Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF READING – A CROSS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH
- 1 FL/L2 reading – a language problem or a reading problem?
- 2 Lower-level language processing – word and sentence level
- 3 Higher-level language processing – discourse level and text structure knowledge
- 4 Language-independent factors
- 5 Summary of the findings and implications for future research
- PART II THINK-ALOUD READING COMPREHENSION STUDIES
- PART III THE THINK-ALOUD STUDY
- CONCLUDING SUMMARY
- APPENDICES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX
4 - Language-independent factors
from PART I - ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF READING – A CROSS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF READING – A CROSS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH
- 1 FL/L2 reading – a language problem or a reading problem?
- 2 Lower-level language processing – word and sentence level
- 3 Higher-level language processing – discourse level and text structure knowledge
- 4 Language-independent factors
- 5 Summary of the findings and implications for future research
- PART II THINK-ALOUD READING COMPREHENSION STUDIES
- PART III THE THINK-ALOUD STUDY
- CONCLUDING SUMMARY
- APPENDICES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX
Summary
Background knowledge
According to the principles of the universal perspective on reading, conceptual processing is one of the reading components that do not vary from language to language. Thus, within this view background knowledge is considered universal in reading across all languages. As regards reading comprehension, background knowledge is viewed as an important factor influencing “all aspects of text-information processing” (Koda 2005: 135). Its role in the reading process has been emphasised in schema theory models, e.g., those by Minsky (1977), Schank and Abelson (1977), and Adams and Collins (1979). A fundamental assumption in those theoretical perspectives is that successful comprehension requires from the reader reconstruction of the text meaning with the aid of the knowledge that he/she brings to the text. Schemata seem to serve three functions in reading comprehension (Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert and Goetz 1977). First, schemata provide the material for filling the gaps in one's comprehension. They allow the reader to construct a coherent interpretation through inferencing. Next, schemata control the reader in his/her comprehension of an ambiguous message. Third, schemata permit meta-comprehension; by developing a correspondence between ideas suggested by schemata and those given in the text the reader monitors the process of his/her understanding and becomes aware whether he/she has understood the text. Research has looked at the role of several types of background knowledge: conceptual, domain and cultural. The most salient studies that explored the role of each type of background knowledge are discussed below.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Reading Comprehension in Polish and EnglishEvidence from an Introspective Study, pp. 58 - 74Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2013