The Effect of Background Knowledge On Chinese EFL Learners' Reading

With lots of researches concerning reading, the effect of background knowledge on L2 reading comprehension has been in the spotlight. This research aims at finding out the role of background knowledge on reading when Chinese EFL readers have certain linguistic proficiency. A group of advanced freshmen of Shandong Agricultural University takes part in the research. The results speak loud for our present situation in China's EFL teaching: advocation of culture teaching.

An Empirical Study on the Genetically Modified Food Risk Perceived by the College Students with Different Majors

The debate about the safety of genetically modified foods has never stopped,and different consumers have different judgments. On the basis of literature research,this paper designs the corresponding questionnaire for empirical analysis. With the college students as the object of study,this paper explores the differences in perceived genetically modified food risk by the college students with different majors,as well as the differences in the information processing mode adopted by the college students with different majors,and the differences in the perceived risk after adopting different information processing mode. The results show that there are significant differences in the perceived genetically modified food risk among the college students with different majors,the economics students have the highest average perceived risk; there are also significant differences in the information processing mode adopted by the college students with different majors,and the perceived risk is different when using the heuristic information processing mode.

Application of Schema Theory in Reading Teaching

Schema theory plays an important role in College English reading teaching.During the reading courses,teachers should try to activate the students' background knowledge and build up the rhetorical schema by using topic sentences and key words of a text,which can help the students get a better understanding of the text.

The Impact of Pre-listening Activities on Predictions in English Listening Comprehension

The study intends to find out the impact of pre-listening activities on predictions in English listening comprehension.Based on the analysis of the verbal reports of the 8 subjects, listeners facilitated with the pre-listening activities were able to have a more detailed and complete predictions of the text content and their evaluation of their own listening comprehension showed more consistency with the predictions. Both vocabulary and background knowledge provided in the pre-listening activities were significant in the process. Whereas, listeners lacking the pre-listening activities could have some misleading predictions of the text content which were beyond the original listening texts.

Applying Schema Theory to EFL Reading and Listening

Schema theory has strong effects on our comprehension and has profound influences on EFL reading and listening.Both formal schema and content schema affects our understanding and interpretation of the text greatly. Based on schema theory, ways like developing vocabulary, reading relevant materials in learners' first language, introducing different types of text are useful to develop background knowledge, thus will facilitate reading and listening comprehension.

Factors Influencing Listening Comprehension of English Radio News Broadcasts

Several factors influence listening comprehension of English radio news broadcasts. The study adopted a questionnaire to investigate students' recognition of these factors. On the basis of this analysis, students put emphasis on vocabulary and background knowledge and they were aware of the approaches to better listening comprehension and making some practical preparations before doing the listening tasks. However some differences exist between the effective listeners and less-effective listeners,specially regarding to speech rate and out-of-class relevant practice.

A RESEARCH INTO THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE ON BUSINESS ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

With the arrival of the new millennium,the demand fortalented people with both professional knowledge and excellentlanguage abilities is getting stronger and stronger.For business major students,reading is paramount inBusiness English teaching and learning.And their reading abilityis often assessed by a text of reading comprehension.However,from my experience as a college teacher ofBusiness English,I have noticed some problems among studentswho have little knowledge of business.They seem to readBusiness English materials at a slower rate and with lessunderstanding than general English materials.Then there is the question:is Business English reading"simply"a problem of language competence? Or are there anyother more important factors?This article is an investigation into the effect of backgroundknowledge on Business English reading comprehension.Thestudy attempts to assess to what extent L2 readers might beaffected because of their lack of a background schematapresupposed by the author by comparing the test results of twopassages comparable in language lightness or heaviness.Morecomparable passages like these can be used in investigating intothe rival effects of background knowledge and linguisticcompetence.The implications of comprehension theory for L2pedagogy are discussed and suggestions for Business Englishteaching is put forward.