The Assessment Issue of "English in Australia" has prompted Brenton Doecke to ask himself about significant moments in the history of subject English in Australia when truly innovative work was done in the area of assessing English. There are many examples to choose from, including Brian Johnston's "Assessing English: Helping…

This article uses the findings from an empirical study on Hong Kong students' reading practices as collected through face-to-face interviews on major university campuses in Hong Kong to argue for the importance of "affective" and "imaginative" engagement with literary texts if students are to develop an interest in reading.…

Considers how reading Jane Tompkins'"Sensational Designs" helps foster a new appreciation of the ways in which students contribute to the creation of a literary work. Discusses how students responded to their semester-long study of various "neglected" 19th-century women writers. (SG)

Relates the experience of a teacher who discovered that students enjoy studying literature if they are allowed to experience it rather than analyze it. Contends that the effort to teach books at the secondary level using literary criticism is a misguided response to a national literacy crisis. (SRT)

Considers literature as something different from the texts themselves (specifically, a way of reading that includes the writer, the text, and the reader) so that the purposes of teachers and readers may be considered, and a flexible approach to selection, organization, and pedagogy be permitted. (SRT)