Uganda Baptist Seminary (UBS) is accredited by the Ugandan National Council for Higher Education and teaches church leaders from Uganda and its surrounding seven countries. The required language of educational instruction is English, although the students come from a multitude of different native languages. This research stems from a need to…

This theoretical review is an overview of three important theories: schema theory, information-processing theory, and sociocultural theory. Second/foreign language teachers need to familiarize themselves with these theories if they want to teach culturally unfamiliar texts more successfully in their language classrooms. Although each of these…

The article focuses on defining how background knowledge impacts on second-language acquisition by giving a brief overview of schema theory, the interaction of the basic modes of information processing. A challenge of dealing with culturally specific texts in second language acquisition is also touched upon. Different research-supported views on…

Cross-curricular objectives serve as a kind of "safety net" for core objectives. Firstly, cross-curricular objectives refer to competencies that do not pertain to the content of one or more subjects, but that can be taught, practised and applied in it, such as learning to learn and social skills. Secondly, certain cross-curricular final…

This research is focused on the difficulties on English Literature Comprehension for modern language students at UASD Language School and it is aimed to identify each one of those difficulties to be further studied and analyzed in order to look for a possible solution to the problem. This group has observed that a great number of students are…

In this article, the author explores the idea that reading proficiency in a second language involves comprehending the second culture and using it to interpret the world view of the second language. Using cognitive theory, the author examined the relevance of prior knowledge of Chinese language and idioms to understanding text written in Chinese.…

This study investigated the effects of culture-specific background knowledge and inferences upon second-language readers' comprehension of text. Ten Korean adult second-language readers were asked to think aloud as they read a short story from another culture and then answer a detailed set of postreading questions. (20 references) (VWL)

How background knowledge of the content of a text affects reading comprehension and the role it plays in the diagnosis and instruction of reading comprehension skills for linguistically/culturally diverse (L/CD) students may be demonstrated through schema theory. Since a schema represents what is believed to be generally true about a class of…

Criticizes E. D. Hirsch and cultural literacy. Raises questions about the selection of content and teaching methods in a program for cultural literacy. Clarifies the concept of the "writerly" and supports the argument that it is necessary in education for literacy with arguments from empirical research, history, and personal experience.…

Research on the schema theory of comprehension and cultural schemata, on background cultural knowledge, is reviewed and related to reading comprehension theory and practice. In line with the research findings, several activities for pre-reading, reading, and post-reading are described, with suggestions for teacher preparation and classroom use.…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 28 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effect of assisted reading as a teaching method for enhancing reading readiness in kindergarten children; (2) the structure of talk in primary grade…