Separate and Simultaneous Cumulative Effects of Content and Formal Schemata on Turkish EFL Learners’Reading

Due to the absence of a commonly accepted comprehensive reading theory, many researchers have been trying to understand the reading process by analyzing it into aset of components. Two of those components widely researched in first and second language are content background knowledge (content schemata) and the prior knowledge of rhetorical structures (formal schemata). The study aimed at investigating the separate and simultaneous combined effects of the content and formal schemata on Turkish EFLstudents’reading comprehension. In order to find out the probable effects of the two schemata, four main groups of subjects, comprising a total of 115 students, were subjected to different treatments: The first group was given treatment to build up both the content and the formal schemata simultaneously, the second group was trained to build up only the formal schemata, the third group was taught to build up only the content schemata, and the last group did not receive any special treatment and assigned as the control group. These groups of subjects were compared to one another by means of some statistical tests on the basis of their scores on reading. The results showed that the content schemata is an important factor in EFL reading, but the formal schemata and the combination of the content and formal schemata did not appear to be as important.