The Roles of Schemata in Reading Comprehension: An Empirical Study among Ielts Test Takers at a University in Hanoi

Abstract

The present study employed a mix-method research design to identify the impacts of activation of schemata on the reading comprehension scores and the individual differences and text characteristics influence (if any) the relationship. The study was conducted with 68 students of different learning styles; Visual learner, n=12; Auditory learners, n= 23; Group learners, n=19 and Individual learners, n=14. The findings reveals that students who were introduce schemata (experimental group) activation gained better reading scores, M=6.89 while the control group gained the score which was much lower, M= 4.65. The statistical analysis ANOVA was used to identify the difference in the means scores of participants with different learning styles. The ANOVA was examined based on an alpha value of .05. The results of the ANOVA were significant, F(3, 64) = 4.55, p = .006, indicating there were significant differences in Experimental group among the levels of Learning style. In the first place was Auditory leaners M= 7.19. Ranking in the second place was Auditory learners with M=7.19, following by Group leaners and Visual learners with M= 6.73 and 6.42 respectively.