Research in L1 and L2 shows that the use of effective instructional strategies and practices for example: activating the reader’s schemata and building background knowledge for the text have positive outcomes for student comprehension and meaning construction, especially in EFL contexts. Yet, in many EFL contexts, teachers’ knowledge and application of these instructional protocols are often inadequate to guarantee students’ success. This mixed-method study investigates EFL reading comprehension instruction in Saudi Arabian public secondary schools, with a particular focus on schema theory applications in that context. The study explores public secondary school EFL teachers’ instructional practices when teaching reading comprehension. Previous research on reading in English as first language (L1) has expressed growing concern about adolescents’ literacy development and reading comprehension; students become less motivated to read on their own upon reaching high school and reduce their chances of becoming skilled readers (Kamil, Pearson, Moje& Afflerbach, 2011; Israel & Duffy, 2014). This concern worsens when they need to read in a second language (L2) or a foreign language (FL), as they encounter increasingly unfamiliar vocabularies, complex structures, and decreased reading engagement at this level. As high school English Foreign language (EFL) students transition from learning to read letters and isolated vocabulary to reading to learn complex structures and academic information, the use of prior knowledge plays an essential role in developing their comprehension strategies, fluency, engagement, and motivation to read (Al-Asmari & Javid, 2018). They need to receive appropriate instruction that focuses on activating their prior knowledge and on the text and the cultural context (Alshamari, 2017; Al-Asmari & Javid, 2018). The role of teachers is essential in adolescents’ literacy success, as they are expected to evaluate their students’ knowledge, set goals, and determine the best instructional strategies and approaches that will improve their students’ comprehension (Singer & Donlan, 1985; Singer & Dreher, 1989; Vacca, Vacca, Gove, Burkey, Lenhart & McKeon, 2015). Teachers can facilitate their EFL learners’ literacy success by helping them activate their prior knowledge and/or by developing the required background knowledge that helps students create the connections they need to comprehend (Al-Jahwari & Al-Humaidi, 2015; Alshamari, 2017; Al-Asmari & Javid, 2018)

This study is informed conceptually by one of the major theories that have informed reading comprehension instruction, which is schema theory. Schema theory is a cognitive theory that explains the structure and organization of knowledge in our memory (Israel & Duffy, 2014). According to this theory, all knowledge is organized in our memory into containers of knowledge, these containers or schemata included stored ideas and information. When readers encounter any new phenomena they access their schemata or our background knowledge looking for interpretations. Anderson (1984) discusses the concept of schema in relation to reading; he states that readers have background knowledge, which is their “organized knowledge of the world” (Anderson, 1984, p, 243). This knowledge supports reading comprehension and the readers’ learning processes from a text. Because each reader has different background knowledge, the text’s interpretation will be different from one reader to another. This study examines how EFL teachers understand and implement schema theory in teaching reading comprehension and if they are familiar with this theoretical base. The two major questions in this research are:  1- What are the instructional strategies that EFL Saudi public secondary school teachers use to activate the students’ background knowledge in their classrooms?

2- What are the instructional strategies that EFL Saudi public secondary school teachers use to build the appropriate background knowledge in their classrooms?

This study explored Saudi EFL high school context using a convergent mixed method design (Creswell & Clark, 2018). The convergent design involves collecting, analyzing, and integrating both qualitative and quantitative data and results at the same time. The target population was Saudi EFL public secondary school teachers. The quantitative data in this study were collected through through a 14 -item Likert-type online web-based questionnaire administered to Saudi English teachers who work in public secondary schools. The questionnaire received 387 complete responses and 208 partial responses. Qualitative data were collected through interviews and classroom observations from a purposeful sample of 8 teachers. SPSS was employed to analyze the questionnaire. The quantitative data were analyzed by conducting frequency distributions, descriptive statistics, reliability tests and one-way ANOVA tests. Qualitative data were analyzed through thematic and content analyses. The questionnaire aimed at exploring reading comprehension-related instructional practices that the teachers use and the influence of gender and years of experience on the instruction. The qualitative data are collected through interviews and classroom observations.

Three data sources provided answers to the central research question that aims at exploring EFL reading comprehension instructional practices at Saudi public secondary schools. The three sources included: questionnaire, teacher interviews, and classroom observations. Background activation instructional practices involve pre-reading activities, in which the teacher utilizes previewing and brainstorming to connect the new materials with the students’ prior knowledge. It also involves during- and post-reading activities, where students integrate their cultural background and experiences to the text. However, this integration requires higher cognitive processing skills, as well as the use of various metacognitive strategies. When exploring background activation in this study, teachers in the survey reported using pre-reading activities frequently. However, during-reading activities, which involve integrating the texts to the students’ culture and experiences, or to other text that they have read, do not seem to be used frequently. The qualitative analysis also served to confirm these findings; participants in the interviews reported using pre-reading activities more than during-reading or post-reading activities. The classroom observations also showed that teachers utilize different pre-reading activities, such as previewing, questioning, and brainstorming. Encouraging the student to make the appropriate connections during-reading was reported to be used “sometimes” in the survey. The interviewed teachers did not mention these activities as part of their instruction, but in the classroom observation, teachers did ask their students once or twice - in some lessons - to make connections between the topics and their lives, or their religious background. In order to have better outcomes in students’ reading comprehension, it is important to identify the instructional practices that the teachers use and the challenges that the teachers face. The conclusion of this study implied that the teachers use a variety of instructional practices to develop the students’ comprehension. However, some of these practices seem to be used infrequently.

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