ISSN: 1979-0457 126 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE OF SCHEMATA AND TEXT COMPREHENSION A Survey at English Department of State University of Padang, 2010 Yuli Tiarina FBS State University of Padang Abstract This study is aimed at finding the relationship between knowledge of schemata and text comprehension. It was conducted at English Department of State University of Padang on the fifth semester in the academic year of 2009/2010.There were 38 students as the sample using cluster sampling technique. The instruments used were multiple choice tests. The quantitative data were analized by using simple correlation and regression. It was found that there is a relationship between knowledge of schemata and text comprehension. It means that someone who has good knowledge of schemata will have good text comprehension. The equation is  = 13.39 + 0.95X 1 . Its correlation coefficient is 0.6962. The knowledge of schemata gives contribution 48.47% to text comprehension. The findings can be beneficial for the teachers as a consideration that they can help students to activate their schemata in order to get good text comprehension. Key words/phrases: knowledge of schemata, text comprehension A. INTRODUCTION English Literature and Language Edu- cation has become a program at English Department of State University of Padang (UNP). The vision of English Education Program is to prepare professional English teachers that are able to educate students and teach English sincerely in the name of Allah, and have good manner and relevant knowledge, have an ability to develop family, society, and country (Dikti, 2006). Being professional teachers’ means being able to master four English skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these four English skills, reading skill is more important. Language leaners pay special focus on reading. According to Brown (2001), there are two reasons for that. First, many English learners want reading as one of their important aims. Second, written texts provide pedagogical purposes. It is implied that reading is a way to get education. Reading makes someone know what hapen- ned and what is happening. By reading, someone can get and add knowledge, and know expert’s thought and opinion from various discipline. Besides, written texts can make someone smile, happy, or sad. As said by Brown (2001) “The written text confuses us and enlightens us, it depresses us and amuses us, it sickens us and heals us”. In other words, reading is a key to get knowledge and entertainment. Unfortunatelly, based on the research done by Nugroho (2009), reading interest of our society is still low. The people around prefer watching TV to reading. As a result the people do not have time to read because they spend their time watching. It also gives impact to students’ reading interest. In addition, based on researcher’s observation as a lecturer at English Department of UNP and writer’s collegue’s report, reading skill of students was still low. They still faced many probems in understanding the written text. Actually, comprehending the text needs supporting factors. In other words, if a learner has supporting factors, s/he will not get difficulties in comprehending the text well. Nunan (1993) states that reading can be defined as an activity that processes of decoding written symbols that work from