Exploring Literary Responses in an EFL Classroom

Abstract

Absteact. This study looks into a group of Taiwanese university students' responses to five American short stories. A reader‐response approach to teaching English reading was adopted in a class of non‐English‐majoring freshmen. The student's response journals were analyzed and the students were interviewed. Analysis of the journals reveals that the students went beyond mere comprehension of the texts and actively constructed meaning through complex transactions with the texts. Interviews confirmed students' positive reactions to the use of the reader‐response approach in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It is argued that literature, if taught in a response‐based manner, need not be only a vehicle for language teaching but also a form of cultural understanding that enhances the experience of reading in a foreign language.