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The Effect of Content Schemata on EFL Moroccan Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Role of the Pre-Reading Activities

This study examined whether content schemata activation facilitate reading comprehension or not. It is motivated by two research questions: (1) does content familiarity facilitate reading comprehension? And (2) do teachers activate learners background knowledge? To examine these questions, the study used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect and analyse data. It was hypothesized that content schema activation facilitates reading comprehension. This article has two goals: (1) to identify the effects of pre-reading activities on Moroccan EFL students’ reading comprehension through content schema activation, and (2) to translate the research findings into suggestions and guidance for textbook designers, teachers, and policy makers. Previous research has shown that providing learners background knowledge enhances their comprehension. Our most important contribution is to provide useful guidelines for actions and practice implications related to schema activation at the pre-reading stage in Moroccan EFL context. An experimental research study was conducted to test our hypothesis using students test score data to measure and compare the performance of the treatment group and the control group. The findings from the research show that the impact of content schema activation on reading comprehension is positive as assumed. The results, implications for teachers, and future research were discussed.