LITERATURE REVIEW
Level 3: Applied
2.15 ROLE OF THEORY IN THE STUDY
2.15.2 Schema Theory
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(2003), reading and comprehension exercises need to monitor students’
comprehension during reading accurately. Thus, self-regulated behaviour in reading can be identified through monitoring the text when it is understood by the reader, and that readers can also be helped by self-regulated learning models such as the think- aloud strategy, the question strategy and the self-regulatory strategy.
Moreover, evaluation refers to appraising the products and being able to regulate one’s process of learning. This includes being able to re-evaluate one’s goals and conclusions (Schraw & Moshman, 1995: 354). Evaluating has a vital role to play in reading for numerous purposes. It is also considered a post-reading strategy that reveals the needs of students to summarise the main ideas for comprehension of specific texts and to discover supplementary evidence for outside needs. This evaluation strategy assists readers to make an appropriate conclusion about the material, and makes a way to guess the meaning appropriately by devising a plan for further reading strategies (Channa, Nordin, Siming, Chandio & Koondher, 2015: 183).
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the long term memory of the individual. This is the type of knowledge accumulated over a period of time around a particular concept, which enables the reader to understand that concept (Nwachukwu, 2017: 27).
Comprehending a text implies that one has found a mental ‘home’ for the information in the text, or else he or she has modified an existing mental home in order to accommodate that new information (Anderson & Person, 1988: 38). The schema theory explains comprehension by pointing out that a reader comprehend a meaning when he or she can activate a schema that offers a sufficient account of the events and objects in the message. What differentiates between a person who is more competent compared to one who is less competent in any field, including reading, is the amount of knowledge possessed in the long term memory of an individual (Gerald, 1996).
According to the schema theory, it is the type of knowledge accumulated over a period of time around a particular concept that will enable the reader to understand that particular concept. The idea of schema was proposed by Bartlet, who defined it as the organisation of information or past experience kept in the memory of the reader. The schema theory is a reading model aimed to explain that reading can be seen as an interactive process between the text and the reader’s background knowledge (Bartlet, 1932). Background knowledge is the schema that is formed from past experiences of the reader, and helps with reading comprehension. The theory is based on pre-existing prior knowledge, selection and reader-driven process connotations (Xiao, 2016: 186):
Prior knowledge in the reader’s mind is a prerequisite for acquiring new information.
The argument is that new information is easily acquired when there is relevant pre- existing knowledge. Being able to select information that is in the schema is very significant to enhance reading. As such, acquisition and comprehension rely not only on pre-existing knowledge, but the ability to retrieve relevant background knowledge.
Readers often approach the meaning of a text based on their cultural and social background. Therefore, they will relate to the text differently by taking into account their different cultural and social backgrounds. The schema theory is divided into linguistic, formal as well as content schemata (Pour-Mohammadi & Abidin, 2011: 238):
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Linguistic schemata are described as one having the knowledge of letters and the sounds they make. Basically, this is the knowledge of vocabulary and grammar (Eskey, 1988). Linguistic schemata, which is the foundation of comprehending reading, refers to language knowledge and material (Jian-ping & Li-sha, 2016: 15).
Students who do not obtain ample linguistic schema will not be able to understand linguistic information. As such, they will not be able to activate the content and formal schemata related to the subject. This category is in line with suggestions by the bottom-up model, that reading is based on the knowledge and awareness of smallest linguistic components such as letters and their sounds, words and so on (Cailing, 2016: 35).
Formal schemata are about possessing knowledge of the organisation and pattern of printed words, and influences the rate in which the reader will be able to understand the text. However, Smith (1994) argues that formal schemata refers to the way in which texts differ. This means that a reading text can be a fictional work, a letter to the editor, or a scientific essay. Each of these reading texts would have a different structural organisation. Carrel and Esterhold (1983) refer to formal schemata as the macrostructure of a text. The argument is that students should understand the information offered to them if the style and the writing pattern of a passage is familiar to them.
Content schemata suggests that the reader’s background knowledge influences the reader’s acquisition of knowledge. Content schemata refers to the background knowledge of the text’s content area (Carreli & Eisterhold (1983). This incorporates cultural background knowledge, previous experience, related information of a text, et cetera (Jian-ping & Li-sha, 2016: 15). Content schemata is, in most cases, specific to a particular culture. Each person has their own life experiences. As such, the schema will also be different to an individual. The argument is that content schema can, to a certain extent, make up for the shortage in linguistic schema and can enhance students’ comprehension. Characteristics of content schemata are that they are meaningfully organised; they can be added into as one grows in learning; they are always developing to include more variables and speciality; and there are other subschemata which formulate as each schema gets embedded in other schemata.
Schemata also evolves each moment as new information is presented. They assist us
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to understand, interpret and remember incoming information; they are useful for making inferences, reason evaluation and many more; and they help form a whole which is greater than the sum of their parts (Cailing, 2016: 36).