Factors Affecting the Learning of English as a Second Language in Israel.

The article explores the effects of the attitudes and culture of Israeli-Jewish students learning English on their reading comprehension. Research has indicate d that one component of reading comprehension is; readers' general knowledge of the world and the extent to which this knowledge is activated during reading. The influence of the Israeli social context on the learning process of the majority group of Jews studying English as a second language is of central importance to the present study. The present results seem to support both schema theory (Rumeihart, 1981, 1984) and the socio-educational models of Gardner (1983) and Wong-Filimore (1991). The Israeli students understood significantly more of the culturally familiar stories than of the culturally unfamiliar stories, confirming the results of many studies on the effect of students' cultural background on their reading comprehension. Although the Jewish-Israeli social context seems outwardly supportive of the study of English, Israeli education policy encourages all citizens to assimilate into Israeli society as quickly as soon as possible, regardless of their native culture or native language (Shohamy, 1993). Even Jews from countries other than Israel are not encouraged to maintain their cultural heritages or languages, consistent with the policy of consolidating the Jewish people in Israel so as to eradicate the negative connotations of diaspora Jewry.