IMRAD

Introduction

Reading is a complex process which educators, psychologists and linguists are interested in for
decades. It involves the thinking skills and correlated with activating prior knowledge is something
that we do naturally as readers. The readers will try to relate what they have read to something
that they are familiar with to help them understand the text clearly. According to Pritchand (1990
cited in Weng, 2012), the learner’s schema full of background knowledge of cultural familiar
materials facilitates the understanding of the text. Reading has many attributes especially in a
second language acquisition. Some researchers believe that reading facilitates language
development (Martin-Chang & Gould, 2008). Thus, the person will have a bigger vocabulary
knowledge when they read more reading materials according to the target language. Research
has proven the impact of a prior knowledge on a reader’s ability to comprehend a given text
(Kamalski, Sanders & Leo, 2008). As a second language learner, he or she will be tested on
their language skills such as reading to assess their understanding about the content of the topic.
Students’ with suitable background knowledge would learn better in the classroom (Weng, 2012).

Consequently, more recent research on the relationship between prior knowledge and reading
comprehension suggests that prior knowledge may more profoundly affect comprehension than
manipulations in text structure. Not only the purposes of generating their cognitive skills, but by
engaging their prior knowledge in understanding reading comprehension will help them to learn
new words to get excellent results in their examination. It is difficult to interpret without a prior
knowledge (Adams and Bruce, as cited in Deshpande, 2016).

According to Lee (1986, cited in Chou, 2011), background knowledge effect in reading,
understanding and remembering of text in second language (L2) learners and finds that the
learners’ memorizing skills is improved when they are exposed with the components of
background knowledge, context, transparency, and familiarity. The Malaysian primary ESL
learners hold a different level of understanding and this affected their progress in acquiring
English language in Malaysia. Language learners rarely use contextual or their background
knowledge to ‘guess the contents in a reading passage’ (Nambiar, 2008). Hence, the teacher
should use activities such as pre-reading activity to enhance their background knowledge in the
classroom.

2. Research Questions

1. Is there any significant difference between students’ comprehension of topic familiar and
topic unfamiliar texts at different language proficiency levels?

2. What are the Malaysian Year 5 ESL learners’ perceptions towards the effect of prior
knowledge in understanding reading comprehension?
Methodology
This research… This study chose a quantitative method to investigate the effects of students’
prior knowledge in understanding reading comprehension in the Malaysian primary ESL
classroom. Based on the research goal, this study examined if culture and topic familiarity
influenced learners’ reading comprehension at different language proficiency levels. Four reading
tests were designed to examine the effect of background knowledge on reading comprehension.
The researcher chose four reading texts of different backgrounds as materials (culture familiar,
culture unfamiliar, topic familiar, and topic unfamiliar). In the following, the research design is
presented in Figure 1.

Expected Results
The effect of students’ prior knowledge in understanding reading comprehension in a Malaysian
primary ESL classroom is significant for L2 learner. Culture familiarity did not affect the reading
comprehension (t = -1.08, p > 0.05) at Level A. From the results, they indicated that effect of
background knowledge is important for students with intermediate (Level B) and low-intermediate
(Level C) language proficiency levels in understanding reading comprehension.

Discussion
From the above results, the researcher found that background knowledge is important for
students at lower language proficiency levels than students at higher language proficiency levels.
In this study, students at higher language proficiency levels had enough linguistic knowledge so
that their linguistic knowledge can overcome the lack of background knowledge. On the other
hand, because of the lack of linguistic knowledge, students at lower language proficiency levels
still needed background knowledge to help them comprehend the reading texts. As a result, the
effect of background knowledge is detectable in students at lower language proficiency levels.