Examining Background Knowledge and Text Comprehension

THIS STUDY examines the (a) relationships between background knowledge and passage comprehension, (b) relative usefulness of certain variations in measuring available knowledge (fluency vs. organization), (c) value of a background knowledge measure as applied to a teacher-directed small group pre-reading language and concept organizer activity, and (d) effect of a pre-reading activity on text-specific background knowledge and on comprehension. Passage specific background knowledge, based on free association stimulated by key content .words, was measured by categorization levels developed by Langer (1980). Findings suggest that the background knowledge measure is a significant and reliable predictor of passage-specific comprehension. The pre-reading activity significantly raises available background knowledge, and this in turn seems to improve performance on moderately difficult comprehension questions. The measure of text specific background knowledge may be useful for teachers in assessing the difficulty of a reading assignment, and for researchers in controlling for differences in prior knowledge or in examining the relationships between background knowledge and various aspects of learning.