Which Prior Knowledge? - Relative Contribution of Prior Knowledge Components to EFL Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out the relative contribution of different aspects of reader knowledge to EFL reading comprehension, and to offer instructional applications for EFL reading classroom based on empirical evidence. Both reader and non-reader variables were included in the design in order to see if the relationship between the type of prior knowledge and comprehension varies as a function of extraneous factors. Results indicated that knowledge of target language vocabulary could be a better predictor of L2 reading comprehension than either the knowledge of syntactic rules in the language or topic knowledge (i.e., content schema). Additional findings and discussion on them are presented, followed by implications for the L2 reading theory and applications for EFL reading instruction.