ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Impact of Familiar Cues on Reading Comprehension: An Investigative Study of Pakistani English Language Learners
Provisionally accepted
- University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
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Language development is influenced by a number of factors, one of them is existing knowledge. Previous studies suggest that contextualizing language learning materials can help low-skilled learners improve their performance. This study is grounded in Frederic Bartlett's schema theory (1932), which posits that individuals use prior knowledge to interact with new information. A sample of 60 students was divided into an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG), with 30 students in each. Both groups read an excerpt from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but the experimental group received instruction that included familiar cultural cues to aid comprehension. The groups were assessed through comprehension questions, which were evaluated based on vocabulary, evaluation, and inferential skills. A post-assessment survey using a Likert scale examined students' perceptions of the contextualization's impact on their performance. The results indicated that students performed better when academic content was familiar. The experimental group demonstrated stronger analytical and inferential skills, displaying the benefits of using culturally relevant cues to improve comprehension and engagement. This study supports the previous findings and emphasizes the value of contextualized learning to enhance students' interest and comprehension.
Keywords: word, cultural cues, english language teaching, language teaching, reading comprehension, schema theory
Received: 15 Jul 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Aqdas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shayan Aqdas, shayanaqdas@gmail.com
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