The Contribution of Writing Recall Summary Protocol and Gender-Specific Background Knowledge of EFL on Reading Comprehension: A Case on Saudi EFL Students

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210312.084How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cultural schemata, Gender-specific background knowledge, Reading comprehension, Language proficiency, Written protocol

Abstract

Cultural schemata mediate an interaction between a text and the reader which ultimately facilitates reading comprehension and recall of the text content. This interaction between a text and a reader requires reader’s cultural knowledge in making meaning and understanding of a text. This study investigates the contribution of cultural familiarity, language proficiency and background knowledge on reading comprehension of culturally familiar and unfamiliar texts of Saudi EFL learners by employing qualitative and quantitative approaches for data collection and analysis. Respondents were 30 male and 30 female undergraduates from Majmaah University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using two main instruments which were four culturally familiar and unfamiliar expository English texts and written recall summary reading protocols as a measure for reading comprehension. The findings from the written recall summary protocol and gender-specific text analysis revealed that respondents performed well on familiar texts than texts of unfamiliar contents. In addition, the study found that cultural background knowledge had a significant impact on recall and reading comprehension based on gender. The findings suggest that background knowledge and language proficiency were significant constructs on meaning inferences and predictions. The results also indicate that there was a significant relation between language proficiency, cultural knowledge, and its impact on reading comprehension. Overall, this study recommends that critical variables like cultural background knowledge and language proficiency could enhance learners’ reading comprehension level and thus need to be considered by EFL reading teachers.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Usman Shah Toti
AU  - Samsiah Abdul Hamid
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/03/13
TI  - The Contribution of Writing Recall Summary Protocol and Gender-Specific Background Knowledge of EFL on Reading Comprehension: A Case on Saudi EFL Students
BT  - Proceedings of the First International Conference on Science, Technology, Engineering and Industrial Revolution (ICSTEIR 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 518
EP  - 523
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210312.084
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210312.084
ID  - Toti2021
ER  -