English major students will be able to significantly improve their read-ing comprehension if they can relate existing background knowledge to new knowledge as they begin the reading process. The KWL chart strategy (Know, Want to Know, Learned) is an effective method to meet the requirements of English reading comprehension. It allows students to activate existing knowledge to relate to the content of the material they will read. This study explores English majors' perspectives on the importance of background knowledge and the use of the KWL method to activate pre-reading knowledge. The author conducted observations and sent online survey questions to a group of 60 second-year students majoring in English at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Dong Nai University of Technology. Two specific results are: (1) most participants acknowledged that background knowledge impacts reading comprehension
(2) The use of the KWL strategy re-ceived support from the majority of participants. Applying this strategy in an aca-demic English reading comprehension course is absolutely necessary so that stu-dents can improve their motivation and reading skills.