THE ROLE OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN COMPREHENDING READING TEXT NORZALINA BINTI NOR HASIN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

THE ROLE OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN COMPREHENDING READING TEXT NORZALINA BINTI NOR HASIN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

THE ROLE OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN COMPREHENDING READING TEXT NORZALINA BINTI NOR HASIN Laporan projek ini dikemukakan sebagai memenuhi sebahagian daripada syarat penganugerahan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Sains serta Pendidikan (TESL) FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA SEPTEMBER, 2003

Saya akui ini adalah hasil kerja saya sendiri kecuali nukilan dan ringkasan yang tiap tiap satunya telah saya jelaskan sumbernya Tandatangan : Nama penulis :Norzalina Binti Nor Hasin Tarikh :

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Praise to God, Allah the Almighty who has given me strength and ability to complete this study. Completing this study was a challenging task for me. I would like to thank, Dr.Noor Abidah Mohd Omar who have shown patience in guiding, assisting and encouraging me all the way through this study. Without her guidance, it is impossible for me to complete this study. To my beloved parents, Nor Hasin Mohd Nor and Siti Khazanah Isa, thank you for being so patient in supporting me. Thank you for all the concern and care you people showered on me. I am grateful to my parents, for filling me with expectations. I hope I did not let any of you down. This work is framed by my understanding and study of reading. To all the lecturers who taught or helped me thank you. To my dear friends and course mates, I am very grateful for all the support and believe you all gave me. To my wonderful respondents, Hezrol, Faizal, John, Sam, Sarena, Koh, Mirawati, Shah, and Azlina, thank you for your time and cooperation. Last but not least, I am indebted to Mohd Ramdzan bin Ismail, who trusts, encourages and supports me throughout the study. Thank you very much.

Abstrak Membaca merupakan satu proses aktif yang melibatkan pembaca dan teks yang telah dipilih. Mereka akan terlibat secara langusung dalam proses pembacaan untuk mendapatkan isu penting mengenai teks tersebut. Selain daripada pembaca dan teks bacaan, terdapat satu lagi element terlibat dalam proses pembacaan iaitu pengetahuan sedia ada pada pembaca yang akan menjurus kepada proses pemahaman yang lebih jitu. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan ialah untuk mengenal pasti adakah pengetahuan sedia ada menbantu dalam proses pembacaan dan untuk mengenal pasti hubungan di antara pengetahuan sedia ada dengan teks. Pelajar tahun tiga dari Institut Latihan Perindustrian di Pasir Gudang telah dipilih untuk menjadi subjek bagi menjalankan kajian ini. Instrumen yang telah digunakan ialah tiga teks yang berlainan dan juga perbincangan bersama subjek selepas ujian dijalankan.

Abstract Reading is an active process where readers interact with the text. Reader actively engaged in the reading process in order to get the main idea of the text. Besides reader and the text, there is other element that cooperates in the process of reading. Background knowledge that reader bring to a certain text, may contribute to a better understanding towards the text. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of background knowledge to understand reading text. The objective of this study are to examine whether background knowledge play a role in comprehending reading text and to determine the relationship between background knowledge and reading text to help readers in comprehending texts. The study was conducted among third year students of higher National Diploma of Electronic at an Industrial Training Institution at Pasir Gudang. The instruments used in this study were three different texts as well as a short discussion with the subjects after the test was carried out.

TABLE OF CONTENT Title page Pengesahan penyelia Declaration Dedication Acknowledgement Abstrak Abstract Table of content List of tables List of figures List of abbreviations List of appendices II III IV V VI VII VIII IX XIII XIV XV XVI TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE SECTION I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Background of the problem 2

1.2 Statement of problem 3 1.3 Objective of the study 3 1.4 Research questions 4 1.5 Purpose of the study 4 1.6 Scope of the study 4 1.7 Importance of the study 5 SECTION II LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction 6 2.1 Schemata theory 8 2.1.1 Content schema 9 2.1.2 Formal schema 10 2.1.3 Linguistic schema 11 2.2 Reading material 12 2.3 Schemata and reading process 13 2.4 Reading phase 13 2.4.1 Pre-reading phase 14 2.4.2 Post reading phase 15 2.5 Reading strategy 16 2.6 Conclusion 17

SECTION III METHODOLOGY CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction 18 3.1 Research design 18 3.2 The setting 19 3.3 The subjects 19 3.4 The research instrument 20 3.5 Research procedure 21 3.6 Data analysis 22 SECTION IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.0 Introduction 23 4.1 Detail scores of the results for control and experimental group 24 4.2 Analysis and result for the control group 25 4.3 Analysis and result for the experimental group 27 4.4 Summary of the findings 29 4.5 Discussion 31

SECTION V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.0 Introduction 35 5.1 Conclusion 35 5.2 Suggestions 36 SECTION V REFERENCES 38 SECTION VI APPENDICES 41

LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page Table 4.1 Marks obtained by respondents of control group 24 Table 4.2 Marks obtained by the respondents of experimental Group 24

LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title Page Figure 4.1 Percentage of correct answer by the control group text B (I) 25 Figure 4.2 Percentage of correct answer by the control group text B (III) 26 Figure 4.3 Percentage of correct answer by the experimental group text B (II) 27 Figure 4.4 Percentage of correct answer by the experimental group text B (III) 28

LIST OF ABBREVIATION ESL English as a Second Language EFL English as a Foreign Language L1 First Language SPM Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia

LIST OF APPENDICES Appendices Page Appendix A Text for the control group 41 Appendix B Text for the experimental group 49

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction According to Richards, (1997), reading is what happened when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text. The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to begin. It is however the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading. The interaction in reading is rather different from speaking because the writer is not normally available, and this makes the task of both reader and writer more difficult (Nesamalar Chitravelu, 2001). On other hand, Loew (1983) refers reading as a psycholinguistic process in which a reader uses a variety of skills to infer the writer s intended meaning. The reader s repertoire includes knowledge of phonics, linguistic skills, knowledge about the surrounding world, and above all, problem-solving strategies. As readers read a text, they may have in mind some knowledge about the text. The knowledge students bring to a text is what researchers called schema. The

background knowledge that they have may help them in understanding the text well. However, this is associated with the students skill of reading how they read the text and what techniques they used in reading the text. 1.1 Background of the problem Richards (1997) reveals that, the home, community, school, culture and individual characteristics all shape the life experiences that readers bring to reading. All these elements help form the complex reader and form the basis for understanding the reading process. It has been suggested that the background information that readers bring to a text including the knowledge of habits and beliefs from their own life experiences is often referred to as schema (Richards, 1997). What people already know about the history, culture, habits, politic, sports and music of any given place help them understand a reading about that topic. Also the way they learned to read affects their degree of success in understanding a particularly difficult text (Richards, 1997). The background knowledge that we bring to a reading text is beneficial for us to comprehend the main idea of the text. It helps us to generate our understanding and reading strategies that are used in order to master the text well. Students with no background knowledge will have difficulty in comprehending a particular text. More exposure to the reading text will build the reader s understanding of the text compared to people who lack background knowledge. The capability to understand the text will increase if readers have experienced or come across the topic before. The more varied the community experiences and the more readers participate in community events, the reader will gain the richer knowledge when they encounter a text (Richards, 1997).

1.2 Statement of problem As mentioned earlier, background knowledge do play an important role in comprehending reading text. Based on the knowledge that readers bring to a text, they are more motivated in reading the text and reading becomes more purposeful. Knowing some of the clues of what the readers are going to read, is needed since it will lead to active reading activity. Children sometimes will find books that they read interesting if they are introduced to the topic before the reading process. On the other hand, if the reader does not have any ideas about the text, it may be a difficult for them to comprehend the text. Therefore, this study is carried out to determine to what extent background knowledge assist readers in understanding or comprehending text. 1.3 Objectives of the study The objectives of the study are to: 1. examine whether background knowledge play a role in comprehending reading text. 2. determine the relationship between background knowledge and reading text to help readers in comprehending texts.

1.4 Research questions The study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Does background knowledge contribute to better understanding of a reading text? 2. In what ways does background knowledge help in comprehending a reading text? 1.5 Purpose of the study The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which background knowledge helps learners to comprehend a reading text. The study also aims to determine the relationship between background knowledge, which can help readers in understanding a reading text. 1.6 Scope of the study For this study, ten students were chosen as subjects. The subjects for this study were third year students of higher National Diploma of Electronic at an Industrial Training Institution at Pasir Gudang. The study looked at students background knowledge performance and relationship between reading text by giving two texts to two different groups of students familiar text and unfamiliar text. Other contribution on comprehending the text such as their experience and the performance of subjects in reading texts based on different background will not be taken into consideration.