Reading is an integral part of scholarly practice, though we do not often discuss how our approaches to reading differ, and how these approaches may ultimately make interpretive impact on our research. This essay considers approaches to reading in light of the concepts of proximity and orientation. Though formal "close reading" is a…

In a teaching context fraught with conflicts on religious and ethnic backgrounds, I decide as a teacher researcher to address these issues with Israeli-Arab middle school students in my EFL classroom. Picture books on religious diversity and minority issues are used as a springboard for providing spaces for students to discuss these issues orally,…

It is essential to develop future teachers' views of diversity, as contemporary teachers teach large numbers of students who are not like them linguistically or culturally. Teacher educators are responsible for preparing preservice and inservice literacy teachers to be effective in these increasingly diverse classrooms. They should continue to…

Considers the possibility that engaging a text need not proceed through a preexisting program and, further, that another style of engagement may indicate intriguing possibilities for resistance. Demonstrates a type of criticism called "productive reading." Concludes that it is not sufficient to assume that reading must proceed through a…

Decontextualization, referring to the abstraction of a written text from all of its contexts, is a flawed concept. Rather than viewing writing as an isolated abstraction, a text's involvement with the human world should be acknowledged. Two major questions arise when dealing with the concept of decontextualization: (1) Can written discourse be…

Asking how what an individual knows shapes the ways in which he or she reads, this book starts from the premise that any productive theory of narrative must take into account the presuppositions the reader brings to the text. The book explores how prior knowledge of literary conventions influences the processes of interpretation and evaluation. It…

Relates the author's own experience of reading "Morning Girl," by Michael Dorris, as an example of practicing literary criticism. Provides an in-depth analysis of "Morning Girl" and how it could be interpreted and discussed through Langer's model of envisionment building. Illuminates Langer's theory so that it may be applied to…

This paper examines the work of Russian literary critic M. M. Bakhtin as a theory of reading. Focusing on two critical essays, "Discourse in the Novel" and "The Problem of Speech Genres," the paper demonstrates how Bakhtin addresses the three elements of a reading theory--language, representation, and interpretation. Next, the…

Shows how the enthymeme can organize a reader's participation in the text, specifically, George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant." (SRT)

A theory of literary interpretation that treats the reader's interaction with text as a form of conversation is discussed, and related teaching techniques are described. The approach uses four steps: (1) articulating initial responses; (2) pursuing deeper understanding of the text; (3) interaction with the text; and (4) identifying possibilities…

A text is the locus of many intersecting processes, the origins, character, and operative principles of which should be the main focus of its discussion in a writing class. These processes can be classified into the four major components of the communicative act: the writer, the reader, the social conditions of communication, and the historical…

The literary theorist Terry Eagleton believes that literary study is the study of human discourse. To build on his idea for use in the classroom, it must first be assumed that literature constitutes a dialogue between the work (and its author) and the reader. The dialogue process can be introduced in a 2- to 4-week unit through a cluster of…

Including only selections that have employed some systematic analysis of readers' responses to literary texts, this annotated bibliography lists 203 research studies. The selections date from 1970 through 1988. The bibliography is divided into sections on the following topics: (1) reader variables (subdivided into orientation, development, and…

Analyzes how two groups of eighth graders and their teacher create literary texts during small group discussion, and suggests the importance of talk as a means of constructing meaning. (NKA)