Abstract
This empirical survey investigates the perceptions of English language teachers towards the role of content schemata in reading comprehension among Saudi EFL learners. Furthermore, it also attempts to explore the use of appropriate classroom strategies employed by English language teachers to activate content schemata to enhance learners’ reading comprehension. A modified Likert-scale strongly-agree to strongly-disagree questionnaire was administered to 61 male and female EFL faculty from English Language Center (ELC), Taif University to generate data. The findings have reinforced that background knowledge of Saudi EFL learners help them significantly in reading faster with better understanding. It has also been reported that pre-reading strategies of brainstorming, classroom discussions about the topic and questioning are the most favored ones to activate Saudi EFL learners’ background knowledge. It has also been learnt that while-reading strategies of directing the students’ attention to signal words, main idea, important phrases, titles, subtitles and effectively linking the target text to their students’ cultural and social experiences also contribute towards reading comprehension. The findings have also revealed that English language teachers consider low English language proficiency and poor reading skills of Saudi ELF leaners as well as the lack of appropriate teaching aids as the major obstacles in activating the content schemata. Several recommendations have been forwarded which have significant pedagogical implications in materializing much sought-after goal of effective ELT in the KSA by ensuring better reading skills among Saudi EFL learners.
Highlights
The role of efficient reading is well established for good English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and it has become rather extremely important after the proliferation of information technology that demands enhanced reading skills to cope up with their academic needs and to keep themselves abreast of the vast knowledge around them
This empirical survey was meant to elicit responses of English language teachers from a Saudi university towards the role of content schemata in enhancing reading comprehension of Saudi EFL learners, use of various strategies during reading skills teaching to activate content schemata and the problems faced by English language teachers in implementing these strategies
The findings have emphasized the notion that comprehension of a target text is not limited to the readers’ linguistic knowledge but activation of the content schemata plays an important role in facilitating the readers to understand the written text
Summary
The role of efficient reading is well established for good English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and it has become rather extremely important after the proliferation of information technology that demands enhanced reading skills to cope up with their academic needs and to keep themselves abreast of the vast knowledge around them. It has been reported by the International Reading Association that “adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history” It has been reported that majority of the studies have investigated the effect of content schemata on learners’ reading comprehension (Nassaji, 2002; Nezami, 2012) and there seems a gap related to investigating English language teachers’ perceptions about the role of content schemata in reading comprehension and what strategies they exploit in their reading classes in this regard. Chen (2003) has suggested ijel.ccsenet.org
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