Schema activation in listening through movies

Lee, Ji Hyun

Article

Journal of English Teaching through Movies and Media 2010;11(2):163-182.
Published online December 30, 2010.

Schema activation in listening through movies

Ji Hyun Lee

스키마 활성화를 통한 듣기능력 신장 방안

이지현

Abstract

To investigate the effect of schema activation in listening, 60 low-intermediate level college students were studied during instruction using movies. Both the experimental group (n=30) and the control group (n=30) had watched the movies before they began to listen to them. The experimental group was forced to listen actively during listening. That is, they listened thinking of the schema they had from movies such as the situation, context, actors' expressions and intonation. The instructor encouraged them to use the learners' schema from the movies. The control group listened to the same movies but in a 'traditional way' with the instructor focusing on linguistic knowledge such as grammatical structures. For the control group, no link was made between the schema and the listening. Two achievement tests for understanding of content words, function words, and routines were given. Overall both groups improved in the second test compared to the first one but the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in content words and routines. Results suggest that 1) when the schema activation is drawn on, the listening effect is increased, and 2) movies positively affect L2 listening performance.

Key Words: listening;schema;schema activation;movie listening;low-intermediate listener