This is a conceptual paper, based on several semesters of collaboration in which the American author interacted with students in the Taiwanese author's EFL classes in Taiwan. The best native language users are typically those who read extensively, especially reading for pleasure in their youth. This gives them a large vocabulary and an intuitive…

Dutro discusses an analysis of the disconnect between the material realities of the lives of a group of third-grade children living in poverty and the middle-class assumptions of a district-mandated unit within a literacy curriculum. The analysis arose in the context of an ethnographic study of identity and classroom literacy practices; it was…

According to a recent survey of colleagues across the disciplines, the most effective and engaging academic writers are those who express complex ideas clearly and succinctly; write with originality, imagination and creative flair; convey enthusiasm, commitment and a strong sense of self; tap into a wide range of intellectual interests; avoid…

Discusses a new poetic language invented in 1983 based on innovative use of the holographic medium. Defines what a holopoem is and explains the fundamental concepts of holopoetics. Introduces theoretical principles that address the new readerly experience created by the holotext. Provides a descriptive list of all holopoems created to date. (PA)

Drawing on the work of Virginia Woolf, feminist instructors of college composition can help their students to develop their own voices by encouraging innovation and revision of mainstream discourses and ways of expression. If Woolf believed that women cannot escape the language of men, which not only constitutes the symbolic realm of phallocentric…

Discusses three dominant ways in which language is understood within English studies: structuralism, dialogic discourse, and journals. Shows how each approach produces a different awareness of student texts. Demonstrates how different language theories entail unique interpretive strategies that either promote or disable particular understandings…

In much current literary and rhetorical theory, analysis of text assumes greater authority than the text and its creator. Through a reexamination of the ancient Greeks' notion of "ethos" (the residue of the writer or speaker in the text), the writer, reader, and text can be reunited, particularly in light of the theory of meanings…

Discusses both the ways and the contexts which make sense within the tension created by the relationship between reader and reading in short stories and cartoons. (PA)

The works of French literary theorists Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Roland Barthes reflect a view of the text as the primary object of investigation for any discipline in the human sciences. Each of the three has been involved with pedagogical reforms within French cultural institutions: Derrida with the teaching of philosophy, Lacan with…

Two exercises were developed to demonstrate how Mikhail Bakhtin's conception of novelistic language and creative interpretation are instrumental in teaching students to read creatively. The text chosen for these exercises was "Crime Against Nature" by Minnie Bruce Pratt. According to Bakhtin's scheme, a fiction can be read most…

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…

Points to the importance for Jewish education of the relationship between the Hebrew language and Jewish identity. Argues that de-emphasis of the Hebrew language leads to a culture and religion that do not reflect the texts, culture, and traditions of Judaism. Prescribes increased emphasis on Hebrew in training Jewish teachers. (DSK)

This digest provides a historical review of some current literary theories and practices which developed from contemporary philosophy. Structuralism, associated with Ferdinand de Saussure and Claude Levi-Strauss, with a seemingly scientific view of language and culture posited a systemic "center" that organized and sustained an entire…

Designed to help middle and secondary level teachers create spaces for students to explore multiple perspectives and interpretations of their texts, this brochure offers teachers who have experienced classroom talk that leads to gender divisiveness among students an opportunity to consider new ways of thinking about such talk. The brochure…

The reader is a component part of the only form of a text which can be discussed meaningfully as a message. As readers with different linguistic backgrounds experience texts in fusions with their own personalities and their own social and cultural backgrounds, these dynamic texts differ in different languages. Accordingly, intranslatability exists…