User:Brchambers

BUILDING SCHEMA

In Chapter 2 of E.D. Hirsch, Jr.’s book, Cultural Literacy, Hirsch contends that background knowledge is more important to the reading process than previously thought. Hirsch proposes that understanding text depends on relevant background knowledge we have acquired and not given in the text.

Hirsch presents two conflicting hypotheses about how we acquire language. One theory states we interpret meaning in chunks or clauses and store them in long term memory. The other theory suggests we create a complex model of what the words signify and store that. The second theory implies that our background knowledge is conceived as part of the meaning of the text. Experts agree inferences based on prior knowledge are part of meaning from the beginning. The background knowledge we recall is interpreted through categories that have been useful to us in the past. Knowing prototypes in categories such as robin as a class under the category bird is important to applying past knowledge to the comprehension of speech. These prototypes are called schema.

Our schemata (plural for schema) are flexible. We apply past schemata to make sense of what we read but also use words and contextual clues to adjust our choice of schemata. In other words, if we do not know how to connect what we read with larger schemata, we cannot make sense of the words we read.

Schemata have two functions. One function is storing knowledge in a retrievable form. The second function is to organize language. Through these two functions, schemata are applied rapidly thereby causing language to be acquired in efficient ways.

In conclusion, good reading requires us to access already acquired, relevant schemata rapidly. Poor readers are ineffective because they are on cognitive overload. With limited schemata, poor readers have too many things to work out. How do children develop into good readers? Studies have shown children who talk to literate adults have a better chance of becoming good readers than children that do not have the wider speech community.

REFERENCES

Hirsch, E.D., Jr. (1987). The Discovery of the Schema. In, Cultural Literacy (pp. 33 – 69). Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.

AUTHOR

B. Chambers