The schema for supermarkets in the U.S., for example, would contain information about checkout stands, cashiers, baggers, packaging, bar codes, and discount coupons. Pictures, newspaper ads, television images, and visits to a supermarket would expand and reform the existing schema for supermarket. Prior knowledge can greatly facilitate an interpretation of a text by providing an overall context for the information being encoded, comprehended, and recalled. It follows, then, that the less familiar readers are with the various schemata of a particular text, the more they will struggle to construct an accurate meaning. Linguistic schemata include knowledge of letters and their corresponding sounds, grammar, vocabulary, idioms, word attack skills, and distinctions between spoken and written forms of the language.
Content schemata refer to an individual's knowledge about the topic being addressed.
For example, participation in the U.S. public school system presumes knowledge about teacher and student role relationships and appropriate classroom behavior. Formal schemata include background knowledge about, and expectations of, differences among the rhetorical organizational structures in which information is presented. While students like Mao may appear proficient in English due to their conversational fluency, they are rarely equipped with the knowledge to perceive complex core curricula in a culturally authentic and specific way. Proficient readers skim some texts or sections of texts, scan for specific pieces of information, read in meaningful chunks rather than word for word, and carefully note cohesive devices. They derive vocabulary meanings from context and read fast but consciously vary their rate with different types of material.