高中学生英语阅读策略的使用和培训分析

阅读是外语学习中最基本的也是最重要的技能之一，阅读能力的提高是高中

阶段英语学习的t-要目标之一。然而，许多高中生在经过高中三年的学习之后，

英语阅读能力并没有明显提高。甚至越来越多的学生丧失了学习英语的兴趣。因

此，在高中阶段外语教师面临着许多挑战。其中之一就是学生无法进行流利的阅读，

无法从阅读中获得阅读的快乐。虽然他们在英语学习和英语阅读t花了

很多时间，可是效果确不令人满意。这一现象引起了众多语言学家和英语教师的关

注。

自二十世纪七十年代以来，英语教学的研究更关注学生的学的过程，第二语

言学习策略的研究成为第二语言习得研究领域的一个新热点。而关于阅读策略与

阅读成绩的关系以及阅读的培训是策略研究的一个重要方面。

本文综述了阅读理解策略和阅读理解策略的研究现状，阐述了心理语言学和认

知心理学关于阅读的心理过程的某些理论和模式，并以此为理论依据，通过为期十

周的实验对高中学生使用不同阅读策略的情况以及在教学中培养这些策略的有效性

进行了研究。实验旨在回答以下问题。1）阅读能力强与阅读能力弱的学生

在阅读过程中使用策略的情况是否存在差异？2）阅读理解能力是否可通过策略培

训得以提高？

实验分两个阶段进行，第一阶段主要是利用调查问卷的形式调查阅读能力强

与阅读能力弱的高中学生在阅读过程中使用策略的情况，其结果显示阅读能力强

与阅读能力弱的高中学生在阅读过程中都不同程度地使用了阅读策略。在使用策

略方面总体上没有显著差异。

第二阶段为策略培训11阶段。将受试者分为两组-实验组和控制组，实验组接受

为期十周的策略培训，控制组不接受任何培训，通过实验前后测试结果的对比分析

发现阅读理解能力nJ通过阅读策略的培训得以提高。

全义-共分li个部分。第一章简要介绍了全j（牛的内容，第二章作为本研究的理

论框架综述了心理语言学和认知心理学关于阅读的心理过程的某些理论和模式。第

二二章详细介绍了本研究的实验对象，工具，步骤.第四章收集了数据并对其数据进

行了分析和解释。最后一章讨论了本研究的研究结果，对教学的启示和存在的问题。

关键词：阅读策略，阅读策略使用，阅读策略培训，阅读能力，中学生

Abstract

ReadingisanessentialandimportantskillforEnglishasforeignlanguagestudents.

Inseniormiddleschool,improvingstudents'readingcomprehensionabilityisoneof

m句。rachievementsinEnglishteaching.However,aS.er也reeye缸gstudy,many

middle

schoolstudentshavenotobviousimprovementinEnglishreading.Onthecontrary,

moreandmorestudentsbecome1essandlessinterestedinEnglishleorjning.

ManyseniorMiddleEnglishteachersfacemanychallenges,

oneofwhichisthatmanystudents缸enotactivewi白thetextinameaningful

wayandmuchoftheirreadingis

notinfluent.AlthoughtheyspendmuchtimeinEnglishreading,theresultisnot

satisfactory.Moreandmoreresearchersandteachersfocusonthesolutiontothe

problem.

SincePile1970s,sei®ondlanguagerese哑chinteresthasshiftedfromhowtoteach

tohowtoleam.Researcherspaymoreattentiontolearningprocess.Sotherehas

beena

greatupsurgeinresearchonsecondlanguagelearningstrategies.Researcherstrytofind

outasolutiontotheproblemonreadingdifficultybystudyingreadingstrategiesuse

andtraining.Fromtheviewofpsycholinguisticsandcognitivepsychologythispaper

reviewedtheliteratureofreadingtheoriesandreadingmodels.Italsoreviewedthe

literatureofthepreviousresearchorreadingstrategies.Basedonthesetheor|企缶［nes,a

ten-weekexperimentwascarriedoutinordertoprobeintotheeffectivenessofstrategy

training.Theexperimentwasdesignedtoanswer由efollowingquestions.!)Isthereany

differencebetweenefficientandnon-efficlentreadersinstrategyuseinEnglishreading?

2)Canreadingcomprehensionabilitybeimprovedbystrategytraining?Theexperiment

w山dividedintotwophase.Inthefirstphase1designedaquestionnaireinordertolind

outthedifferencebetweentheefficientandnon-efficientreadersinreadingstrategyuse

onEnglishreading.Theresultshowedthattherewasnosignificantdifferencebetween

thesetwogroups.Inthesecondphase1carriedoutstrategyraining.Twoclasses

participatedintheexperiment.Oneisanexperimentalclass,receivingstrategytraining

onreadingwhiletheother(controlgroup)didn't.Bycomparing出eresultsofthe

pretestandposttestbythetwogroups,theeffectivenessofstrategytrainingwas

examined.Theresultofdataanalysisindicatedthat1)readingcompetencecanbe

improvedbystrategytraining.Italsoshowedthatintegratingthestrategytraininginto

theroutinetrainingwasquitefeasibleandeffective.

Thesispaperisorganizedas削lows:

Cba旦旦旦旦introducesthegeneralgoalofthepresentresearch.

E且且应徨C王里且reviewedtheliteraturecloselyrelatedtothepresentstudy.

Readingiscognitiveactivity,aboutwhichtherehavebeenvarioushypothesesconcerning

itsnatureandprocess,forinstance,Gough'sbottom-upmodel,top-downmodel

and

interactivemodels.

CbaDterTbreeintroducesttleproceduresoftheew.pefirnent

CbaDterFourisconcernedwithdataanalysisandfmdingsfromthequestionnaire

andthee在perirnent.

E且呈且perF草草drawsaconclusionfromtheexperimentwiththedisiussionon

its

pedagogicalimplications.

Keywords:readingstrategies,readingstrategyuse,readingstrategytraining,

readingcompetence,seniormiddlestudents

Acknowledgement

1wouldliketogivemyspecialthankstomysupervisor,ProfessorWangQiuhaiof

CapitalNormalUniversity,whohasgivenmeastep-by-step-guidancepatiently,read

throughthedraftofmythesisandgivenmemanyvaluablesuggestions.Overthe

months,heofferedmehishelp,supportandencouragement.Withouthishelp,this

thesiswouldn'thavebeenfinished

Mygratitudealsogoes\0ProfessorLinLi,whohasgivenmea101ofvaluable

suggestions.

Twouldliketotakethisopportunitytoth础Ikalltheprofessorswhogaveme

lectures.ProfessorChenHong,HeXiangming,LiuBeili,QiQiandRenZhen

IwouldliketopaymysinceregratitudetoDoctorJiaPeizhenginPeking

Universityforhisassistanceindataanalyzing

1alsogivemythankstoYangXiuhuan,whoha5givenmealotofhelpinwriting

mythesis

Furthermore,1amgratefultomyparentsandhusbandfbrtheirunbelievable

5Upportandunderstalingthroughentirethesiswritingproces5.

La51butnotleast,1amgratefultomystudentswhowere50cooperativeinthe

experiment

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

CHAPTERONE

INTRODUCTION

ReadingisanessentialskillforEnglishasasecond(foreignlanguage(ESLIEFL)

students,andformany,readingisthemostimportantskilltomaster.Withstrengthened

readingskills,ESLJgFLrcoderswillmakegreaterprogressanda忧副ngreaterdevelopment

in

allcoademicare山(Anderson,J.,1999,pl).Duetoi也Importance、inChiniwseEFL

teaching

classroomreadingisuniversallyandofficiallyacknowledgedtobeapriorlan伊ageskill.

Itconstitutesnearly30%of伽leNationalMatriculationEnglishTest(NMET)p呻er

andamajorpartofEnglish忧郁hinginSeniorSchool.HoMever,theresults缸'en创

satisfactory.Althoughmanystudentsspendalotoftimeinreading,也ystillfeelitvery

hardtoimprove

readingproficiencyindailyreadingandeliminations.Studentsarenotactivelyengagedwith

thete汉tmm币anin唱fulway.r|leycannotreapthejoyofreading.Soin出eEFLteaching

Bachersfacemanychallenges.Onegreatchallengeis由atevenwhenstudentscanread

in

也elrseO°ndlanguage,muchof也eirreadingisnotfluent.Theymaybemovi吨throughit

one

wordatatime(Anderson,1999,p1)

Modernpsychologicallinguistsandcognitivelinguistsdeemreadingasacomplicated,

activelythinkingpsychologicalcotivity.Itisamentalprogressinwhichthereaderactively

cooperateshisorherknowledgewithtextualinformation.Readingisnotapassive，butrather

activeprocossUnderstanding白eprocessofreadinghasbeenthefocusofmuchresearch.

Modelsofho1树theprintedte农tisunderstoodhaveemerged企omtheseresearches.These

modelscanbedividedincothesecategories:bottom-upmodel,top-downmodel,the

interactivemodelandtheschema-theoreticmodel

Sincethe1970s,studiesinEnglishte且chingandlearninghaveshiftedtheirmainconcern

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

fromteachers'teachingtostudentslearning.Increasingnumbersofstudieshavebeen

undertakenfrom由estudents'perspective.Thesestudieshaveuncoveredthefactthatlearners

canbetrainedtotakemoreresponsibilityforhowandwhat由分learned.Oxford(1989)

explaineddirectandindirectlearningstrategies,whichappliedtothefomlanguageskills.He

didn'tonlyintroducethepracticeoftheselearningstrategies;butheaJsopresentedexamples

oflanguagelearningstrategiesinactionaround由eworld.Theresultsshowthatlearnerswho

receivestrategytraininggenerallylearnbetterthanthosewhodon'tandthatcertain

techniquesforsuchtrainingaremorebeneficia.]themothers.O'MalleyandChamot(1990,p2)

suggestthatlearningstrategiesarenotthepreserveofhighlycapableindividuals,butcouldbe

learnedbyotherswhohadnotdiscoveredthemontheirown.Threfore,manylinguisticsand

researcherswho缸eengagedinstudyingL2-teachingandlearninghavefocusedtheirstudy

uponthenotionthatlearningstrategiesplayanimportantpartinsuccessfullanguagelearning.

qlenotionthatspeciallearners1techniques。厂s田.Xegiesmightassistlanguage

acquisitionarousesinterestinreadingstrategies.Agreatdea]ofstudieswereconductedina

secondlanguagemainly缸1)thestrfi'Jegiesusedbythegoodlanguageletoners;2)

thedifferencebetweengoodandpoorlearnersinstrategyuse;3)therelationship

between

strategyuseandlanguagelearningoutcomes;4)factorsthataffectlearners'strategies;5)the

affectofstrategytraining

1.1MotivationforthePresent

Study

InChinnyresearchonEnglishlearningstrategyhasbegunfromtheearly1980sandhas

beenincreasinginrecentye缸s.Studieshavebeenmadetofindout由edifferencein

readingstrategyeobetweensuccessfulleamersandunsuccessfullearners.However,muchof

research

z

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

sofarhasbeenfocusedoncollegeoruniversitystudentsofEnglish.Littleresearchhasbeen

z

AStt且dyinReal.lingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHigh

doneonseniorstudents.AsanEFLteacher,1haveresponsibilitytoknowhowtoteach

readingeffectivelyandhelpmystudentssolvetheirproblems.Formanystud阳ts与when

theyenterseniormiddleschooltheyfind也eymeetm缸lydifficultiesinreading.矶li出

moreandmoredifficultyin0°mprehension,theybecamelessandlessinterestedin

reading.SincelearningstrategytraininghasbeentestedtobebeneficialtoEFLstuden邸，

1intendtocarryo咀t

anempiricalstudyinmyschoolwith由南aimofimprovingstuden饵，readingcomprehension

competence.Thus,thepresentstudyfromtheSeniorStudents*perspectivehasitsrealistic

significancer|lIspresentstudyattemptstoaddressthefollowingtwoquestions:

1.Isthere创lydifferencebetweenefficientandnon-efficientreadersinstrategyusein

Englishreading?

2.Canshor!-timereadingstrategiestrainingimprovethestud阳ts'reading

comprehensioncompete咀ce?

12OverviewoftheThesis

Thispaperisorganizedasfollows:

Q!旦皿££阜黯se凹esasanintroduction.Itintroducesthegeneralgoalofthepresent

r臼巳在rch.ChapterTworeviewsbrieflytherelatedtheories.Frompsycholinguisticand

cognitivelinguisticperspectives,itdescribesindetailtheprocessofreadinganduseof

strategiesinthisprocess.Thepurposeistosetatheoreticalframeworkforthepresentstudy,

CSumterThreeintroduces也eproceduresoftheexperiment,which^^ztainstwophases.

Phase1isapreOratorystageforPhase11.In由isphasequestionnaires山ueyiscarried

out

tomakesurewhetherthereisdifferencebetweentheefficientreadersandnon-efficient

readers.Phase11isaten-weekstrategytraining.Basedonthedatacollected,aconclusionis

3

AStt且dyinReal.lingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHigh

reached.ChapterFourcollectsthedatafromthequwtionnaireinstrategyuseanddata

from

4

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

thepr-testandpost-阳tinstrategytr出ning.且踵旦Z草草arjivesataconclusionfrom

the

questionnaireandtheexperimentwithadisc山田ononitspedagogicalimplications.

5

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

CHAPTERTwo

LITERATUREREVIEW

Inthischapter1introducedreadingmodejsandsomeoftheearlystudiesonreading

strategiesinsecondlanguageacquisitionandcognitivepsychologyinordertoestablisha

仕ameworkfordescribingtheresearchpresentedinlaterchapters

2.1AbriefIntroductionofReadingModels

Understanding出eprocessofreadinghasbeenthefbcusofmuchresearch.Modelsof

howtheprintedtextisunderstoodhaveemergedfromthisresearch(Goo也nan,1973,1976;

Gough,1985;Rumelhart,1985;Stanovich,1980,citedinCarreletahi988).Th巳semodels

canbedividedinto也reecategories:bottom-upmodel,top-downmodel,theinteractivemodel

andtheschema-theoreticmode1.

Earlyworkinsecondlanguagereading部sumedreadingasadecodingprocess.Readers

reconstructedtileaudlor'sintendmeaningviarecognizing也eprintedlettersandwords,

andbuildingupameaningforatext企omthesmallesttextualunitsatthe"bottom"tolarger

and

largerunitsatthe"top"(CarreletaL1988,p553-73)

Before1970s,therewasrecognitionof也eimportan00ofbackgroundknowledgein

secondlanguagereadingcomprehension.Thestrongbondbetweencultureandlanguage

couldhelpanonnativereadertoknowa°Anpleteunderstandingofthemeaningofatext.

In1970s,theso-calledpsycholinguisticmodejofreadingbegantohaveanimpacton

viewsofsecondlanguagereading.Goodman(1971)describedreadingasa"psycholinguistic

suessingg缸ne"inwhichthereaderreconstructs,asbestashec可Lamessagewhichhas

been

encodedbya啊iterasagraphicdisplay”(citedinCarreletal,1988,pp553刁3).According

5

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

toGoodman'sview，由巳readerpredictsmeaningbyrelating

predictionstohisorherpast

5

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

experienceandknowledgeofthelanguage.Severalotherre臼dingexpertscharacterizedit

asbasicallyacoPdownpattern

Onlysince1979hasatrulycop-downapproachbeenadvancedinsecondlanguage

reading.Inthetop-downviewofsecondlanguagereading,thereaderisanactiveparticipmi

t

inthereadingprocess.Thereadermakespredictions缸Idprocessesinformation,andhisor

herpriorexperienceplaysasignificantrole.Onewaytolookatthedifferencesbetweentop-

down

andbottom-upmodelsisthatbottoin-upmodelsstartwi也theprintedandworktheirway

uptothehigher-le咽1stages,whereasthetop-downmodelsstartwithhypothesesand

predictionsandattemptwverifythembyworkingdownto由eprintedstimuli.

Top-downmodelshaveproblans,oneofwhichisthatifthereaderhaslittleknowledge

ofthetopic,hecan'tgeneratepredictio悦.Eventheskilledreaderhastoneedtime

to

recognizethewords

SoStanovich(1980)hasattemptedtoincorporatethesetworeadingmodelsintothe

interactive-compensatorymodel.Akeyconceptis由at”aprocessatanylevelcancompensate

fordeficienciesatanyotherlevel(Carrelletal,1983).

2.1.1BOttOm唱

pModel

Bottom-upmodels(data-drivenmodel)dependprimarilyontheinformationpresented

bythetext.Thatinformationisproces部dfromletterfeaturestoletterstowordsto

meaning

(Arderson,1999,p2).

Bo忱。m-upprocessingisassignedthefunctionofdecodingindividuallinguisticunits

andbuildingtextualmeaningfromthesmallestunittothelargest,andthenmodifyingpre-

6

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

existingbackgroundknowledgeandcurrentpredictionsonthebasisofinformation

encounteredinthe

6

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

text.Thismodeldepictstheinformationflowinaseriesofdiscretestagesitheachstage

transformingtheinputandthenpassingtherecordedinformationontothenexthigherstage

foradditionaltransformationandrecoding.

Tostateitmoreaccurately.thismodelassumesthatareaderproceedstoreadbymoving

hiseyesfromlefttorightacrossthepage9firsttakinginletters,thencombiningthewordsto

formthephrases,clauses,andsentencesofthetext.

Butpsycholinguistsandreadingresearchesfindthatsuchmodelistoosimpletoexplain

thecomplexprocessofreadingjjleyfindthat,al由。thereaderhastheabilitytocombine

letterstoformwordsandthemeaningsofwordstogetthemeaningsofsentences,itdoesnot

necessarilymeanthathefullycomprehends由etextandreallyunderstandstheauthor's

intentioninwritingthetext.Moreover,ratherthanbeinganactiveinformation-processor,

reader'sroleinthismodelistotallypassiveone.Obviously,theBottom-upModelis

unsatisfuctoiyinexplainingtheprocessofreadingcomprehension.

2.12Top-downModel

Incontracttobottom-upmodels,top-downmodelsaredramaticallyopposed(Stanovih,

1980)a)出oselower-levelprocess.Thismodelisalsocalledpsycholinguisticmodelevolved

也扭扭1(1976;1971)andSmith's(1971;1973)researchwork(citedinCarrell,1988)

Goodmandescribedreadingas,fapsycholinguisticguessingg缸ne”.Goodmanviewsthisact

oftheconstructionofffi＜巳缸血gasbeinganongoi吨，cyclicalprocessofsamplingfromthe

inputtextjpredicting,testingandconfirmingorrevisingthosepredictions,andsampling

也

却由夕刷刷inCarrell&Eisterhold,1983fpp553-73).Atthesame(1971)claims

thatreadingcomprehensionistheresultoftheprogress也roughatextasaseriesofchoices

constrainedbybothinternalandexternalvariables.Then,thereadershouldemploysome

吁

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

appropriatestrategiestodealwithsuchvariables_TheprocessiscarriedoutasGoodman

(1975,p22-37)describes...thereaderdoesnotusealltheinformationavailabletohim.

Readingisaprocessinwhichthereaderpicksandchoosesfromtheavailableinformation

onlyenoughtoselectandpredictalanguagestructurewhichisdecodable.Itisnotinauy

senseaprecisepercep[>0alprocess.Th。，meansthatthereaderneednotreadtheevery

wordsincehecanmakesoundpredictions.

However,beingprimarilyco〃cept-drive/i,comp缸一edwi也bot尤。m-upmodel,themodel

seemstoanotherexH'eme,thatis,itistoo-independent.Eskey(1989,p93)statesas

follows

Top-(±>wnmodelsdohavesomelimitalion.Theytend(oemphas&esuch

higher-levelskillscoprediction(1me田lingbymeans0Icontextcluesorcertain

kindsolbac险roundknowledgeattheexpense01suchlower-levelskillasthe

rapidand

accurateidentificationollexicalandgrammaticallorms.Themodeltheypromoteis

anaccuratemodel01theskilled,jluentreader,lorwhomperceptionanddecoding

havebecomeautomatic,butlorthe/essprojlcient,devel,Dtpingreaderlike

mosl

secondlanguagereaders,thismodeldoesnIprovideatruepiclure01theproblems

suchreaderssurmounl.

Therefore,itisworthexamininganotherdominantmodel.-TheInteractiveModel

2.1.3InteractiveModel

Althoughlogicallywemightexpect白atweoughttounderstandtheplainsenseifweare

tounderstandan只hingelse,inpracticeareadercontinuallyshiftsfromoncefocustoanoth缸,

nowadoptingatop-do刑1approachtopredicttheprobableme明in窑，then

movingtothebottom-upapproachtocheckwhetherthatis

reallywhatthewritersays.Thishasbecome

8

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

knownasinteractivereading(Nuttai,C,1996,pl7)

9

AStudyinReadingStrategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

Grabe(1989)hasdiscussedreadingas也eprocessofcombiningtextualinformationwith

theinfonnationareaderbringstoatext

Inthe1970s,beginningwithRwnelhart(1977),researcheshaveproposedinteractiveof

readingwhich缸guethatlower-levelandhigher-levelprocessworktogetherinteractivelyas

partsofthereadingprocess.Rumelhart(1977)suggesHthat"readingisatoncea>perceptual'

anda'cognitive1process.Hedemonstratestheiniluenceofsyntactic,semantic,lexicalandor

orthographicinformationonthereader'sperceptionofprint(Barnett,1989,p27).He

proposedaninteractivemodel.Itdemandsthesimultaneityofbottom-upandtop-down

processingandpermitswhatarecontainedinhigherstagesofprocessingtoiniluencethe

analysisoccursatlowerstagesofprocessing.Stanovich(1980)addsanewfeaturetothe

interactiveRumelhartModelbysuggestingthatsftengthinoneprocessingstage

can

compensateforweaknessinanother.Interactivemodelsassume白atapatternissynthesized

basedoninformationprovidedsimuItaneously力口mseveralknowledgesources.The

compensatoryassumptionstates也就adeficitinanyknowledgeresultsinaheavierhierarchy

onotherknowledgesources,regardlessoftheirlevelintileprocessinghierarchy.(Samulesand

Kamil,1994).Sogoodreadersarethosewhocanefficientlyintegratebothbottom-upmodel

andtop-downmodel.

2.1.4TheSchema-theoryModel

Theroleofbackgroundknowledgeinlanguagecomprehensionhasbeenformalizedas

schematheory(CarrellandEisterhold，1983,pp553-73).Accordingtoschemathe町，

comprehendingatextisaninteractiveprocessbetweenthereader'sbackgroundknowledge

andthetext.Inthelate1970s,theschemaresearchflourishedandisextendedtoreading

rese缸ih.

9

ASPndyinReadingStrate蜀lUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

AndersonandPearson(1984,p37-53)statethataschemaisanabstractknowledge

structurewhichreaderhaspreviouslyacquiredandbringstocom伊ehendthetextwhile

reading.Thispre叩iouslyacquiredknowledgeiscalledthereader'sbackground

knowledgeandthepreviouslyacquiredknowledgestructnlesarecalledschema...rfile

roleofabackgroundknowledgeinlanguagecomprehensionhasbeentormalizedasschema

由eory.

Accordingtoschema-reading也eory,schemareferstotheknowledgereadersbringto

atext.Researchonthecomprehendingatextisaninteractionbetweenthereader's

backgroundknowledgeandthetext.Thericherbackgroundknowledgethereaderhas,the

betterreading

comprehensionhewillget.

Differenttypesofschemaarecreatedtoscoreavarietyoftypesofknowledgethat

togetherconstitutetheindividuafsbackgroundknowledge.Amongtheentireschema,three

缸efundamental,i.e,languageschema,formalschemaandcontentschema.Languageschema

referstotilelearn0]、priorknowledgeofthelinguisticul世钮,andofthelexical,syntactic,

and

semanticsystemsofthelanguage;formalschemarefersto也eleam町'sbackground

knowledgeoftheformal,rhetoricalorganizationalstructuresofdifferenttypesoftexts;

contentschemareferstothelearner'sbackgroundknowledgeofthecontent制6aoftext.Toa

largeexte时，thereader'scomprehensionreliesontheinteractionofthese由reeforms

of

schemawiththelangua肘，theformandcontentofthetext.

Schemapromotesunderstandingbylinkingwhathasbeenwrittenonthetextwithwhat

thereaderhasalreadyknownaboutthewriter,thecontextandworldaltogether.

Figurelisasimplewayofshowinghowreader'sexperienceissh缸edwiththewriter.

Theshadedareawherethetwocirclesoverlaprepresentsthethingsthetwopeoplehavein

10

AStudyinReading段rategyUseandTraininginSeniorHighSchool

common.Inthis缸eaalltheknowledgethattheysh缸edwithwiljbeincluded.Inthe

unsharedareasarethethingsthatarenotsh缸ed.Thegreaterthesizeofthesharedarea,

theeasier

communicationwillbe.

writerreader

Figurel:AreaofSharedAssumptions

Source:ChristaineNu忱all(1996)

2.1.5WhatMakesaTextDifficult?

Toliirowsomelightsonthisquestion,Nuttall(1996)examinedintheactivitysometexts

世18tmanypeoplewouldfinddifficult.Aftertheexamination,hefoundthatreadersshared

thefollowingdifficulty

1.Readers町百notfamiliarwiththecodeinwhichitiswritten.Soaprerequisitefbr

satisfactorycommunicationisthatwriterandreadershouldsharethes臼necode

2.TheReaders1languageknowledgeislimited.Theyar毡puzzledbythecomplexof

conceptsexpressed.Thedi伍cultliesnotinthelanguage，andnotinknowledgethereader

requires,butinthecomplexoftheconceptsexpressed.

3.Thedifficultliesnotinthelackofyourpreviousknowledgeoncertainsubject,thatis,

theweakerknowslittleaboutthisfield.

4.Reader'svocabularyislintttted.

FromFigure1andthedifficultyreadershaveinunderstandingatextwecans四

howimportantitis出atthereaderandwritershouldhavecertainthingin

commonif

11

communicationistotakeplace.Amoreinterestingrequirementisthatreaderandwriter

11