Comprehension Of Literary Texts Research Articles

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PRAGMATICS: LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT

This article delves into the realm of pragmatics, a branch of linguistics focused on the relationship between language and context, and its significance in literary analysis through speech act theory. It outlines the foundational aspects of pragmatics, drawing on the contributions of scholars such as E.S. Aznaurova and J.K. Adams, who stress the role of context and communicative conditions in language interpretation. The historical origins of pragmatic study are traced back to ancient rhetoric, highlightingearly considerations of effective communication. Central to the discussion is speech act theory, introduced by J.L. Austin and expanded by John Searle, which differentiates between locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts in language. This theoretical framework is applied to literature, illustrating how speech acts within narratives extend beyond conveying information to actively shaping the story and influencing reader engagement. The article argues for the importance of pragmatics in providinga richer comprehension of literary texts, positioning language as a dynamic force in the construction of meaning and social interaction within narratives.

Indonesian High School Students’ Critical Thinking and Literary Text Comprehension

Indonesian High School Students’ Critical Thinking and Literary Text Comprehension

THE CURRENT SITUATION OF DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING AND DEBATING COMPETENCIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERARY TEXTS: A CASE STUDY OF SOME NORTHERN PROVINCES OF VIETNAM

Critical thinking and debating competencies are oriented in the 2018 general education program in Vietnam. These competencies are in the group of general competencies integrated into many subjects, including Philology and reading comprehension of literary texts. To ensure the effective implementation of the goals, it is necessary to conduct research in association with practice. Therefore, it is necessary to survey the current situation of teaching and developing reading comprehension of literary texts. This study was conducted with 10 experts (program trainers of the general education program), 215 teachers and 410 students (from 9 schools in the North of Vietnam). The survey results show that there are still many limitations in the perception of teachers and students about critical thinking. Actually organizing, evaluating and implementing activities to develop critical thinking competence in teaching reading comprehension of literary texts in their primitive form. It is necessary to propose measures to promote the development of critical thinking and debating competencies for secondary school students in accordance with the current situation in Vietnam.

Reading comprehension of literary texts using a multimodal language–image approach

The importance of multimodal reading comprehension from multiple perspectives is particularly reflected in the theoretical work that has been published in recent times. Expanding the perspectives students use to make sense of these multimodal texts is an important part of comprehension instruction. The study focuses on the textual linking of language and image with the aim of promoting the textual productive and receptive use of images, assigning a relevant meaning to the image in the literary context of use, complementing the literary text with the visual message, integrating language and contextualised images and including them in the process of overall comprehension. The project presented here in the form of an experience report shows the results of and provides suggestions for the procedural application of a multimodal text–image approach to reading comprehension of a literary text. It is based on the reading of F. C. Delius' novel The Walk from Rostock to Syracuse. This text lends itself to being explored in a multimodal way, as it pre-supposes implicit knowledge that includes certain historical and cultural contextual references.
 Keywords: Images, intertextuality, literacy, multimodality, reading comprehension

Developing English Majors’ Comprehension of Literary Texts and Online Self-Regulated Language Learning Skills via Literature Circles 2.0

To cope with the virtual learning mode that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed and driven by the desire to enhance students’ ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate their online learning, the current study sought to digitalize the Literature Circles model and investigate its effect on developing English majors’ comprehension skills of literary texts and online self-regulated language learning skills in an EFL context. Literature Circles 2.0 was adopted to teach the Literary Reading course that includes five short stories and a one-act play. To achieve the purpose of the study, two tools were implemented: Test of Literary Reading Comprehension Skills and Online Self-Regulated Language Learning Skills Questionnaire (Barnard et al., 2009). Sixty English majors, divided into two equivalent groups, participated in the study. The control group studied the course using the traditional teaching method, teacher-centered, which relies on lecturing, whereas the experimental group studied the same course using the Literature Circles 2.0, whereby students worked autonomously in an online virtual environment. The study results revealed the significant effect of Literature Circles 2.0 on developing the students’ comprehension of literary texts as they were demonstrated to be involved personally and emotionally in the active learning process of the course. Meanwhile, the students of the experimental group displayed a significant mastery of the online self-regulated language learning skills. Based on the students’ significant improvement in processing, comprehending, and extracting the meaning of literary texts, the study concluded that the Literature Circles 2.0 proved to be an effective approach to promoting students’ comprehension of literary texts. Therefore, the study conclusively recommends the use of Literature Circles 2.0 in teaching such texts.

‘When most I wink, then’ – what? Assessing the comprehension of literary texts in university students of English as a second language

This article introduces a test for literary text comprehension in university students of English as a second language. Poetry is especially suited for our purpose since it frequently shows features that offer challenges to comprehension in a limited space. An example is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43, on which our test is based: it is suited for assessing not only if a text has been understood but also the ability of respondents to reflect on their own comprehension skills. We show that the test’s psychometric properties are satisfactory, and we demonstrate its validity by analysing relevant external indicators. Thus, we can show a direct link between general reading experience and text comprehension as tested: the more students read, the better do they perform. The collaboration of literary studies with psychometrics moreover allows for a statistically valid identification of specific challenges to comprehension and thus advance our knowledge of what readers find difficult. This will be of interest not only in a hermeneutic and linguistic perspective but also with a view to addressing those difficulties in an educational context. For example, asking someone whether they have understood an utterance (in this case: a line of poetry) does not elicit reliable answers. Being able to say how one has established the meaning of a line seems to be a more reliable indicator of actually having understood it.

S. TOULMIN’S ARGUMENT MODEL- BASIS FOR DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING COMPETENCY IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION: A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM

While critical thinking has been studied extensively with many approaches around the world, in Vietnam, understanding and applying critical thinking in general as well as in specific fields are still limited. This article studies the situation of developing critical thinking competency in teaching reading comprehension of literary texts to students. On that basis, Toulmin’s argument model is proposed as a tool for building a system of questions to develop critical thinking competency in teaching reading comprehension.

The Impact of Incorporating Stylistic Models of Inversion in Teaching Grammar on Students’ Comprehension of Literary Text

Pedagogical stylistics increases EFL learners’ awareness about the way the language functions in different texts. It also enhances innovative learning and teaching. This study aims at knowing the impact of incorporating stylistic models of inversion in teaching grammar on students’ comprehension of literary texts. It also aims to explore the learners’ perceptions about incorporating them in grammar courses. The models were adopted by (Galperin, 1977). A total of 85 EFL learners at King Khalid University participated in this study; 41 are students of Grammar III and are divided into two groups (15, 26); 44 are students of Grammar IV and are divided into two groups (20, 24). The second phase of the research is a unified long text exam that contains stylistic models of inversion in literary texts and is given to all students. Generally, the post-test results show that the participants identify stylistic models of inversion that help them understand the meaning of texts. Moreover, the quantitative approach shows the learners' preference for incorporating models in grammar courses because they are important in comprehending literary texts. The study recommends considering stylistic implications in teaching grammar in general and stylistic models of inversion in particular.

Um olho na tela, outro no leitor

O meio digital pode ser considerado uma ferramenta mediadora da ação docente na construção de novos saberes. Para usuários surdos, especifica-mente, esse meio promove o desenvolvimento da atribuição de significados em diferentes níveis. Assim, a contação de histórias em Libras no meio digital favorece o acesso dos leitores surdos a um variado acervo literário, potencializando sua formação estética literária. A partir desse contexto, propomo-nos a discutir os aspectos multimodais e as suas potencialidades na formação leitora de sujeitos surdos, presentes nos vídeos de contação de histórias na língua brasileira de sinais (Libras). Para isso, analisaremos o vídeo de contação de história O homem que amava caixas (1997), do canal Mãos Aventureiras, disponível no YouTube. Em nossa análise, consideramos os aspectos de multimodalidade, segundo as diretrizes de Gualberto e Santos (2019) e Sisto (2012), para verificar os elementos caracterizadores da contação; Peixoto e Possebon (2018), especificamente, para tratar sobre a Literatura em Língua de Sinais; e Santaella (2012) para abordar os elementos plásticos da imagem. Os resultados da análise realizada mostram que a performance da contadora, o uso do livro físico, o enquadramento do vídeo, o ambiente, as cores, a dinâmica entre contador e imagem constroem os significados da história. Todos esses elementos reunidos tornam o vídeo um suporte multimodal que favorece a compreensão do texto literário narrado. Esses resultados demonstram que os vários elementos que constituem o vídeo de contação em Libras no meio digital exigem uma postura atenta e interativa do leitor surdo, o que interfere potencialmente na sua formação literária.

Students’ Reconstructive Imagination and Literary Text Comprehension

The purpose of the study is to define the connection between the reconstructive imagination and the comprehension of the text, in particular, with the comprehension of its constituent words. On the basis of the methodology “Switch on your imagination”, schoolchildren of the 4th-10th forms (396 people) were asked to give a verbal description of mental images and make a drawing for the text. As a stimulus material, we used an excerpt from the novel by A. S. Pushkin «Eugene Onegin». As a result of three stages of the experiment: а) presentation of the text without semantics of words, b) with semantics and c) introduction into the historical and cultural context, evidence was obtained that the comprehension and the reconstructive imagination in the perception of a literary text is a unified mental process, and fullfledged work of both processes is based primarily on the historical and cultural experience, without which the perception of a literary text is often difficult or even impossible.

Aplicación del enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural en la comprensión de textos literarios en estudiantes de secundaria

La investigación planteó como objetivo: determinar la eficacia del enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural en la comprensión de textos literarios en estudiantes del segundo grado de secundaria de la Institución Educativa Secundaria Independencia Nacional, Puno, 2018. Según el paradigma predominante, la investigación fue cuantitativa. En cuanto a la estrategia de aplicación fue experimental. El diseño que se utilizó en la investigación fue cuasi – experimental, con dos grupos. Se aplicó el tratamiento al grupo experimental. La población estuvo conformada por 156 estudiantes. La muestra estuvo conformada por 64 estudiantes. La técnica que se utilizó fue la evaluación o medición. El instrumento que se utilizó fue la prueba escrita. Se arribó a la siguiente conclusión: el enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural es eficaz en la comprensión de textos literarios en los estudiantes. Se llega a esta conclusión porque la Z calculada es superior a la Z tabla: |15,58|≻|1,96|, por lo que se confirma la hipótesis alterna. Asimismo, en la prueba de salida los estudiantes predominantemente se ubican en la escala “Logro Previsto” con 16 estudiantes (50%), mientras que en la prueba de entrada predominaba la escala “En Inicio” con 17 estudiantes (53%). El promedio de la prueba de entrada fue de 7,19 y el de la prueba de salida fue 17.03.

Studying characterization in Arthur Miller’sThe Crucible

AbstractApart from the stylistic and cognitive studies which have already been done separately on Miller’sThe Crucible, this paper provides a new insight into the play and its system of characterization by integrating these approaches. To this end, the paper draws on Jonathan Culpeper’s cognitive stylistic theory of top-down and bottom-up processes in literary text comprehension and characterization. Based on this holistic framework, the paper takes advantage of such stylistic tools as speech acts, the Cooperative Principle and politeness theory to examine features of the language used by the characters Proctor and Danforth. In this regard, the article assimilates those linguistic elements with the embedded schemata within the play. Consequently, the study reveals that Proctor’s complex characterization does not coincide with the readers’ schema and thus they form their impression of his character based on piecemeal integration. On the other hand, Danforth’s character reinforces the readers’ schema about a representative of the church discourse and thus they comprehend his character on the basis of confirmatory categorization. The paper concludes that while Proctor and Danforth have a passive existence in the text or in people’s minds, it is only in the interaction between their language and the readers’ minds that they come into existence.

Детское творчество как результат восприятия художественного текста

Детское творчество как результат восприятия художественного текста

Zuhören vs. Lesen: Verständnis literarischer Texte bei Schüler_innen

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of the mode of reception (listening vs. reading) on the comprehension of literary texts of different degrees of linguistic complexity in German, testing schoolchildren in Grade 8. To this end, two texts were used: the grammatically and lexically comparatively more complex novella Das Erdbeben in Chili by Heinrich von Kleist, and the comparatively less complex novella Kleider machen Leute by Gottfried Keller. Thus, in contrast to previous studies on schoolchildren’s reading and listening comprehension, which often use very short texts composed specifically for the purpose of the study, a major aim of the current study is to test authentic literary material, which German students are regularly confronted with at school. Students read or listened to excerpts of these novellas and subsequently filled in a questionnaire containing questions on the correct comprehension of the respective texts, thereby addressing both local and global aspects of comprehension. The results are twofold: First, listening comprehension is better than reading comprehension, regardless of the complexity of the text (i.e. for both the Kleist and the Keller text). Second, the first effect is even stronger for global text comprehension than for comprehension of local details.

In Other Words: Reformulation Strategies in Dostoevskii's Literary Works

This study aims to explore characteristic linguistic patterns to express narrowing, correction and reformulation in Dostoevskii's literary works. Particular attention is paid to the description of the function, meaning and features of these discourse markers in relation to the mental representations they evoke. The high frequency of discourse markers in Dostoevskii's literary works seems to be related to his constant control over speech, especially over the collision and overlap of mental representations that occur during reading. For that reason, this article tends to be framed within the scope of the negotiation of meaning during literary text comprehension in the general context of the relationships between language, culture and discourse in Russian. The proposed analysis may therefore contribute not only to the study of Dostoevskii's works and poetics, but also to the comprehension and explanation of discursive mechanisms of reformulation in Russian.

Effects of two types of task instructions on literary text comprehension and motivational and affective factors

This experimental study investigated the effects of two types of task instructions on text comprehension, motivation, and emotional involvement. In all, 226 9th graders in low academic tracks were randomly assigned to complete reader-oriented (RO), text-based (TB), or no tasks after reading literary texts to elaborate their mental text representation. Whereas RO tasks encouraged emotional engagement and indirectly stimulated text analysis through creative activities, TB tasks focused on cognitive activity and directly encouraged text analysis. After students completed the tasks, they answered test items on content- and form-related text comprehension. The results indicate that form-related comprehension improved when students elaborated their mental text representation through TB tasks. By contrast, RO students were more interested in the tasks, and they showed slightly more emotional involvement. As the two types of task instructions seemingly have different effects, they may be considered complementary elements in instructional practices for lower academic tracks.

Bringing the Book to Life

Using participatory action research, the first researcher functioned as co-teacher in a fifth-grade class in a large northeastern city public school. The researcher and classroom teacher guided 28 students working in book clubs to compose digital stories in response to historical fiction. The research questions were: (a) What interpretations did students have of their historical fiction novels through the mediational tools of digital storytelling? (b) How did the dynamics of the book club structure contribute to the students’ interpretive work? Data sources included students’ process and product work, video and audio recordings of work sessions, reflective notes and journal, a semi-structured interview with the teacher, and stimulated recall interviews with three case study book clubs. Both researchers used multimodal analysis, particularly the concept transmediation, concepts of interpretation in reader response, and grounded theory, informed by activity theory, to analyze data. Findings show students’ expression of and limits to interpretation in the multimodal ensembles of their digital stories. The purposeful use of digital technology generated ongoing problem solving. Activity systems expanded students’ learning by generating collaborative zones of proximal development, a dialectic among mediational tools, and opportunities to take on roles that shaped students’ identities and repositioned who they could be in this learning community. The study shows the value of project-based multimodal responses using digital technologies in collaborative groups to develop students’ comprehension of literary texts. The study suggests an alternative to writing-to-learn practices that dominate the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, and that high-stakes tests reify.

Promoting Reading Literacy

This research promotes reading comprehension of poetic texts for High School students through the use of Information Technology and Communication (ICT). The gradual and consistent development of the reading comprehension of literary texts can open a door for the love of reading. Such approach to literary texts also fosters the development of meaningful learning through the reading comprehension of poetry. Furthermore, it promotes self-awareness with the use of ICT tools familiar to high school students, as well as given them access to the writing of others.

Comprehension of atypical literary text and scholastic achievement

With the aim of gaining insight into literary text comprehension and the linkage between that comprehension and scholastic achievement during the first years of schooling, a research was conducted on the sample of 152 third and fourth grade pupils from one urban and one rural school. After having read silently a selected atypical excerpt from one literary text, interviewed pupils filled out the questionnaire constructed for the purposes of this research starting from the 11 categories of text comprehension singled out based on the theory of comprehension and interpretation of literary text and the current curriculum. In the first part of the research we applied the Children's orientation scale by Malka Margalit, and school marks were used as a measurement of scholastic achievement. Research results point out that, among other things, inferring on the basis of what has been read poses the greatest difficulty for third and fourth graders, that is, that almost three quarters of them are not capable of determining the meaning of some representative sentences from that text. In the positive sense, it was established that almost three quarters of them perceive beautiful poetic expressions and about 80% of them can at least to a certain extent recognize character descriptions, emotional situations and moods, that is, discover significant facts. Answers to the questions regarding the majority of categories of text comprehension are significantly correlated with scholastic achievement. As expected, the highest correlations between the measures on text comprehension categories are with the marks in native (Serbian) language. Partial correlations between the measures on certain categories of text comprehension and measurements of scholastic achievement (excluding the influence of feeling of coherence) are not significantly different from bivariate. Based on the obtained data, authors conclude that the utilized system of categories can be a useful tool for analyzing literary text comprehension at younger primary school age, that is, that separate observation of comprehension of (atypical) literary text can contribute to gaining a better insight into determinates of development of scholastic achievement.

First‐and Second‐Language Reading Comprehension of Literary Texts

This study compared the English and French reading comprehension and inferencing skills of U.S. college students enrolled in an introductory French literature course. Participants each read two different texts—one in English and the other in French—by the same 18th‐century author, recalled them in writing, and did a multiple‐choice task on selected literary features, followed by a character analysis task. In the first phase of data analysis, quantitative measures were used to examine the amount of text accurately recalled in first language (L1) versus second language (L2), the relationship between recall and inferencing scores, and the relative contribution of L2 proficiency scores and L1 scores to L2 scores. Responses to the multiple‐choice task were also examined across languages; those findings are also reported. The results revealed more accurate recall of L1 than L2 texts, but L1 scores were found to be a significant predictor of L2 recall and of L2 multiple‐choice scores. No significant relationships were found between recall and multiple‐choice scores, or between L2 proficiency and L2 recall scores. Analyses revealed that L1 scores contributed more to L2 performance than did L2 proficiency. Multiple‐choice responses were more similar than different across languages. It is therefore important for researchers and instructors to consider and assess the L1 reading skills and knowledge sources of students enrolled in foreign language literature courses.