ELT365 · Day 170 — Schema theory: what learners bring to a text

Idea — Schema is the network of prior knowledge a learner activates when reading or listening. Strong schema compensates for weak language; weak schema makes even familiar language confusing.

Example — A learner with no knowledge of baseball reads a match report. Even basic past-tense sentences confuse her — she has no schema to anchor the events. Vocabulary alone will not fix it.

Try — Before your next reading lesson, identify what schema learners need. Spend two minutes activating it: a photo, a question, a fact. Then notice whether comprehension changes.

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