Using Students’ Schemata to Get Access to Effective Reading of Literary Texts: The Case of Undergraduate Students at Abd Al Hamid Ibn Badis University of Mostaganem

Abstract

Reading literary texts has always been acknowledged to be an important process in learning English as a foreign language. The purpose of the present work is to demonstrate the way Algerian master students can better read by shedding light on the impact of schemata that can be cultural, linguistic or/and literary. This study explores such parameters as important elements in identifying the non-native informants’ reading comprehension skills in a controlled group. Moreover, the findings of such investigation have been collected from twenty under- graduate students at Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University of Mostaganem. This thesis is divided into five chapters; the first two chapters highlight the relevance of the empirical studies related to literary reading by reviewing the various approaches of reading theory as proposed by Widdowson (2000, 2007), McVee, Dunsmore & Gavelek (2005), and Bernhardt (2005). I also depict the schema theory in relation to reading with special reference to the reader’s socio-cultural background, linguistic and literary competence. The third chapter discusses the pedagogical as well as the theoretical framework of the study. It tries to provide an explanation for the theoretical analysis with regard to the data collection instruments. In the fourth chapter, I present a methodological description of the procedures adopted in conducting the present empirical study. I also present the analysis of the contextual circumstances under which the students’ and the teachers’ questionnaires were conducted. Regarding the last chapter, it involves the analysis of the collected data from the experiment. At this stage, the data collection required a representation of some statistical and grading operations that are reported under bar graphs, pie charts and tables. As a result, the analysis demonstrates that the students’ background knowledge in terms of cultural, linguistic and literary elements does not necessarily boost the students’ reading comprehension of culturally unfamiliar short fiction. In addition, the analysis also shows that the teachers are necessarily obliged to take into account the students’ profile in their selection of literary texts. In addition, they are EFL master students who are mature and able to deal with any foreign text. In fact, both teachers of literature and their students assert that extensive reading plays a significant role in enhancing the reader’s linguistic and cultural competences. By reading extensively and discovering foreign cultures, the learner becomes more empathetic and tolerant vis-à-vis these literary texts just as s/he becomes skilful in understanding and using the target language. By doing so, the learner’s schemata are in continuous change and therefore become dynamic. Consequently, they allow language learners to enrich and improve their linguistic competence as well as their openness in order to familiarise themselves with foreign cultures. Therefore, the results confirm Cook’s idea about the activation of the mental processes in reading foreign texts. As a conclusion, this exploratory work demonstrates that schema theory is not always necessary in the reading of literary texts in the case of advanced learners in EFL context.