ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN PRE READING STAGE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCE THEIR READING COMPREHENSION

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

TRẦN THỊ CẨM NHUNG

ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN PRE-READING STAGE
TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION
AND ENHANCE THEIR READING COMPREHENSION
Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan

Nghệ An, 2017


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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and
findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates,
and have not been published elsewhere.
Author
Trần Thị Cẩm Nhung


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Huynh
Anh Tuan, who I believe is the most wonderful supervisor, for his valuable
direction and generous assistance while I was doing this project. His enthusiasm
and positive attitudes were sparkling in such a way that it helped to make my
research a serious task to fulfil.
I would also like to send my sincere thanks to the teachers and students at
Hermann Gmeiner high school, Nghe An, who participated in the experiment
and assisted me doing the process.
I am grateful to the administrators and teachers at Vinh University for
their cooperation and help during the study.
I am also in debt of my lecturers, my friends, my classmates as well as my
colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism.
Finally, I would like to delicate this work to my parents and family, who
have been always supporting me with love and sympathy.


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ABSTRACT
This experimental study aims at finding out whether activating prior
knowledge promotes high school students’ participation and enhances their
reading comprehension. Eighty 10th graders participated in the study. They were
divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group. During
the experiment, the prior knowledge of the experimental group was activated in
the pre-reading stage while that of the control group was not. Both groups did a
reading comprehension test before and after the treatment. This was done to see
whether there was any difference in the level of reading comprehension between
the experiemntal group and control group before and after the treatment. Five
observations sessions were carried out in both groups to see whether there was
any difference in the level of participation in the two groups. It was found that
the level of participation and reading comprehension in the experimental group

was higher than that of the control group.
Based on the findings, it is recommended that high school teachers need
to explore various methods to activate prior knowledge. Implications for
enhancing the effectiveness of English teaching and learning reading have been
put forward. It is hoped that the results of the study can be beneficial for both
EFL high school students and teachers.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.........................................................................i
Word Splash.................................................................................................13
Creating a Word Splash...............................................................................13
Possible Sentences.......................................................................................14
Procedure for Implementing Possible Sentences........................................14
Dried Food...................................................................................................57
.............................................................................................................................65


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Comprehension is of great importance when reading is on the way. It
requires the readers to have a good understanding of the message underling the
text. This drives people to be good readers, when they compare what they read
or the knowledge they gain to their experience or their memory they gained
before to see how they fit with each other. This method can be applied into
curriculum activities and science, social studies and other research as well.
However, in fact, teachers sometimes push their student towards the habit

of reading the text without concerning about its overall content. This may lead to
sufficient knowledge being ignored and studying process may not bring highly
expected results. Activation of pre-existing knowledge may be the root of
enhancing their reading comprehension.
Digging deeper into understanding the whole context is in parallel with
reminding existing knowledge can take effect on absorbing information.
Although understanding at sight may be a task of challenge for somebody, it can
be figured out if we set up some conversations with someone else to discuss
more about its ambiguous meaning. This kind of brainstorming actions can bring
doubtful meanings come to the light, which are known with the schema of
activating our prior knowledge in pre-reading stage.
It is of paramount importance when it comes to students who accumulate
scientific and academic knowledge on a daily basis. It even puts much pressure
on second language learners. We try to find the answers to the question of
whether activating learners' prior knowledge can enhance their reading
comprehension, and how it stimulates students’ participation in academic
activities.
Therefore, the author has decided to conduct the study entitled “
Activating prior knowledge in pre- reading stage to promote high school


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students’participation and enhance their reading comprehension” in the hope
that the study could make some contributions to the teaching and learning
English for EFL teachers and learners.
1.2. Aims of the study
This study is to show the play of existing knowledge activation in
promoting high school students’ participation and enhancing reading
comprehension. Foreign language teachers should be aware of the importance of
activating learners' background knowledge through the 3 stages of reading

activities to better their understanding of the contexts and of the texts
themselves.
The focus of the study is on improving students’ reading comprehension
and promoting their participation through activating their prior knowledge in
pre-reading stage in an EFL setting. This is for those who try to match what they
read with what they already know.
1.3. Scope of the study
Activating prior knowledge can be beneficial in various aspects such as
increasing learners’ achievement, motivation and the growth of new learning,
etc. and in all the three stages of a reading lesson (Marzano, 2000; Wilson et al.,
2006; Dochy et al., 1999; Le et al., 2009; Myhill & Brackley, 2004; Mitchell,
2006). However, the study within its scope the two aspects of promoting
learners’ participation and enhancing their comprehension through activating
prior knowledge in the pre-reading stage.
The targeted students are grade 10 students at Hermann Gmeiner High
School.
1.4. Method of the study
The approach adopted for the study is experimental research to find out
whether activating prior knowledge promotes high school students’ participation
and enhances their reading comprehension Four data collection instruments


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were used: reading comprehension tests, class observations, interviews, and
document analysis.
The pre-test and the post-test were created with the similar number of
words, topics as well as difficulties. The tests were used to evaluate students’
reading comprehension . They were taken to make sure that the participants had
reached the desired level of their reading.
The purpose of class observations is to know the participation of high

school students in the lesson.
In addition to classroom observations, in-depth interviews with teachers
were used to collect more data on their experience and their viewpoints on the
classroom techniques
Finally, in order to achieve the mentioned goal, the teachers carried out
classroom activities and techniques to activating prior knowledge in the prereading stage.
1.5. Organization of the study
The study is demonstrated through five chapters.
In the first chapter, an overview of the existing problem of reading and its
consequences is presented. After that, the aim, the scope and the method of the
study are clarified before the structure of the study is shown.
In the second chapter, this chapter presents the previous studies related to
the thesis and some concepts as theoretical basis for the study.
The third chapter discusses the research methodology of the study. First,
the research questions are addressed followed by the research approach. The
research design is mentioned to depict how the data are collected and analyzed.
In the fourth chapter, the Findings- will present the data and discussed the
results of the study
Chapter 5 – will summarize the findings, the limitations of the study and
some suggestions for further research are also presented


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the fundamental concepts serving as the theoretical
backgrounds of the research as well as previous studies related to the research
are discussed centering on the role of activating prior knowledge in the prereading stage in enhancing L2 learner’s participation and improving their
reading comprehension
The literature review shows that teachers can significantly contribute to
activating students’ knowledge prior to reading with pre-reading strategies for

learners to show a better performance in their comprehension.
2.1. Prior knowledge
2.1.1. Definition of prior knowledge
“Prior knowledge” generally refers to facts or information which you
have learned or acquired through experience previously.
Accordingly, when approaching any new learning task, the learner often
has some form of “prior knowledge” in the head, which allows him or her to link
or connect quickly what is being learned with what he or she already knows
about in some way.
Prior knowledge is the content knowledge and personal experiences the
reader brings to the learning tasks. Teachers know that students bring a wide
range of background knowledge and experience to class. The same class may
contain students whose families are highly educated and encourage reading of
all kinds, students whose experiences of the world is limited to what they see on
T.V and students for whom English is a second language . Faced with this
mixture of background , effective teachers helps students prepare for reading
as much as possible by incorporating pre-reading strategies that active and
assess learner’s prior knowledge.


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Example
A group of young learners are going to read about dolphins. First they talk about
what they already know in a brainstorm activity.
In the classroom Pre-task activities are a good way to explore and share
prior knowledge. Making predictions about content, answering true or false
questions, agree on ‘5 things you know about...' and class or group
brainstorming are all effective tools
2.1.2. The role of prior knowledge in language learning
The following researchers have proved the essence of prior knowledge to

learning:
• Prior knowledge accounts for the largest variable in student
achievement (Marzano, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006).
• Prior knowledge is the basis for all future knowledge (Marzano et al.,
2000b).
• Prior knowledge “constitutes a starting point for the construction of
new knowledge” (Garrison,
• Prior knowledge can be a significant and accurate predictor of
performance and facilitates new learning (R. A. Thompson & Zamboanga,
2004).
• Prior knowledge is a fundamental factor for learning new material
(Myhill&Brackley, 2004).
• Prior knowledge is critical to learning new information (Gagné, 1980).
• Prior knowledge enhances learning about new material (Marzano,
Norford, et al., 2001).
• Prior knowledge of the student largely determines a teacher’s
effectiveness (A. Jones, Todorova, &Vargo, 2000).
• Prior knowledge influenced comprehension much more than earlier


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research indicated and “is a better predictor of comprehension than is either an
intelligence test score or a reading achievement test score” (Division of
Instruction, 1990, p. 1).
• Prior knowledge allows a student to understand a topic (R. A.
Thompson &Zamboanga, 2004).
• Prior knowledge facilitates learning and allows students to “encode and
store information in long-term memory [from] links to personal experience and
knowledge” (Kruse, 2010, para. Stimulate recall of prior learning)
• Prior knowledge and a student’s experiences play a significant role in

learning new material (Le et al., 2009).
• Students with higher prior knowledge tend to achieve more (R. A.
Thompson & Zamboanga, 2004).
• Prior knowledge and student characteristics had a larger impact on
student achievement than instructional practices (Le et al., 2009).
• Prior knowledge enhanced comprehension and students’ performance
improved (Spires & Donley, 1998).
• Prior knowledge and a student’s personal history influences, and has an
effect on, how and what students learn (McGee, Almquist, Keller, & Jacobsen,
2008; R. A. Thompson & Zamboanga, 2004).
• Prior knowledge and background characteristics play a larger role than
educational interventions (Le et al., 2009).
• Prior knowledge promotes growth of new learning through interaction
(Dochy et al., 1999; Le et al., 2009; Myhill&Brackley, 2004).
• Prior knowledge was an important asset when reading new material;
students merged prior knowledge with new text to comprehend the new reading
material (Johnston & Pearson, 1982; Spires & Donley, 1998).


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• Prior knowledge allows students to be more successful in minimally
guided instructional tasks (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006).
• When prior knowledge and interests were linked, student motivation
increased (Mitchell, 2006).
• Prior knowledge not only effects unconscious behavior but also plays a
role in deliberate choices (Betsch, Brinkmann, Fiedler, &Breining, 1999).
2.2. Activating prior knowledge
Activating prior knowledge is known as a schema to connect relevant
prior knowledge and previous experience to what students are reading in raise
their comprehension. Schema is simply understood as textual cues in text. These

cues help readers unconsciously bring experienced information in the
comprehension through number of ways to activate background knowledge
(Fisher & Frey, 2009).
There are two types of schemata: formal schemata and content schemata.
Formal Schema: A formal schema refers to background knowledge of the
formal, rhetorical organisational structure of different types of texts‘(Carrell and
Eisterhold, 1988:71). It is abstract, encoded, internalised, coherent patterns of
meta-linguistic, discoursed, and textual organisation that guide expectations in
our attempts to understand a meaningful piece of language (Carrell, 1983). It is
knowledge of the ways in which different genres are presented. Readers use
their schematic representations of the text, such as fictions, poems, essays,
newspaper articles, academic articles in magazines and journals, to help
comprehend the information in the text. Studies show that the knowledge of
what type and genre the text is can facilitate reading comprehension for readers
because the type of text will offer detailed evidence of the content of the text.
Nonetheless, compared with linguistic and content schemata, formal schemata
have less impacton the reading process (Carrell, 1984).


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Content Schema: A content schema embodies the reader‘s pre-existing
knowledge or real and imaginary worlds (Anderson et al., 1979) or refers to a
reader‘s knowledge about the topic being read (James, 1987). Content schemata
include topic familiarity, cultural knowledge and previous experience with a
field. They deal with the knowledge relative to the content domain of the text,
which is the key to understanding texts. To some extent, content schemata can
make up for a lack of language schemata, and thus help learners understand texts
by predicting, choosing information and removing ambiguities. Many studies
have shown that readers’content schemata have a greaterinfluence on reading
comprehension than formal schemata. On the whole, the familiarity with the

topic has a direct influence on readers’ comprehension. The more the reader
knows about the topic, the more easily and quickly he gets the information from
the text.
By recalling those connections through 3 stages of reading, particularly in
pre-reading phasea critical comprehension strategy should be trained to be the
best practice for readers to use unconsciously.
(Oliver Keene and Zimmerman) in Mosaic of Thought (1997), indicated
main types of connections can support students to improve their reading level:
•

Text to self

•

Text to world

•

Text to text

"Text to self" connections model can be depicted as the relationship
between the text and previous experiences. This encourages students better
understand the text through existing knowledge and experience and vice versa.
"Text to world" connections cling students’ awareness about the world to
the story. If they are reading “Chiec luoc nga”, the background about the War in
Vietnam could help them make sense of the content.


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"Text to text" connections can be easily understood as knowledge in a

book referred to information in another ones. They can compare a book’s style
of writing, characters, themes, climax and so on to predict what a story might be
about.
Professional readers usually practice explicitly teaching strategies to
clarifythe reading content to deepen knowledge as independent readers. Keene
and Zimmerman (1997) claim this method as a schema among seven strategies
for comprehension success.
These connections are considered as foundations for students to easily
absorb knew information, such as the new facts, ideas, and concepts of text. On
reading, they think about the similarity to they already know. In particular, their
knowledge schema is built up better.
For the purpose of systematically and explicitly reading, teachers spend
6-8 weeks to make sure that students fully understand about a specific strategy
before coming to the next. Students should be train with variety of texts to
familiarize with different text structures and formats. This requires teachers
carefully choose texts to model for learners
It is thought that schema is in accordance with the read content. So getting
through a message needs the interaction between structure knowledge and
background knowledge at the same time. The purpose of the present study is to
test how schema activation takes impact on improving reading comprehension
The EFL learners have to handle the linguistic complexities (vocabulary and
structure), content as a result, the challenge is getting difficult (Anderson &
Pearson, 1984). . Cook (1997) believes that schema theory appear when
previous experience is expected to combine with the text. So the activities to
promote the students’ background knowledge before reading to create a better
comprehension is of importance (Yule, 2000). However, this schema activation


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is often forgotten or ignored. Thus, this is the role of teachers to put emphasis on

activating their prior knowledge with the new school study.
Normally, what we’re reading recalls what we know. As a matter of fact
what we read really connects what we are thinking at that time.
Activating Prior Knowledge suggests strategies to call out the previous
knowledge about a topic. Teacher should prefer familiar context in following
content of curriculum to similarize with the new information for student to be
well-absorbed information. In fact, it is worth to reader because it can image
what is coming next on the process of reading. As language instructors, teachers
have to care for instructional techniques, classroom management, grade-level
content, and background knowledge development. To clarify the efficiency of
background knowledge activation on reading results, we should have a close
glance to spreading activation.
2.2.1. Activating prior knowledge in teaching English
As an aspect of teaching a foreign language, teachers have to admit that
not all teaching method can be applied for all their students, because each of
them possess their own experience, a set of mental and emotion mindset, and
sometimes the difference in their interest in topic and level of cognitive
development are also effects on comprehension level. When discriminating
strategies into methods to apply for groups of students, it is not necessary to
follow

the content schemata. Such reader strategies include the following

(Carter and Long, 1991: 16):
- using titles and illustrations to understand a passage,
- skimming,
- scanning,
- summarizing,
- guessing word meanings,

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- becoming aware of the reading process, and
- taking risks.
These strategies can be springboard to stimulate the learning with foreign
languages.
Another step to help students to well understand second language
materials is to try to follow text variables when using reading strategies. For
example, if teacher can figure out the different points between a fairy tale and a
newspaper article, this drives children to mentally prepare the recognition of
controversial text types and complicated sentence structure, high-frequency
vocabulary. Fairy tales seem to observe a happy ending, however, the same
reader can easily find out a newspaper article with negotiating a disarmament
treaty in the tone of formality demonstrated by very specialized sentence and
complicated structure.
2.2.2 Activating prior knowledge in teaching reading
Teachers should guide their students this comprehension strategy in an
explicit and systematic way on an ongoing basis so that students learn
independently. From the beginning, modeling thinking process should be led by
the teachers. Then students use the strategy for their comprehension process in
as a natural ways.
Prior knowledge should be activated before reading the text. This helps
students to obtain a mindset of the text structure to image for what is coming.
During reading, teacher should encourage students to create connections
between their students’ previous experience and current printed text with the
support of teachers to model the process using his or her own connections. After
reading, the discussion should focus on the results of the connections to better
understand the text due to the help of background knowledge and reverse
relationship.

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At the first stages of teaching students teachers should think aloud to
make sure that every student completely gets the strategy of connections to their
prior knowledge. The teacher reads a text before the class and explains to
students how he/she process their thinking at the moment of reading to visualize
the detail steps. After that, students are given the chance to share their
experiences and thinking. Finally, students make connections to texts by
themselves. Teachers should follow students periodically to check the students’
thinking process, in order to track progress, cover difficulties, support
individually or co-ordinate mini-lesson to give students moving feeling.
As activating background knowledge and making connections, students
should visualize information through graphic methods, such as a concept map, a
flow chart, or a KWL (What I know-What I want to know- What I learned)
chart. By dint of graphic organizers, students can reflect or response journals of
recorded thoughts, feelings, insights, and questions about the topic. Students, in
large and small groups, discuss and write down or speak out loud about the
mentioned connections (Barnett, Marva A. 1988)
2.2.3. Activating prior knowledge in pre-reading stage
2.2.3.1. The three stages of a reading lesson
- Pre- reading
One of the purposes of Pre- Reading is to acknowledge the different
experiences and background knowledge that students bring to a text, influencing
how they will read and learn from a particular text. By knowing what students
bring to a text the teacher can provide students with appropriate scaffolds to
make links between what is already known and new information presented in a
text.
Pre Reading also promotes engagement and interest by providing
students with a means to predict text content. Pre

Reading is critical for


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comprehension to occur. For example, the class may be planning to read First
Kill as part of an issues topic or environmental topic. It is important for teachers
to articulate to students the purpose for reading particular texts. Two tools that
can be during this stage are Word Splash and Possible Sentences.
Word Splash
Word Splash provides a useful framework for eliciting student prior
knowledge before reading. Word Splash:
•

encourages and develops prediction skills

•

sets the scene

•

is designed to develop a sense of discovery

•

explores connections and speculates on possibilities

•

focuses in on topic or issue

•

is a useful tool for group/pair sharing

•

can be designed to support underperforming students

Creating a Word Splash
1. Read through the text.
2. Decide on key words, phrases and concepts in the text that will provide
cues for your students or that may need clarification.
3. Type or write and copy for individual students or small groups.
4. Once distributed allow students a few minutes to read through and
discuss with others the listed words and phrases. They may ask others for
clarification or elaboration of some items. Allow them to make predictions about
the text in their groups.
5. Bring students back together and ask them for their predictions,
encouraging all students to contribute.
A rich assortment of predictions will be offered. Some predictions may be
challenged. Teachers may ask questions such as, ‘What made you think of...ü?’


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The purpose of prompting questions is to encourage students to interact both to
share and to extend their understandings of what the text may be about.
Classroom ground rules need to be established for students to participate
and offer predictions. For example, students need to be respectful of each other’s
predictions, taking care not to embarrass or belittle group members as they read

and make associations and predictions based on prior knowledge.
Possible Sentences
Possible Sentences encourage students to draw on their background
experiences and knowledge to construct predictions for a text. It is a tool to help
students to process key words in a text before they begin reading. Possible
Sentences:
•

familiarise students with context and concepts

•

encourage prediction about the probable meaning of a text

•

make reading meaning centred

•

allow students to be actively engaged in making predictions about the

major ideas of a text
•

stimulate curiosity about the text

•

allow students to share what they know about information before they

read with other students
•

compare their attempts with the sentences in the text thus providing a

purpose for reading
•

develop cooperative and collaborative skills

Procedure for Implementing Possible Sentences
1. Read through the text.
2. Select a list of key words (12-15) from the text, some familiar and some
that may cause difficulty.


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3. Display the words and discuss meanings with students. Ask students to
predict meanings or ways the words will be used in the text.
4. In pairs or small groups, students compose Possible Sentences (that
they feel may be in the text) using at least two of the listed words. Underline the
key words.
5. The class comes back together to share their developed sentences,
making comparisons and relevant comments. Ensure that all words are included
in at least one sentence.
6. Post the Possible Sentences in the classroom.
During reading encourage students to watch and listen for the words to
determine if their Possible Sentences were accurate. Comment on any
similarities or differences in meaning or use.

It is important to address inaccurate predictions in ways that don’t belittle
wrong answers and encourage future attempts. They can evaluate each Possible
Sentence in

terms

of

whether

it

is true (the

text

backs

up

the

prediction), false (the text presents a different use of the word), or don’t
know (the sentence can be neither proved or disproved based on the text).
Pre-reading activities consists of warm-up, introduction, etc., before the
while- reading stage to familiarize students with a text to elicit appropriate
precious experience. These activities of previewing should wake students’
interest up to get through the text more meaningfully and purposefully. The
stage helps students bring students major theme or main points of the text( a
story or an essay). The activities of this phase include: discussing,

brainstorming, reviewing similar texts ( stories or essays).. They should take
considerations about illustrations and titles and the strategies of skimming and
scanning to sketch out structure, main points , and future directions.
-While- reading


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"While-reading" stage is carried out through exercises to stimulate
reading level, develop their foreign language reading skills, and isolate
complicated text passages. This stage may come for several difficulties because
each of individual students handle and struggle with various strategies.
Nevertheless, teach can support them by modeling valuable strategies,
explaining the strategies process and offering practical exercises. Such practice
exercises can be used like guessing word meanings with cue cards, question
clues or cognate practice. Sentence structure can be easily understood by
clarifying the grammatical functions of unfamiliar words, analyzing words with
the simple examples, and forecasting text content. Reading, learning and
absorbing can be supported by dictionary use effectively.
- Post- reading
"Post-reading" is a stage of “after, follow-up” exercises to test students’
comprehension and correct students’ misunderstanding or deeply analyze the
text. Deep understanding when reading is to aim at reflecting the content into
processed information in the readers’ mind. On the other hand, the purpose of
this strategy is to mix new information with previous knowledge. EFL should
clarify the different strategies to apply for different text type. That is the
outcome which should be a lesson after reading process.
2.2.3.2 Activities to activate prior knowledge in pre-reading stage
There are 9 strategies which is usually used to promote comprehension in
before you read , such as:
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Answering Questions

• Activating Prior Knowledge through KWL Strategy
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Prediction
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Debate and Discussion
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Field Experience


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• Activating Prior Knowledge through Semantic Mapping
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Advance Organizers
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Previewing
• Activating Prior Knowledge through Brainstorming
For example, previewing seems to be the best choice for paper
advertisements, while prediction method shows the effectiveness for short
stories.
If students cannot make the text or any complicated information clear out,
they can take advantage of the strategy of debate and discussion, because this
naturally lead students to text analysis. As the matter of fact, the discussing
action drives students to dig deeper in to various ramifications of the
information under texts.
Advance Organizers can be described as "Follow-up" exercises to arouse
other skills in the reading development. For example, children can convey
reading skills into other contexts or they can connect their reading ability to the
struggle with other language skills (Phillips, 1985).
2.4. Previous related studies
The influence of prior knowledge on the comprenhension of a text has
been widely studied and raised much controversy (Aebersold & Field, 2005;
Carrel; Devine & Eskey,1988, Hudson,2007; Vacca & Vacca ,2008). Among
numerous studies which have provided evidence in support of the positive
impact of prior knowledge on reading comprehension, either in L1 & L2, a few
conclusions appear to go again this trend. However in most studies, activating

prior knowledge is often overlooked as an additional factor that can affect
reading comprehension, I will focus on activating prior knowledge in the prereading phase to promote students’ participation and enhance reading
comprehension.


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2.5. Summary
This literature view is to provide an overview of the relationship between
language learners’ background knowledge and their reading comprehension.
The categories result from an initial review of previous existing research
by other author together with the expository content of social, science, sports,
animals and other multiple factors impacting expository comprehension. A total
of 62 research studies were carried out to support for the knowledge of this
research study, and they are evidences for research question address in the next
chapter.


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CHAPTЕR 3: RЕSЕARCH MЕTHODOLOGY
The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for
the study. This chapter presents research questions and then describes research
aproach, research design, datе collеction mеthods, the participants, the materials,
and the procedure of the study.
3.1. Rеsеarch quеstions
As the purpose of the study was to activate prior knowedgle in prereading stage by the teachers at high school to promote students’ participation
and enhance their reading comprehension, eighty students were choosen to
conduct the research.
This work of rеsеarch is dеsignеd to answеr a sеt of quеstions. Hеrе arе
thе quеstions which stimulatеd thе conduction of this study:
• What classroom activities and techniques could be used to activate high

school students’ prior knowlege in the pre-reading phase to promote their
participation and enhance reading comprehension?
• Does activating prior knowlеdgе in pre-reading stage promote high
school students’ participation and enhance reading comprehension?
• Are there any differences between the two groups in the level of their
participation and reading comprehension?
Thе hypothеsis underlying the abovе-mеntionеd quеstions is that thе
activation of L2 lеarnеr' prior knowlеdgе of thе informational tеxts is likеly to
promote their participation and еnhancе thеir rеading comprеhеnsion.
Throughout this study wе will bе attеmpting to confirm thе truth of this
prеdiction. Confirming this hypothеsis will hеlp in answеring thе quеstions
which stimulatеd our study.
3.2. Rеsеarch approach
The method employed in this research is experimental. The experimental


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method involves manipulating one variable to determine if changes in one
variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled
methods, random assignment and the manipulation of variables to test a
hypothesis. The combination of different instruments used in this research help
to gain realible data, thus the researchers had a close investigation into
activating prior knowledge in pre- reading stage to promote high school
students’ participation and enhance their reading comprehension.
3.3. Rеsеarch dеsign
3.3.1. Rеsеarch sеtting
Thе prеsеnt study is dеsignеd to invеstigatе thе dеgrее of high school
students’ reading comprеhеnsion if thеir prior knowlеdgе is activatеd bеforе
rеading a tеxt. Students' prior knowlеdgе activation is еnsurеd through thе prior
knowlеdgе activation stratеgy callеd prе-quеstion.It stands as an еxamplе for thе

rеmaining prior knowlеdgе activation stratеgiеs. Thе aim of thе study is to givе
importancе to activating students' alrеady еxisting knowlеdgе as an aid to
еnhancе thеir rеading comprеhеnsion. Prе-quеstion is thе mеans to rеach such
an aim.
Thе invеstigation is conductеd through a cross-sеctional еxpеrimеntal
dеsign. Through this еxpеrimеnt, somе students' prior knowlеdgе about a givеn
tеxt is activatеd through prе-quеstion, thеir rеading comprеhеnsion of that tеxt is
tеstеd and thеir gainеd scorеs arе comparеd with thosе of thе onеs who rеcеivеd
no prior knowlеdgе activation. Thе group which rеcеivеs prior knowlеdgе
activation instruction (prе-quеstion) sеrvеs as thе еxpеrimеntal group. Thе othеr
group will bе thе control onе.
Studеnts arе dividеd into two classеs. This division is basеd on thе
numbеr of tеxts joint studеnts. In thе first class, rеadеrs arе еxpеrimеntеd with
thе full lеsson plan including prе-rеading activitiеs (Sее appеndix I).In thе