The role of schema activation in helping to improve reading proficiency among ESL learners in a rural primary school / Norment Biriam

Schema theory describes the process by which a reader combines his own background knowledge with the information found in the text to comprehend the text Schemas are culture-specific and different readers carry background knowledge about the information found in a text. A reader’s problem in reading is not only caused by the limitation of his own background knowledge but also by his inability to activate existing schemata to comprehend reading. Thus, in achieving an immediate goal in reading, we must strive for an optimum balance between the background knowledge presupposed by the text and the available background knowledge of the reader. Therefore, schema theory is an important concept in ESL reading methodology, and pre-reading tasks are designed to accomplish both goals that is to build new background knowledge as well as to activate existing ones. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of schema theory in the context of improving reading proficiency among the 30 Year Four pupils of the school. The information, ideas, attitudes and belief enable the reader to make predictions that determines the expectation the reader will develop as he reads. Nevertheless, skills in reading depend on the interaction between linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world.