Reading Obstacles and Strategies from the Perspective of Schema Theory: A Case Study of Senior English Majors in Northwestern Polytechnical University

Drawing on schema theory, this qualitative study explores reading obstacles English learners face, the causes of these obstacles and the reading strategies being used in reading. Three main themes emerged, which are a) reading obstacles encountered by English learners: reading obstacles of receiving visual information, reading obstacles of lacking non-visual information, reading obstacles of readers’ subjective purpose and attitude; b) three causes of reading obstacle: lacking certain schemata, failing to activate prior schemata, possessing limited knowledge about reading strategies; c) the situation of reading strategies employed by English learners. On the basis of the findings, pedagogical implications for both English learners and EFL teacher are given at the end of the thesis.