The Influence of Readers’ Prior Knowledge in Comprehending English Text

Reading comprehension is interaction between the reader and the text. This interaction is the major factor that plays the most important role in comprehension. Accordingly, prior knowledge will be of primary importance for readers. This study entitles “The Influence of Readers’ Prior Knowledge in Comprehending English Text”. The aims of this research are to figure out whether prior knowledge influence readers’ ability in comprehending text and to find out students’ response toward applying prior knowledge in reading comprehension. To obtain the data, there were two techniques used for this research, tests and questionnaire. In selecting the sample, the researcher used cluster sampling. The sample was students in 2a of MAS Darul Ihsan. In collecting the data, the researcher applied quasi experimental research, the researcher gave pre-test and post-test, and distributed questionnaires in experiment group. Based on the obtained data by using Ttest and degree of freedom 25 at significant level of α=0.05 showed that the gained score was 1.7. As Ttest was higher than Ttable 5.5 > 1.7, Ha of this research was accepted. Thus, readers’ prior knowledge influence their reading comprehension.