Language Culture and Curriculum
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: Eoghan Mac Aogain (St Patrick's College)
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Volume: 16 Number: 1 Page: 60–69
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Cultural Content and Reading Proficiency: A Comparison of Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Learners of English
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Cecilia Yuet and Hung Chan
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This study looks closely at the relation between background knowledge and L2 proficiency in L2 reading performance in two groups of university learners of English, one from Mainland China and one from Hong
Kong. The students (n = 214) shared Chinese culture in general, but differed in terms of their local sub-cultural and social background. They were divided into intermediate and post-intermediate
groups on the basis of a test of General Proficiency in English. Two English cloze tests were then constructed to assess reading comprehension, one with cultural content that would have been familiar to
the Hong Kong students, and one that was culture free. The results show a strong cultural effect on reading comprehension, but not on post-intermediate readers. The findings have implications for teaching
reading to L2 learners.
© Multilingual Matters 2003
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