Applying Reader Response Theory for L2 Development: Exploring Possibilities for Instructing Adolescent English Learners

• In Event: 72.049 - Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 72.049-1 - Trends in L2 Teaching Research

Abstract

Reading has potential to be transformative in affirming one’s identity and for second language acquisition. In order to explore the possibilities of using a culturally situated reader response theory to facilitate second language development, this in-depth case study of an adolescent refugee English learner considers how she responds to literature and its effect on her second language acquisition. Through interviewing the participant as well as using artifacts from her reading response, the findings illustrate that she responds to literature from her lived experiences as both an immigrant/refugee/language learner and an adolescent girl. Relevant literature facilitated her meaning-making from the L2 texts, providing her comprehensible input and lowering her affective filter, suggesting the promises of teaching language through relevant reading.

Author

• Mary Amanda Stewart, Texas Woman's University