THE ROLE OF CULTURAL SCHEMATA IN CRITICAL READING

Reading is considered as a highly complex process which involves an active interaction between the reader and the text within a larger socio-cultural context. Critical reading is related to the thinking process of the readers and requires a deeper engagement with the text. It goes beyond mere understanding of the words printed on a page and thus, indulges in the process of analysing, interpreting and sometimes even evaluating the text. Cultural schemata can be perceived as the existing background knowledge of the individual which is formed out of the socio-cultural milieu he is an integral part of. In course of the interpretation and evaluation of the text the reader brings in the organized knowledge he already has in his mind. This paper makes an attempt to find out various aspects of the process of reading a text critically and also how our cultural schemata can influence this complex phenomenon.