Abstract:

Among listening, speaking, reading and writing, listening is one of the four skills of language. It is not difficult to see the importance of English listening in the proportion of college English tests such as CET 4, CET 6, TEM-4, TEM-8 and some other tests such as IELTS and TOEFL. However, for a long time, listening comprehension has been believed to be a passive process, as a result, it is very difficult to improve the students’ listening abilities. However, the application of Schema Theory in listening learning can enhance students’ interests and activities and overcome the disadvantages in traditional listening learning so as to help to improve students’ English listening abilities. Schema knowledge generally fall into three categories: language schema, content schema and form schema. From the perspective of Schema Theory, the process of listening comprehension is an interactive mode, it includes bottom-up and top-down modes. According to these models, the process of listening comprehension is that of interaction between the listeners’ background knowledge and the listening contexts. Therefore, Schema Theory has played an important guiding role in college English listening. 

Key words: Schema Theory; college English listening; background knowledge

摘要: 听力是语言的听、说、读、写四项技能中的一种。从大学英语能力测试诸如CET-4、CET-6以及GILE、IELTS和TOEFL听力的权重不难看出英语听力的重要性。长期以来,听力理解被认为是一个被动的听辨过程,因而学生听力能力很难得到提高。然而,运用图式理论的听力学习可以增强听力的趣味性,学习的主动性,有助于克服传统听力学习的弊端,从而有效提高学生英语听力能力。图式知识一般分为三类：语言图式、内容图式、形式图式。从图式理论的角度看,听力理解的过程是一种互动模式,它包括自下而上与自上而下两种结合的互动模式。根据这种模式,听力理解过程就是听者的背景知识与所听课文相互作用的过程。因此,图式理论对大学听力教学有着重要的指导意义。

关键词: 图式理论；大学英语听力；背景知识

Introduction
It is well known that Schema Theory plays an important role in English teaching. English listening is one of the four important skills in the course of English learning. The results of many surveys predict that many college students show poor abilities in their English listening. Therefore, in order to improve college students’ abilities in English listening, we consider it necessary to apply the Schema Theory into listening comprehension.
In this paper, the author is going to focus the application of Schema Theory on English listening comprehension and aim to discuss the function of Schema Theory in the hope that it is useful for listeners to improve their abilities in English listening   comprehension.