Carrell's findings that "unlike native speakers . . .nonnative readers show virtually no significant effects of background knowledge" in reading, understanding, or recalling a text.I In that study, two levels of ESL readers and one group of native-English speakers were presented with three experimental treatments in order to examine three components of background knowledge. The components studied were: 1) context, the presence (context) or absence (no context) of a title and picture page preceding the text passage which informs the reader in advance of the content area relative to which the text should be read and under-