EFL learners were less proficient in the cross-cultural background information during their reading processes. This study primarily addresses the issue of cross-cultural background knowledge and its impacts upon the reading comprehension. In the study, thirty participants－students from a university EFL course at low-intermediate level－were divided into two groups and were separately taught with two different lesson plans. The results revealed that the average score of the study group was higher than that of the control group. The former group received new background knowledge before reading a cross-cultural text, while the latter group read without prior knowledge warm-up activity. With the significant consequence of the study, the following approaches to activate students’ background knowledge were discussed and concluded: cultural content warm-ups, previewing skills, predicting skills, and extensive reading. 非英語系國家的英文學習者經常難以理解跨文化領域的英文閱讀材料。本研究的目的在探討以讀者的背景知識運用在閱讀理解上的影響。研究方法乃進行兩組不同的教學課程，參與者為來自南部某大學選修英文閱讀課的三十名中低英文程度的大學生，被分為兩組進行研究，每組十五名，分別以兩種不同的教學計劃授課之後，各施予相同的理解測驗考題。結果顯示授予背景知識的研究組學生得到較佳的閱讀理解測驗分數，而未授予背景知識的控制組學生則得到較低的分數。依此實驗結果得知運用背景知識在閱讀理解上的顯著效果。最後本文作者建議用以下數種方法讓學生增進他們的背景知識: 輔以認識文化相關的議題討論為理解閱讀文章暖身、預知閱讀綱要的技巧、預測閱讀內容的技巧及廣泛閱讀策略。
