The effect of topic familiarity on EFL reading comprehension

Abstract EN

Reading is seen as an interactive process between a reader and a text, which would eventually lead to automaticity or reading fluency.

The reader is supposed to interact dynamically with the text so as to elicit meaning through making use of two important types of knowledge : linguistic and schematic (content / world background knowledge).

Within the latter type, the reader fits what he / she already knows with what is found in the passage.

If new textual information does not fit into a reader's schemata, the reader misunderstands the new material, ignores it, or revises the schemata to match the facts within the passage.

This paper focuses on schema theory with special attention to content schemata and topic area so as to shed light on its importance in reading comprehension.