THE ROLE OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN COMPREHENDING

READING TEXT

NORZALINA BINTI NOR HASIN

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

THE ROLE OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN COMPREHENDING

READING TEXT

NORZALINA BINTI NOR HASIN

Laporan projek ini dikemukakan sebagai memenuhi sebahagian daripada syarat

penganugerahan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Sains serta Pendidikan (TESL)

FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

SEPTEMBER, 2003

“ Saya akui ini adalah hasil kerja saya sendiri kecuali nukilan dan ringkasan

yang tiap–tiap satunya telah saya jelaskan sumbernya”

Tandatangan :_________________

Nama penulis :Norzalina Binti Nor Hasin

Tarikh :_________________

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise to God, Allah the Almighty who has given me strength and ability to

complete this study. Completing this study was a challenging task for me. I would

like to thank, Dr.Noor Abidah Mohd Omar who have shown patience in guiding,

assisting and encouraging me all the way through this study. Without her guidance,

it is impossible for me to complete this study.

To my beloved parents, Nor Hasin Mohd Nor and Siti Khazanah Isa, thank you for

being so patient in supporting me. Thank you for all the concern and care you people

showered on me. I am grateful to my parents, for filling me with expectations. I

hope I did not let any of you down.

This work is framed by my understanding and study of reading. To all the lecturers

who taught or helped me thank you. To my dear friends and course mates, I am very

grateful for all the support and believe you all gave me. To my wonderful

respondents, Hezrol, Faizal, John, Sam, Sarena, Koh, Mirawati, Shah, and Azlina,

thank you for your time and cooperation.

Last but not least, I am indebted to Mohd Ramdzan bin Ismail, who trusts,

encourages and supports me throughout the study. Thank you very much.

Abstrak

Membaca merupakan satu proses aktif yang melibatkan pembaca dan teks yang telah

dipilih. Mereka akan terlibat secara langusung dalam proses pembacaan untuk

mendapatkan isu penting mengenai teks tersebut. Selain daripada pembaca dan teks

bacaan, terdapat satu lagi element terlibat dalam proses pembacaan iaitu

pengetahuan sedia ada pada pembaca yang akan menjurus kepada proses

pemahaman yang lebih jitu. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan ialah untuk mengenal pasti

adakah pengetahuan sedia ada menbantu dalam proses pembacaan dan untuk

mengenal pasti hubungan di antara pengetahuan sedia ada dengan teks. Pelajar tahun

tiga dari Institut Latihan Perindustrian di Pasir Gudang telah dipilih untuk menjadi

subjek bagi menjalankan kajian ini. Instrumen yang telah digunakan ialah tiga teks

yang berlainan dan juga perbincangan bersama subjek selepas ujian dijalankan.

Abstract

Reading is an active process where readers interact with the text. Reader

actively engaged in the reading process in order to get the main idea of the text.

Besides reader and the text, there is other element that cooperates in the process of

reading. Background knowledge that reader bring to a certain text, may contribute to

a better understanding towards the text. The purpose of this study is to investigate

the role of background knowledge to understand reading text. The objective of this

study are to examine whether background knowledge play a role in comprehending

reading text and to determine the relationship between background knowledge and

reading text to help readers in comprehending texts. The study was conducted

among third year students of higher National Diploma of Electronic at an Industrial

Training Institution at Pasir Gudang. The instruments used in this study were three

different texts as well as a short discussion with the subjects after the test was

carried out.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Title page II

Pengesahan penyelia III

Declaration IV

Dedication V

Acknowledgement VI

Abstrak VII

Abstract VIII

Table of content IX

List of tables XIII

List of figures XIV

List of abbreviations XV

List of appendices XVI

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the problem 2

1.2 Statement of problem 3

1.3 Objective of the study 3

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Purpose of the study 4

1.6 Scope of the study 4

1.7 Importance of the study 5

SECTION II

LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction 6

2.1 Schemata theory 8

2.1.1 Content schema 9

2.1.2 Formal schema 10

2.1.3 Linguistic schema 11

2.2 Reading material 12

2.3 Schemata and reading process 13

2.4 Reading phase 13

2.4.1 Pre-reading phase 14

2.4.2 Post reading phase 15

2.5 Reading strategy 16

2.6 Conclusion 17

SECTION III

METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction 18

3.1 Research design 18

3.2 The setting 19

3.3 The subjects 19

3.4 The research instrument 20

3.5 Research procedure 21

3.6 Data analysis 22

SECTION IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction 23

4.1 Detail scores of the results for control and

experimental group 24

4.2 Analysis and result for the control group 25

4.3 Analysis and result for the experimental group 27

4.4 Summary of the findings 29

4.5 Discussion 31

SECTION V

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.0 Introduction 35

5.1 Conclusion 35

5.2 Suggestions 36

SECTION V

REFERENCES 38

SECTION VI

APPENDICES 41

LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

Table 4.1 Marks obtained by respondents of control group 24

Table 4.2 Marks obtained by the respondents of experimental

Group 24

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

Figure 4.1 Percentage of correct answer by the control group –

text B (I) 25

Figure 4.2 Percentage of correct answer by the control group –

text B (III) 26

Figure 4.3 Percentage of correct answer by the experimental

group – text B (II) 27

Figure 4.4 Percentage of correct answer by the experimental

group – text B (III) 28

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

ESL – English as a Second Language

EFL – English as a Foreign Language

L1 – First Language

SPM – Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendices Page

Appendix A Text for the control group 41

Appendix B Text for the experimental group 49

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

According to Richards, (1997), reading is what happened when people look at a

text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text. The text and the reader

are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to begin. It is however

the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading. The

interaction in reading is rather different from speaking because the writer is not

normally available, and this makes the task of both reader and writer more difficult

(Nesamalar Chitravelu, 2001).

On other hand, Loew (1983) refers reading as a psycholinguistic process in

which a reader uses a variety of skills to infer the writer’s intended meaning. The

reader’s repertoire includes knowledge of phonics, linguistic skills, knowledge about

the surrounding world, and above all, problem-solving strategies.

As readers read a text, they may have in mind some knowledge about the text.

The knowledge students bring to a text is what researchers called ‘schema’. The

background knowledge that they have may help them in understanding the text well.

However, this is associated with the students’ skill of reading – how they read the

text and what techniques they used in reading the text.

1.1 Background of the problem

Richards (1997) reveals that, the home, community, school, culture and

individual characteristics all shape the life experiences that readers bring to reading.

All these elements help form the complex reader and form the basis for

understanding the reading process. It has been suggested that “the background

information that readers bring to a text – including the knowledge of habits and

beliefs from their own life experiences – is often referred to as schema” (Richards,

1997). What people already know about the history, culture, habits, politic, sports

and music of any given place help them understand a reading about that topic. Also

the way they learned to read affects their degree of success in understanding a

particularly difficult text (Richards, 1997).

The background knowledge that we bring to a reading text is beneficial for us to

comprehend the main idea of the text. It helps us to generate our understanding and

reading strategies that are used in order to master the text well. Students with no

background knowledge will have difficulty in comprehending a particular text.

More exposure to the reading text will build the reader’s understanding of the

text compared to people who lack background knowledge. The capability to

understand the text will increase if readers have experienced or come across the

topic before. The more varied the community experiences and the more readers

participate in community events, the reader will gain the richer knowledge when

they encounter a text (Richards, 1997).

1.2 Statement of problem

As mentioned earlier, background knowledge do play an important role in

comprehending reading text. Based on the knowledge that readers bring to a text,

they are more motivated in reading the text and reading becomes more purposeful.

Knowing some of the clues of what the readers are going to read, is needed since it

will lead to active reading activity. Children sometimes will find books that they

read interesting if they are introduced to the topic before the reading process. On the

other hand, if the reader does not have any ideas about the text, it may be a difficult

for them to comprehend the text. Therefore, this study is carried out to determine to

what extent background knowledge assist readers in understanding or

comprehending text.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are to:

1. examine whether background knowledge play a role in comprehending

reading text.

2. determine the relationship between background knowledge and reading

text to help readers in comprehending texts.

1.4 Research questions

The study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. Does background knowledge contribute to better understanding of a reading

text?

2. In what ways does background knowledge help in comprehending a reading

text?

1.5 Purpose of the study

The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which background

knowledge helps learners to comprehend a reading text. The study also aims to

determine the relationship between background knowledge, which can help readers

in understanding a reading text.

1.6 Scope of the study

For this study, ten students were chosen as subjects. The subjects for this study

were third year students of higher National Diploma of Electronic at an Industrial

Training Institution at Pasir Gudang. The study looked at students’ background

knowledge performance and relationship between reading text by giving two texts to

two different groups of students – familiar text and unfamiliar text. Other

contribution on comprehending the text such as their experience and the

performance of subjects in reading texts based on different background will not be

taken into consideration.