should be encouraged).

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 Schema theory and its application in teaching listening for non-English major undergraduates

5. Conclusion

It is believed that university students could achieve better progress in listening ability once some major
obstacles in the listening procedure are removed through successful activation and extending of schemata
pertaining to L2 listening comprehension.

References:
Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. 1988. Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Anderson, J. R. 1983. The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Anderson, J. R. 1995. Cognitive psychology and its implications (4th ed.). New York: Freeman.
DING Xiao-zhong. 2006. Detailed analysis of original CET 6 (Newest ed.). Beijing: Academy Press. (in Chinese)
Eysenck, M. W. 2001. Principles of cognitive psychology. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Goh, C. 2002. Teaching listening in the language classroom. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.
Rumelhart, D. E. 1997. The architecture of mind: A connectionist approach. Mass.: MIT Press.
Widdowson, H. G. 1978. Teaching language as communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
XIE Zhong-ming. 2006. Detailed analysis of original CET 4 (Newest ed.). Beijing: Academy Press. (in Chinese)

(Edited by Stella and Hanna)

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