The Effects of Pre-Reading Instruction on the Comprehension of Text by ESL Readers

Abstract

In the last few years, much discussion has been centred on the importance of the reader's contribution, in the form of his background/prior knowledge or schemata, to the reading process. To attain meaning, the reader has to interact with and reconstruct the text he is reading with what already exists in his head. Contrary to earlier speculations, the reader is an active participant in his attempt to make sense of what he is reading. Failure to comprehend a text may be attributed to the reader not having the appropriate schemata. It may also be prompted by insufficient clues provided by the author to invoke the appropriate schemata (Rumelhart, 1977). Implicit in this model of reading is the tacit assumption that the reader already knows the language of the text, and does not encounter decoding problems. Can this model of reading, then, be applicable to non-native readers?

A number of investigators have concluded that language proficiency is an important variable to consider in foreign/second language reading.