The effect of activating prior knowledge strategies on enhancing law students' text comprehension and engagement in English class

Abstract EN

Language learning process builds on prior knowledge and what learners already know about certain topic, including terms and concepts, provides them with a foundation base for moving forwards and construct meaning.

Making such connections to the text they are reading increases comprehension and helps them to be metacognitive.

Such a process can be best achieved through applying a variety of classroom strategies for activating prior knowledge, or schema, which helps set a stage for new terms, concepts to be presented.

Moreover, such strategies would help increase learners' engagement in classroom activities which involve their participation.

This study imposes the following questions: (1- What is the effect of activating prior knowledge strategies on enhancing law college students' text comprehension in English class? ), (2-To what extent do activating prior knowledge strategies affect students' engagement in English class? ), and(3-Is there a statistical significant difference in the level of students' engagement between the experimental group and the control group? ).

It is hypothesized that(1-Activating prior knowledge strategies have a positive effect on enhancing students' text comprehension in English class), (2-Activating prior knowledge strategies have a positive effect on enhancing students' engagement in English class), and (3-There is a statistical significant difference in the level of students' engagement between the experimental group and the control group).

In order to test the hypotheses, an experimental design has been adopted.

Ninety participants from second stage Law Department, College of Law and Political Sciences, Diyala University, for the academic year (2016-2017), have participated and randomly divided into two groups (the experimental and the control).

The experiment has been applied to the experimental group and has lasted for 15 weeks through which a variety of strategies has been used.

The experiment is followed by a comprehension test and a self- report scale for engagement and the following results have been revealed: 1- As far as the comprehension test is concerned, the computed t-value (8.271) is higher than the table t-value (1.98) at a degree of freedom(88).

This indicates that there is a positive significant effect of the prior knowledge strategies on enhancing students' text comprehension in favor of the experimental group.2- The computed t-value for the level of engagement of the experimental group is (10.02) which is higher than the table one(2) at a degree of freedom (44).

This indicates that there is a positive significant effect of prior knowledge strategies on enhancing students' engagement in English class in favor of the experimental group.

3- Concerning the difference in the level of students' engagement between the two groups, the computed t-value (10.951) is higher than the table one (1.98) at a degree of freedom of (88), which is statistically significant in favor of the experimental group.

On the basis of the study results, it is concluded that: 1-The activating prior knowledge strategies have an effective role in enhancing law students' text comprehension in English class, particularly when learners have limited background knowledge to build on, and this is the case with law students encountering new legal terms in their textbook.

2-Applying such strategies in classroom before a new material is introduced, would increase students' engagements in the variety of activities instead of the traditional method they are used to in previous lessons and that would facilitate learning.