The role of content knowledge in the use of reading strategies

Abstract

Many studies have been carried out to determine the causes of difficulty in comprehending texts. Among those frequently cited as factors that either inhibit or enhance text comprehension are the reader's content knowledge, the medium oflanguage used to convey the content, the reader's Ll reading ability and the reader's level of education. When reading subject-specific texts which are heavily-laden with facts, content knowledge is undoubtedly one of the biggest factors that determine a reader's success in reading comprehension. Readers would face great difficulty in comprehending such texts if they do not possess a sufficient level of content knowledge. The level of content knowledge one possesses influences the quality of reading as it activates the quality of questions raised by the reader (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1991).