Author: Signe Mari Wiland, Associate Professor, Dr.Art. University of Agder.
Topic/Subject area: Reading beyond the textbook
Background
The positive relationship between extensive reading of English texts and the development of language competence is an accepted fact and exploited in various ways in foreign language learning (Simensen 2007 p. 86-90). Since recent research gives a rather negative view of the reading competence of Norwegian students of English (Hellekjær 2005, 2008), at least for academic purposes, any project where teachers seriously try to motivate pupils and engage them in reading more literature is most welcome. At Marnar Lower Secondary School in Marnardal the teachers of English started an ambitious literature programme entitled From Text to Language, funded by the National Centre of Foreign Languages in the spring of 2007 to motivate pupils to read authentic literature specifically written for young adults to improve their competence in English. All levels of lower secondary school were involved in the project; 8th, 9th and 10th grades. The project covered a period of two years with pupils from the original 8th and 9th grades following the reading project for two academic years. During this time I have been the supervisor of the project, taking on the role of the anthropologist that Wolfgang Iser discusses in From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology (Iser 1993), according to him the most valuable form of research to give us more knowledge about literature. From Text to Language is not a research project, though, but a teaching project documented and discussed in the form of this article, following the project from beginning to end, more or less chronologically.
Aims of Project
Any teaching programme with the objective of challenging the pupils' desire to learn requires substantial professional resources and careful planning to succeed. The professionalism of teachers is a dynamic process that must always be stimulated to meet new requirements and changing curriculum plans. For this reason From Text to Language also involves the gradual development of the teachers' knowledge of literature for young adults (YAL) and the introduction of didactic and methodological competence on their part, particularly pertaining to the use of authentic literature in the classroom. To achieve these dual goals of teachers and pupils, the leader of the project visited the Norwegian Study Centre in York in the autumn of 2007 to become updated on literature for young adults (YAL) and useful internet sources. Three teachers also attended the course "Fun, laughter and learning in the classroom" at the University of Kent in Canterbury in August 2008. This course included authentic children's literature and a number of methodological approaches to motivate and encourage pupils to speak English and participate in class. The course was a necessary inspiration for the teachers in their work with the literature project. In addition, to meet the demands of LK06 of furthering the pupils' joyful experience of reading texts and encouraging personal growth, maturation and creativity, a serious updating in practical and theoretical terms was required to succeed with such an ambitious reading project.
Theoretical Justification
Literary theory is not always popular with teachers in school. My allegation is that reader-response theories function differently because they support the case of the reader no matter how competent or incompetent this reader is in literary techniques (Fish 1995 p. 48). In other words these theories contribute to liberating the young reader from constraints and enabling her to approach the texts with greater self-confidence and fewer inhibitions. In December 2007 I therefore gave a basic course at Marnar School in the theories of Louise Rosenblatt (1981), Stanley Fish (1995) and David Bleich (1975, 1978) in addition to the presentation of the prima vista line by line reading used in my own reader-response research among Norwegian students (Wiland 2007 p. 87-119). The prima vista line by line research method is also applicable to reading in class, as it can diagnose the pupils' affective and cognitive attitudes to reading English in a school context. An important point in my presentation was to suggest practical approaches based on the theories.
The introduction to Rosenblatt's theories of the efferent and aesthetic attitudes to reading is an apt reminder of what teachers signal, sometimes unconsciously, when literature is taught and discussed in the classroom (Rosenblatt 1981 p. 22-47), namely the importance of the plot. The efferent attitude directs the readers towards information seeking, often materializing as an avid thirst for summing up the plot. It is an engaging activity for many pupils, but perhaps not a satisfactory approach to make literature into the aesthetic experience it was meant to be by the author. According to Rosenblatt, the aesthetic attitude implies the lived through experience the reader gradually goes through during the process of reading and requires more time spent on the reading to notice rhetorical devices and literary techniques revealed in the text and which are part of the reading experience. To a certain extent the focus on plot is the most rewarding element when working with teenagers, as the narrative exerts a strong and natural appeal for this group of readers. As a motivating factor it should therefore not be underestimated. However, if novels are reduced to a summary of plot and comprehension questions the dominating method to "secure an understanding of the text", the text will never become "a poem" (Rosenblatt 1981 p. 16), which to Rosenblatt is the reader's "complex structure of experience" when her attention is turned inwards, and which makes literature worth reading. Even for young readers "the transaction" (Rosenblatt 1981 p. 18) between the linguistic symbol and the stream of feelings involved will make sense if they are allowed to accept their own feelings when they read.
Rosenblatt's concept of transaction secures equal concern for reader and text. Fish rocks this continuum radically by doing away with the text, polemically suggested by the title of his best known book, Is There a Text in this Class? (Fish 1995) He boldly states that reading is an event in the mind of the reader, a temporal experience or process where the notion of mistakes becomes irrelevant. The meaning of the text does not exist, only the meaning of the reading event. This is a radical upgrading of the reader's role, even if Fish sabotages his radicalism by introducing the notion of interpretive community, where Norwegian pupils would not be accepted, as the interpretive community as Fish sees it consists of very competent readers (Fish 1995 p. 48). Ignoring the notion of competence as an inhibiting factor for young learners, though, we can still give the pupils the benefit of the doubt and accept their slow reading experience as a valuable first step. This is an approach to secure that the events they do not notice in normal time are brought before their analytical attention (Fish 1995 p. 28). In this way the pupils can train from an early age to become confident members of the interpretive community.
Confidence is a key concept for Bleich in his effort to understand the potential there is in literary texts for shaping the identity of young readers. Unless readers are allowed to perceive and identify experiences, such as literature in confidence and freedom, they will never be able to integrate these experiences in a constructive way and develop their personalities accordingly. For this reason Bleich trained his students to write response statements, aiming to record "the perception of a reading experience and its natural, spontaneous consequences, among which are feelings, or affects, and peremptory memories and thoughts, or free associations" (Bleich 1978 p. 147). Even though this might not be feasible or even desirable in an educational context, it may teach us something about the levels of reading that somehow may be comparable to Fish' notions of the primary and secondary levels of reading. The first confusing perception and reading is not necessarily the end product of the work with that particular text, but it is necessary for the young readers to be able to be sincere and personal and develop a lasting relationship to literature. For teachers, knowledge about different levels of reading may lead to a more relaxed attitude to what young readers actually get out of a text the first time they read it and give up the desire to find a common interpretation of it, if that is relevant at all in lower secondary school. In any case, the development of knowledge is dependent on a mutual understanding of what knowledge of literature implies in an educational context and the recognition that the incitement to read more lies in the personal enjoyment of reading a text that matters.
This brief introduction to reader-response is not exhaustive, but simply meant as motivation for teachers to give young readers the freedom they need to enjoy the texts in their own capacity, regardless of competence. For a more comprehensive discussion of reader-response theory in connection with real responses to poetry, chapters 2 and 3 in my doctoral thesis or my recently published book based on the thesis will be a good alternative. (Wiland 2007, 2009) For the teachers at Marnar Lower Secondary School some of the ideas presented above have been integrated naturally in their practical work with the books they have chosen for the project.
Themes, Texts and Approaches, 10th grade, Spring 2008
In the initial stages of the project for 10th grade, the teachers focused on different themes to motivate the pupils and gave them brief assignments to encourage personal and creative methods. Ideas exploiting the learners' creative and cognitive resources, as they have been presented and developed by Frank Smith, have also greatly influenced the work in the literature classroom (Smith 1992, 1994). In the work with two songs; "What a Wonderful World" sung by Louis Armstrong and "Pollution", written by Tom Lehrer, the pupils approached the lyrics and music by preparing an individual class presentation made on PhotoStory or Moviemaker, work involving the use of internet and ICT. The presentations, which I attended, revealed great motivation for the work, keen understanding of the texts and relatively advanced computer skills. In the discussion in English after the computer presentations, many of the pupils displayed a keen awareness of the choice of pictures they had made in order to express their personal understanding of the song. The presentations also attracted the attention of the class mates who watched and listened carefully. No doubt the classroom became an immersion ground for foreign language acquisition and learning (Krashen 1988).
Using such brief texts is sometimes a great asset to make the text a "poem" in Rosenblatt's sense and train the readers in applying the aesthetic attitude. The pupils have to focus on the text for a long time, "live through it" (Rosenblatt 1981 p. 14), listen to the words over and over again during the practical work on the computer and thus get a stronger personal relationship to the text and language than they otherwise would have been able to. When I challenged them to sing "What a Wonderful World" by heart at the end of the session, most of them immediately started out singing with great confidence.
In 10th grade, where the pupils followed the project for less than a year, most of the reading of books was done at home. The choice of books was personally motivated, based on the theme of growing up, and personal preferences were varied. Fantasy, thrillers and mysteries still fascinate many young readers, but also novels with an autobiographical basis and problem-oriented books. Humour is also sought after, but hard to find. With good guidance and inspiration from the teachers, who have supplied the school library with a lot of new books for young adults (see www.itslearning.com, Marnardal kommune for a book list), this theme of growing up was wide enough to include most books for teenagers. In an interview with a representative selection of pupils in April 2008, various reactions to this project were communicated.
From the most avid girl reader to the one male reader, who had to choose a film instead of a book for lack of reading skills, courage or motivation, the pupils were generally quite pleased with the project. Reading logs were used during the reading with great or little enthusiasm from the readers. Capable readers felt that it was unnatural and that it was an unwelcome break in an exciting reading process to stop after a chapter to take notes. For more inexperienced readers, the reading log gave them a chance to digest the text and ponder upon important aspects of reading literature that are essential to develop greater reader confidence. Regardless of the pupils' attitudes, the reading log exemplifies the process of reading and the slow reading that Fish claims constitute the interpretation of the text. In any case combining reading and writing enhances the language learning potential and the understanding of reading as a "language-sensitizing device" (Fish 1995 p. 66), which is a stated objective in the project From Text to Language. From a selection of the logs, I shall give a few examples to illustrate the didactic value of them from a reader-response- and foreign language learning perspective. The books are Skellig by David Almond, A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd and Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah (see www.itslearning.com for information about the books discussed in this article).
The pre-reading activities included in the log form combine perception of visual images and the title on the front page with the imagination of the readers. Engaging the readers both cognitively and affectively secures that all their personal resources are made use of, not only the cognitive ones. In a response to A Swift Pure Cry a pupil expresses herself in this way.
A girl dressed in a red dress walks along the eternity of yellow-brown sand. The ocean turns into a darker blue
colour from the beach. The footsteps in the sand will soon be gone by the blue ocean. The red dress is
something different compare to the other colours on the frontpage (ASPC Log 1).
The choice of the expression, "walks along the eternity of yellow-brown sand" suggests advanced cognitive skills in finding an appropriate linguistic form to convey a very personal and emotional experience of the picture. Her observations of colour, shades, shapes and time passing in a stable picture, fixing the moment in a visual form, indicate a similar strong cognitive competence in understanding verbal and visual stimuli. The lack of variation of syntax, which otherwise might have been considered a linguistic weakness, appears as a strength in this log, because it appears as poetic prose, or even a poem if organized differently.
A girl dressed
in a red dress
walks along the eternity of yellow-brown sand.
The ocean turns into a darker blue
colour from the beach.
The footsteps in the sand will soon be gone
by the blue ocean.
The red dress
is something
different
compare to the other colours
on the frontpage (ASPC Log 1).
The poetry of the text underlines the emotional impact the picture has probably had on this pupil, and the syntax confirms her cognitive competence rather than questioning it. Poetic language does not require less in terms of cognition than an essay does, only different cognitive competences. Many young learners have a tendency to the use of "the poetic" hemisphere of the brain and should be encouraged to develop it in combination with the "analyst" part of the brain (Gerngross and Puchta 1994 p. 3). The rest of the reading log supports the same impression of a rewarding fusion of affective and cognitive resources, particularly evident in the prediction part, and an apt illustration of what Rosenblatt defines as transaction (Rosenblatt 1981 p. 16-19).
It's talk about Shell's dead mother now, and she shows up as a spirit in the weekday, and I think that isn't
the last time she does that in this book.
Shell keeps on praying, imagine, and daydream about God and people who mean much to her (ASPC Log 1).
Where the emotional impact is weaker, as in another of the responses to the same picture, the cognitive competence is not challenged accordingly. "I can see a girl walking alone in a red dress. The colours on the frontpage are light colours; pink and sandcoloured" (ASPC Log 2). The description that the form of the log requires is done conscientiously, but without the strong personal and emotional touch of ASPC Log 1. In the Skellig log, written by a boy, the same approach is taken. "I see a painting. It's a window in the background that shows us the blue sky and something that seems like a man in the front" (S Log). However, this pupil distinguishes clearly between the foreground and background, revealing a sense of depth in the picture that has bearing on the understanding of the book. The uncertainty about the man also signals anticipations that will prove essential to the subject matter of angels, taken up in such a wonderful way in the book. Even though the reader's expectations are low, and even though his log entries generally are very brief and unfinished, his first impressions are positive. "Michael is a boy that loves football and his sister. Mum is very thoughtful. Mina loves birds. I think the book is exciting" (S Log).
The Chinese Cinderella log explores a wider range of competences than the two mentioned above. "I see a photo of a little girl who is very sad. It really touched my heart. It is dark around her in a circle. The rest of the cover is red, with typical Chinese flowers in a pattern" (CC Log). Even though the teachers ask for a description, this girl includes a personal reaction, indicating that it is difficult to distinguish between an objective description and a subjective reaction to the same picture. To varying degrees, the four logs exemplify the notions of objectivity versus subjectivity (Bleich 1978) and the difficulties in separating the cognitive from the affective (Opdahl 2002). In literature classes, it is evident that without the emotional engagement, the pleasure of reading cannot be secured, and a possible interpretation cannot be had. The emotional engagement is also a condition for successful foreign language learning. In the CC Log the reader confidently includes her affective reactions through the whole log, especially when she is asked to use five words to express her feelings. "I HATE her step mother!!! Outrageous, sad, excited, mad, angry!!!" (CC Log). The inclusion of a poem and a cartoon summary proves that a healthy combination of the cognitive, affective and imaginative aspects of reading is taken seriously.
Language-based Approaches to Literature, 8th grade, Autumn 2008
In Teaching Literature Ronald Carter and Michael Long present three models for literature teaching; the cultural model, the language model and the personal growth model (Carter and Long 1992 p. 1-11). In the previous section, where the work with literary texts in 10th grade is discussed, the approaches might best be described within the personal growth model, particularly as the pupils' emotional engagement in the texts is so conspicuous (ibid. p. 3). In 8th grade the approaches to the texts are consciously reader-centred and activity-based (ibid. p. 9), but the perspective is turned more specifically to language learning, thus illustrating the language model in literature classes (ibid. p. 7).
Based on a selection of five books by Roald Dahl (The Enormous Crocodile, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Esio Trot, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, and The Magic Finger), illustrated by Quentin Blake, the pupils were divided into five groups. After having read their books, the pupils were actively involved in presenting the book they had read to the other pupils, who had not read the books. Wearing the title of the book as a badge on their lapels, the pupils mingled with their class mates and interviewed them on main characters, the contents of the story and what they liked best about it. Since the need for information was real, the engagement was quite visible in their effort to find new partners to talk to. The fact that the questions were written on the blackboard helped the weaker pupils to participate, but seemed an unnecessary crutch to the majority of pupils, who might have found their own authentic questions to ask.
The communicative oral language activity was followed up by a session on adjectives based on the various texts the pupils had read. They were asked to spot and list as many adjectives as they could find and choose five of them to be used in a fill-in-story where the adjectives were missing, an activity often used at birthday parties for children. By searching eagerly for adjectives, the readers recuperated the text together in groups and got a second skimming through the text via very characteristic vocabulary. It proved to be a very popular activity.
Whether literature in these activities becomes an excuse for language instruction only and considered too instrumental or mechanistic may be debated (Carter and Long 1992 p. 2, 7-8). Disagreement between literature and language teachers has run and still runs along these lines (Paran, 2008). However, by the interest displayed and the eagerness with which the pupils all went into this task, it is obvious that the activity did not destroy the pleasure of reading an authentic literary text in English for these young learners, the very youngest pupils in lower secondary school.
In an interview in English after this session, the pupils all expressed satisfaction over the reading project and the activities. Unless they are actively involved in reading English at school, there are otherwise few incitements to read. Most of them would have chosen other media than books during their spare time. The same tendency can be seen in 10th grade, even though the avid reader is more markedly present here, often being a girl.
Reading for Fun and Two Male Logs on Growing Up, 10th grade, Spring 2009
The theme of growing up was used in 10th grade in the spring of 2009, as it was in 2008. However, this time two different teaching approaches were tried out in 10th grade. As we have seen in 10th grade in the spring of 2008, pre-reading activities are popular and widely used in From Text to Language. In order to activate the young readers' schemata, as suggested by Ibsen and Wiland (2000 p. 191-194), the front page and the back cover are both used to stir their curiosity before the reading begins. The forms used in the reading project include pre-reading activities and logs for the whole reading process. Using the same form is an obvious advantage as it offers something familiar for the young readers and at the same time this familiar form can be applied to new books and thus challenge and expand their reading schemata without confusing it with new forms that ruin the didactic intention. Because familiar concepts and key words appear over and over again, the pupils are trained in what to look for when they read, and in this way they can gradually develop their literary competence. Over time the form can be modified and extended to cover new concepts to meet new demands.
Needless to say, not always writing logs and looking for themes in books will lead to a love of literature and improve language. According to Perry Nodelman books for children are meant for pleasure, not as an excuse for exercises of various kinds. His advice is "never [to] ask students to do anything that people who love to read don't do" (Nodelman 1996 p. 29). He also underlines the freedom of choice that the Marnardal project emphasised (ibid. p. 30). The project "Reading for fun", where no written exercises were used, no unnecessary breaks were taken, and time at school was allotted to reading, emphasised this natural approach to reading books. The choice of books was made individually on the basis of a display of all the books, and the only activity the pupils had in connection with this project was an after-the-reading activity where other pupils might ask natural questions concerning a book they had not read. Since all activities were silent reading and spoken language not recorded, no data exist to document the success or failure of the project. According to the teachers, the feedback was entirely positive. Many pupils find it unnatural to record everything they read in writing, as it destroys the experience of suspense and obviously reduces the pleasure of reading for some (Nodelman 1996 p. 29). As it leaves the teacher with few visible results, however, it is hard to justify and accept didactically. Regardless of this objection, not every successful teaching project can be documented and measured in simple facts and figures. They still deserve their place in the classroom, particularly if the production of spoken language ensues as a natural result of the activity.
Reading logs and written exercises make up the other end of this continuum. Pupils cannot learn English successfully without writing and reflecting on what they read, preferably on a subject they are interested in. Growing up is a current theme in books for young readers and as such should be a welcome contribution to question issues in the lives of 10th graders. Both Louise Rennison, Knocked Out by my Nunga-Nungas and Anne Fine, The Tulip Touch, were presented among the selected books covering the issue chosen for this group in the spring of 2009. Being written by female authors, dealing with female characters, friendship, love and hate, these books may be seen as a challenge to male readers who allegedly read less than their female counterparts. Therefore two male protocols will be discussed in detail to find out what brings pleasure or frustration worth recording for teenage boys.
The nature of the questions decides what kinds of response readers give and to what extent the focus is on the reader and not the text. In this case the questions reveal an honest attempt to take the reader-response perspective seriously by addressing the reader openly, such as in questions like "Describe what you see", "What are your expectations...", "What will happen next, do you think, and why?", "What I really like/hate about the story at the moment." When information about the text is wanted in the form of comprehension questions such as "What has changed in the main character's life since the beginning of the book? Make sure you focus on important changes" and "How did the story end?" they are balanced against a sincere and thorough appeal to the reader to document his own impressions of the reading. Because of this bias in favour of the reader, the sincerity of the activity is secured, and the responses reveal some knowledge or information about the book in addition to the reader's own meta-reflections on literature. The relative interest in the task is suggested by the fact that both of these male logs are longer than the average one. In addition to the three pre-reading tasks and detailed logs during the reading process, the logs also contain a book report written as an after-thought when the reading is done.
The themes of the books are different; The Tulip Touch (TT) deals with the theme of evil presented in a very concrete and vivid way in a difficult friendship between two girls, and Knocked Out by my Nunga-Nungas takes up the complex theme of sex, love and teenage relationships. The Tulip Touch elicits the most interesting responses, even though the reader finds the book boring with no excitement. Excitement is the measuring rod for quality, and the reader elaborates his views in this way
From what I have read until now I have founded the most of the things boring and irritating. Why? Because I don't like reading books, every time I read it's boring...Example: When Julius thoughts Tulip are a witch. It is three pages about just that, and it's not fun to hear about these things, it's no excitement, just boring...At the beginning I thought it should be fun and exciting to read this book. Tove, my teacher also said the book was good, but it wasn't. Things in the story I find exiting is not many, but one time it was a little bit of excitement. When the teacher called at Natalie, and sent her up to the headmaster of the school. The best moment in this book!!!
The book would be better if you also heard it from tulips point of view. Not only from Natalie's view. (TT)
Rosenblatt emphasises the importance of the reader's attitude when we read, giving preference to the aesthetic attitude (1981 p. 24-25). TT asserts his positive attitude in the pre-reading activity before the reading starts; "It looks like an exciting book. Especially the invisible writing makes my mind expectant and upset. I hope the book will give me willingness to read, because I don't like to read books." Despite his positive attitude to the book, which might be defined as an aesthetic attitude, he struggles with a basic dislike of reading. This reader is only one of very many readers who confess that they do not like reading. On this background very many of the theories even in reader-response appear useless. Can young readers really have an aesthetic attitude to a text and live through it until it becomes a poem, when the basic attitude to books in general is negative? Can readers really profit from the subjective paradigm in literature to develop their identities when they could not care less about books? Can readers really use a text as a language sensitising device and enjoy the slowness of reading when reading is considered an ordeal beyond compare? Rosenblatt, Bleich and Fish all presuppose some sort of personal interest on behalf of the readers that teachers very often struggle hard to find in the classroom. Even so, some teachers initiate admirable reading projects, such as the Marnardal teachers where all kinds of pupils are involved, whether they like books or not.
In The Tulip Touch (TT) log the reading outcome is still valuable. This reader has registered a very important aspect of narration, namely the narrative voice. He is self-confident enough to criticise the use of narrative voice when he says "the book would be better if you also heard it from tulips point of view". This is a mature grasp particularly as the theme of evil is displayed through the eyes of the victim, Natalie, not the alleged agent of evil, Tulip. This uneasiness about guilt in connection with the evil deeds contributes to a rather special alternative favourite ending; "One day, Natalie realizes that it was her fault that Tulip is death [dead], and she takes her own life in retribution". Despite his choice of alternative ending, he admits that "it was a good ending", and he "read the last thirty pages with excitement". His very last comments in his reading log give credit to one important aspect of reader-response, reading as a subjective and reflective process; "It wasn't the story who surprised me; it was my own thoughts about reading, and the feeling I got, when I red the ending. It was a cheerfully ending" (TT). In his book report, he also includes a critical view of Fish' ideas of the necessity of the slow reading when he says that he
would recommend this book to a patient soul. Why? The plot in this book isn't very fun and exciting. The story is quite looooong. If you don't like reading books, this book will make you irritating and bitter. But, if you are a patient soul (like my teacher "Tove") I think you will enjoy this book. (TT)
Maybe this boy simply expresses how difficult it is for young people to accept the lack of action, sound, and movement and concentrate on non-action, the silence of reading and the stillness of reading postures. He has certainly learnt a lot about himself as a reader which is crucial to develop more mature attitudes to reading at a later stage.
The Knocked Out by my Nunga-Nungas shows an entirely different log. Whereas The Tulip Touch reader has a confident voice and expresses his opinions with gusto, the Nunga-Nungas reader (NN) does not involve himself explicitly emotionally very strongly in his log. The pre-reading activities do not elicit anything but a neutral report such as "It's a diary about Georgia Nicolson's life and lifestyle. It's a funny book". However, as opposed to the TT reader who finds the book boring, the NN reader is more positive to the book.
I hate that Georgia is so scared when she meets her boyfriend, or speaks with him in the phone. I like that she have many friends with some problems, and many of them are funny. I like that she thinks much of sex and breasts and stuff like that. (NN)
The question that elicits the most personal and sincere approach is the one about an alternative ending. Even though he enjoys the thoughts of "sex and breasts and stuff like that", his ending takes a very responsible and serious turn.
I hope that they are taking their relationship to a more serious level and that they are getting to know each other more and not be scared to say or do something stupid, because it's not dangerous. I also hope that Georgia and her friends are going to keep contact. (NN)
Even though this protocol is less explicitly emotional, the reader has a subjective approach when challenged directly by the question about the likeness between him and his parents and the characters in the book. "They are focusing more on sex than we do. They are very scared to not be good looking before they are out of the house" (NN).
In my view the difference in voice and tone between these two male readers can be ascribed to the themes. The theme of evil in TT has an emotional appeal that surpasses the initial boredom at having to read a book at all and makes the log writing quite fascinating for him as a male reader, even though the protagonist and antagonist are girls. The theme of sex and love does not appeal explicitly with the same strength to the other male reader, even though there is a good mixture of male and female characters in the book. However, both of these male readers are left with a reading experience that has affected them personally, brought them out of a purely efferent reading attitude and as such a valuable contribution to their development as readers. Enjoying reading does not necessarily imply that the readers have to like the books they read, but that they are able to discriminate according to specific literary or personal criteria. These two protocols both illustrate these conflicting experiences.
Logs on Racism and Bullying, 9th grade, Spring 2009
The selection of books that cover this theme includes titles such as John Marsden, So Much to Tell You (SMT), Judith Kerr, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (WHS), Arthur Gordon, Christmas in Hell (CH), Anne Fine, The Road of Bones (RB), Ian Seraillier, The Silver Sword (SS), Anne Holm, I am David (ID) and John Anderson, The Ship That Turned Over (STT). Because of the comprehensive list only some general tendencies in some of these protocols will be discussed.
War stories never cease to fascinate writers and readers. Five of the seven books about racism and bullying deal with war, concentration camps or totalitarian regimes, set during World War I, World War II, the cold war and a loosely defined totalitarian regime (WHS, CH, RB, SS, and ID). The theme is thus integrated into a larger political, historical and social context, but still combined with fine portraits of young protagonists that for most readers open up for personal identification and engagement. Maybe for that reason one pupil consistently sticks to Norwegian in stead of English, as in this entry about predicting the ending; "At ingen dør eller at noen blir satt ut for noe som ikke jeg ville vert ute for" (WHS).
Since the suspense element naturally is great in these books, the pupils generally express a positive attitude that not necessarily can be defined as an aesthetic reading attitude, as the plot assumes prominence. Information seeking becomes important to be able to enjoy reading, which initially places the reader in the efferent tradition.
Det jeg liker med boka er at den er spennende og ikke så tørr og lese sånn som mange andre engelske bøker. (WHS)
This is a book about war, and I think it is a good book. I liked it; but it was a little bit boring in the middle of the book. The rest was exciting. The book was as I expected, and I enjoyed reading it. (CH)
It is quite a special book and at the beginning I did not understand so much. But after some more reading I understood what the plot was and I think it is very well written. The story is exciting. (RB)
I like the book very much! It was very exciting. I was surprised when the Germans took Edek actually, because they saw him stealing bread from them. (SS)
The book is fun and the guy lives in a consentrationcamp. (ID)
Few of the readers exemplify why they find the books exciting and the reading logs mainly consist of very brief summaries, underlining the impression of the preferred efferent attitude. The entries where this reading contract is changed into the aesthetic one are the poems they are asked to write and the final entry where they are asked to show how the theme of bullying/racism is reflected in the book. These questions cause some readers to opt out and leave them blank, whereas some readers use these questions to express an impressive aesthetic experience of the conflict, as in this poem based on BR.
Yuri is on a road only to despair
When or where?
He is out there, somewhere
The road is built of bones
With echoing sounds
The bones of those
Who dare to oppose..
He will feel sorry
For his grandma's story
You don't have to be
Wise as a tree
For if you dear to oppose
You end up like bones... (BR)
As opposed to the logs for 10th grade, the logs for 9th grade include a question about theme. Even advanced students of literature sometimes find it hard to express in a few words the idea or theme of a book. Therefore it is interesting to note that some of the 9th graders are able to approach this issue quite successfully. After the reading of CH from World War I, a reader states that "at Christmas they [the soldiers] become friends, because they think Christmas is a time of peace, and the war can wait. Why kill someone who has been your friend? Why kill someone just because they are different from us?" (CH). Another reader finishes his log from the reading of ID about concentration camps and a totalitarian regime in this way. "The boy comes from a country were you not can mean or say what you want" (ID). Similarly the reader of RB points at an essential value in our society when he says; "This book tells how awful it can be to not have the freedom to say what you want" (RB). However, one reader illustrates how complicated it is to extract abstract ideas from a book where "the good and the bad guys" are clearly defined on the basis of a historical trauma such as World War II in SS. "All Germans are Evil, and their bombing towns" (SS).
Compared to the war logs the two readers whose logs are based on So Much to Tell You clearly take the aesthetic attitude to the reading. Particularly one of the poems expresses a lived-through experience with the text, which is about a girl whose face has been deformed by acid thrown in her face by her father and who has withdrawn completely into her own world. She has simply stopped talking.
Some
Warm and natural
I
wondered
uncomfortable,
conversation
without a voice
silence (SMT)
One characteristic which recurs in the majority of logs regardless of issue is a wish to see a happy ending in the stories. This is expressed explicitly in the protocols with entries such as "I want it to end happy. I want her to be happy and talk. I hope she meets her father again, and I hope her mother understands her and don't ask again and again if she has started talking" (SMT);
"Happily! well I want the story to end like this:
- they're going to find their parents.
- Jan will stay whit the family.
- Everyone will be ok (SS);
"I hope that Yuri finds his parents alive and in good health...I hope that Yuri and his family will be able to escape from the country and that they will find a safe place to settle" (RB); "Jeg vil at denne boka skal ende med at familien kommer seg trygt hjem og at Hitler ikke blander seg inn. At ingen dør eller at noen blir satt ut for noe som ikke jeg ville vert ute for" (WHS); "I would like it if David fined his mummy" (ID); "I would like that everyone is going to be friends. The war will end, and no one go under. Nobody should kill anybody, ore shooting. I hope that they can get a deal, so that nobody will lose ore win the war. I hope it could end peacefully and friendly" (CH).
Hope is released if the stories have a happy ending, more or less as expected according to most of the readers. Narratives exert a very strong attraction for young readers, as it is in the building up of suspense that the success of the book is hidden. Psychologically speaking, an optimistic ending is rewarding for readers who need to believe in the future and that evil does not pay.
Concluding Remarks
The title of the Marnardal Project, From Text to Language suggests a concern for the outcome of the reading in terms of improved language competence. However, the documentation of improved linguistic competence is beyond the scope of this article. Basically the project is not a research project, but a teaching project to be documented through a report from the teachers involved and an article taking up some interesting aspects of the project when completed. Several school visits, talks with the teachers and pupils, observation of classes, and access to their net page and a lot of teaching materials and logs have given me ample opportunity to study the value of the project from a reader-response perspective, i.e. the pupil-oriented perspective expressed in curriculum plans. The discussion and analysis of selected reading logs particularly have shed light on the minds of young readers and may contribute to inspiring new attitudes and approaches to the teaching of English literature in the classroom.
The single most conspicuous impression after having read the logs is the enormous difference in quality of language and personal commitment between logs written by pupils at the same level and same age. Despite a fair number of interesting and sincere reading-logs the strongly negative or indifferent attitude to reading is at times hard to accept. I must admit that I admire teachers who are willing to devote extra time, extra energy and hours of reading new books and preparing excellent teaching programmes to enhance the enjoyment for readers who basically do not see any enjoyment in reading books, particularly not in English. Some of the reading-logs discussed in this article quote entries that reveal such attitudes. Still many of the logs bear witness to the contrary experience, namely that the pupils find the reading of books rewarding once they have been persuaded to fight their dislike and accepted the reading contract according to the questions in the reading log form. Unless the negative attitude to reading is changed, the potential for foreign language learning will not be realised fully. From Text to Language is a serious attempt to lure pupils into the realm of books by offering them a vast selection of good books accompanied by engaging activities that inspire both extensive and intensive reading. Hellekjær's concern about academic English reading proficiency is well documented in his research and efficient reading strategies must start early in order to be of any consequence for the proper development of foreign language competence, as suggested in his article (Hellekjær 2008 p. 15-17).
Bleich's concern is with the development of identity through the encounter with the language of literature. Only if language users appropriate the language they read, are they able to grow. Even if school initiated projects such as From Text to Language needs a fair amount of persuasion and pressure to succeed it is the only way to make literature in a foreign language work at a personal level for the pupils. According to Bleich this will contribute to enhancing their language competence over time. For teachers knowledge about the positive aspects of this individuation process through the learning of a foreign language is a necessary prerequisite to embark on such a demanding teaching project.
The shift from the efferent to the aesthetic reading attitude is demonstrated in my discussion of a selection of logs. The fact that the young readers are able to undergo a change in the middle of the reading strengthens the belief in the value of literature as a shaper of identities. Literature is able to influence even the readers' prior attitudes to reading and make the text work for them and not against them, particularly in what Derrida describes as "points of resistance" (1992 p. 43). In this way Rosenblatt's transaction theory is made visible and her distinction between the efferent and aesthetic reading attitudes exemplified in the reading-logs.
The slow reading process advocated by Fish is hard to find support for in the logs. Since reading books is not considered a favoured activity in the first place, the motivation to make it last so long that any reader is left with a decent interpretation is low. Why make an unwelcome activity last longer than strictly necessary? Still it is the writing of logs that documents the reading as a language sensitising device and a temporal activity slowly activating the readers' consciousness into forming the reading experience in written form, to be remembered and communicated to class mates and teachers. Communication involves personal and linguistic development, an important part of any educational programme. As such From Language to Text has fulfilled the expectations of the project description and can function as a model and stimulus for other teachers of English.
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