Abstract
There are many factors which affect reading comprehension. While vocabulary has long been the center of interest in reading research, background knowledge has also been studied very extensively in recent years, leading to the development of reading comprehension theories. In studies on L2 reading, vocabulary and background knowledge seem to have been treated as distinct factors, whereas in reality, they are closely interwoven. This paper discusses the need for harmonious development of vocabulary and background knowledge for successful comprehension, the breakdown of harmony and its manifestation as various reading problems, and the differing effects of such problems on reading comprehension.
