Recently, transactional reader response theory has been criticized for providing an inadequate theoretical guide for the study of multicultural literature. Some scholars argue that Rosenblatt assumes the reader and her response to literature are ideologically innocent and the continuum of aesthetic and efferent stance does not encompass critical…

In this article, the authors examined readers' sensitivity to the match between characters' goals and characters' actions. In Experiment 1, readers integrated actions consistent with characters' goals more easily when there was a match between the extremeness of the actions and the urgency of the goals. In Experiments 2 and 3, characters'…

This paper examines the context of critical reading and considers how it can best be taught. The paper also includes some reflections on the current "state of the art" in critical reading in an English for Special Purposes (ESP) or English as a Second Language (ESL) context. The paper details a series of attempts to develop a set of…