The Effects of Cultural Schemata on EFL Learners‟ Reading Comprehension Ability: The Case of First-Year EFL Students at Ibn Khaldoun University Tiaret

Abstract

This research study investigates the impact of cultural schemata on the process of reading culturally-loaded texts and whether the use of pre-reading activities recompenses for the absence of cultural familiarity. In this regard, EFL readers bring to the text a wide range of experiences. Consequently, such diversity of prior knowledge influences their perception and interpretation of foreign language texts. Here comes the role of cultural schemata, which is indeed a very critical role. How do cultural differences in background knowledge influence student's reading comprehension ability? To recognise the effect of cultural schemata on comprehension, it is essential first to understand the significant role that background knowledge plays in the reading process. Therefore, to carry out this research, a selection of reading comprehension tests was assigned for an experimental and a control group in a quasi-classroom experiment of first-year EFL students at Ibn Khaldoun University (Tiaret). While the experimental group was provided with pre-reading tasks to activate their background knowledge, the control group received no treatment. We collected data from 40 participants. The results show that many EFL learners belonging to the control group display a lack of cultural schemata since their prior knowledge is not activated, which may well impact their reading practices. By contrast, the experimental group participants performed better in the comprehension test than those in the control group. In brief, there is a correlation between activating students' background knowledge and the increase of reading comprehension ability