The Schemata Theory and Reading

Introduction Reading achieves a whole person. Almost all of us are conducting the reading process in our daily life, but seldom do we know about how our brains function to understand the text. It is through background knowledge (schemata) that we combine the given text and what we should obtain from it together. That is to say, the more we know about the information in a text, the better we will understand it. The question is, how does our background knowledge work in reading comprehension? Does this effect matter so much that if we nothing about the information in a text, it is hard for us to understand it? This paper will tell you the answer.
1. Definition of Title Variables
1. Definition of Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension has been defined in many ways over the years. C.Nuttall suggests that the overriding purpose to reading is to get the correct message from a text------the message the writer intended for the reader to receive. R.Day and J.S.Park state that the idea of reading has changed and moved from what was considered a receptive process to what is now an interactive process. Reading can be done using a number of processes that can be divided into two main categories: bottom-up processing and top-down processing. Bottom-up processing refers to the reader obtaining meaning from the letters and words of a text and reconstructing the intended message that way. Top-down processing refers to the readers’ ability to look at a text as a whole and to connect and relate it to his existing knowledge base. Both processes are needed to obtain a message from a text.
2. Definition of Schema Background knowledge------also prior knowledge------is supposed to consist of two main components: “our assimilated direct experiences of life and its manifold activities, and our assimilated verbal experiences and encounters” (J.M.Swales, 1990:25). Schemata are accepted as interlocking mental structures representing readers’ knowledge of ordinary events

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