Schema-based Analysis of English Textbooks Designed within a Foreign Language Context

Abstract

The present study aims to linguistically and cognitively analyze all the words comprising three English textbooks taught at advanced levels in a foreign language context. The textual analysis of the books was conducted on the basis of the microstructural approach to schema theory. To this end, eighteen reading passages comprising the textbooks were chosen to be schematically analyzed.  The schemata were parsed, codified and assigned to the semantic, syntactic and parasyntactic domains, which were further subsumed under the genus and species categories. The study was limited to analyzing the semantic, syntactic and parasyntactic domain and genus tokens and types. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were carried out to analyze the data. Results indicated that there were significant differences between semantic domain tokens and types and also syntactic and parasyntactic domain and genus types and tokens. The findings also demonstrated that the semantic schemata were comparatively higher than the syntactic and parasyntactic ones, especially the genus nouns. Additionally, the findings confirmed the empirical and psychological validity of applying schema theory to reading comprehension texts. The implications of the findings are discussed.