THE EFFECT OF CULTURAL CONTENT SCHEMATA ON EFL READING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

ABSTRACT : This study investigates the effect of cultural content schemata on EFL reading comprehension at the Intermediate level in Bahrain. It attempts to examine whether EFL Intermediate students comprehend significantly better a text which is culturally familiar than a text which is culturally unfamiliar. Subjects were two homogeneous groups of EFL Bahraini Intermediate level students. The actual number of students participating in the tests was 69. The reading materials representing both Bahraini native culture and a foreign culture, which is not related to Bahraini native culture, were designed for both groups. Two culture-specific texts were chosen as the testing materials. The adaptation of the materials was based on the idea that both texts should contain the same number of sentences, the same type of discourse structures, and should be at the same level of linguistic complexity. To better measure the subjects' comprehension of the texts, they were asked to read the texts and then answer some comprehension questions on each text. Dependent and independent t-tests were used to analyze the data. The statistical analyses of results showed that the subjects comprehended the culturally familiar text significantly better than the culturally unfamiliar text. It was found that the culturally familiar text could improve the subjects' reading and writing skills, understanding grammatical structures, and increase the students' vocabulary. But the results showed no significant differences between both groups with regard to grammar. The results of the study indicated that cultural content schemata play a significant role in EFL reading comprehension of Bahraini Intermediate students. And having cultural background knowledge of the content of a foreign language text may compensate for EFL students' low level of language proficiency. However, significant individual differences suggest that while cultural content of a text may facilitate comprehension of a foreign language text, the degree to which the background knowledge can facilitate the understanding of the text seems to depend on the reader's foreign language competence and reading skills. Implications for educational practice are that teachers of EFL Intermediate level students should provide the students with appropriate background knowledge, especially cultural background knowledge. And they should attempt to choose reading materials, which are culturally familiar to the students. Based on the findings of the study, it was also recommended that the content of Intermediate English textbooks should be re-examined and revised to include culturally familiar content.