A Conceptual Home for Reading Stories in Arabic, Chinese, and English: A Schema Analysis

This case study elucidates culture-based narrative texts based on the interpretation of Arabic, Chinese, and English native speakers. A maximum variation technique of purposeful sampling was used to capture the experience of the participants. The study employed a collective case study and adopted schema analysis, analyzing metaphors and interviewing participants. The study explored metaphors, including probing time, elaboration, content recall, and distortion generated by the participants while reading English text-based in a foreign context. The results revealed that culturally familiar texts stimulated readers’ cultural schemata and enhanced their reading interpretation. The distortion and confusion that occurred while reading the unfamiliar texts could hamper readers’ curiosity to instigate and build new cultural schemata. Furthermore, there was a reciprocal interweaving between cultural schema and linguistic competence, regardless of the nature of the cultural text and its familiarity or unfamiliarity. The study recommends further investigation about using English for cultural purposes.