“I am no Othello. I am a lie”: A Consideration of Reader-Response Theory as Language Learning Pedagogy and Teacher Philosophy

Authors

  • Heba Elsherief University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20360/G2B60N

Abstract

This paper seeks to articulate the understanding of transactional/reader-response as theory and its use in the language classroom as both teaching philosophy and pedagogy. First, I map the terrain of reader-response theory, its history, in general, and how it has been articulated in literary studies, in particular. Next, I briefly synthesise studies that sought to empirically study reader response in the classroom and question why these inevitably fail to engage meaningfully with it - and seem to instead only result in teacher “lesson plan” ideas. I offer a case study of a language student’s responses to the novel Season of Migration to the North (Salih, 2009) to argue that reader-response should be central to teaching philosophies that hope to centre learners in inclusive educational processes.

Author Biography

Heba Elsherief, University of Toronto

Heba Elsherief is a PhD student in Language and Literacies Education in and holds an English MA from the University of Toronto. For a number of years, Heba taught English at a private Islamic school and she is currently a literature instructor at Seneca College.  

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Published

2017-05-02

How to Cite

Elsherief, H. (2017). “I am no Othello. I am a lie”: A Consideration of Reader-Response Theory as Language Learning Pedagogy and Teacher Philosophy. Language and Literacy, 19(1), 21–23. https://doi.org/10.20360/G2B60N