Results of the Post-Instructional Questionnaire
1. I think the selected reading The Last leaf and Other Stories is
very interesting.
2. I think English literary works are very interesting. After reading this book, I would like to read more books like this one.
3. I think reading English literary works increases my interest in reading English books.
4. I think reading English literary works enables me to better understand western culture.
5. I think reading English literary works can promote my English language competence
6. I think English literary works are very informative. They make me reflect on something I have never thought of, and develop personal growth.
7. I think English literary works make me discover that English is not so boring as I thought.
Question 1 shows that 31 (79.5%) of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they liked the selected reading material The Last Leaf and Other Stories. Moreover, Question 2 indicates that over 60% of them would like to read more literary works after reading the selected material. When comparing the percentage of the students
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who liked the selected reading in Table 4 and the content of textbooks in Table 1, it is discovered that the percentage of the students who liked the selected reading (79.5%) is much higher than the percentage of the students who liked the content of textbooks (43.6%), indicating that the selected reading material The Last Leaf and Other Stories appealed to the students more than the content of textbooks.
Questions 3 to 7 in Table 4 investigate students’ responses to literary works after the experiment. The mean scores of all these five questions are above 3.5, showing that the students considered that literary works (1) increased their interest in reading English books, (2) enabled them to better understand western culture, (3) promoted their English language competence, (4) made them reflect on something they had never thought of before and develop personal growth, and (5) was not so boring as they thought. The researcher would like to examine the differences of students’
attitudes towards literary works before and after the experiment so a t-test was conducted. Table 5 illustrates the results of the t-test.
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Table 5: A Comparison of Students’ Attitudes towards Literary Works before and after the Study increases my interest in reading English books.
4.26 4.26 .000
4. I think reading English literary works enables me to better understand western culture.
4.00 3.85 .973
5. I think reading English literary works can promote my English language competence
4.36 4.26 .941
6. I think English literary works are very informative. They make me reflect on something I have never thought of, and develop personal growth.
3.31 3.82 -3.504*
7. I think English literary works make me discover that English is not as boring as I thought.
3.87 4.10 -2.042*
*P<.05
As shown in Table 5, the results of Question 3, Question 4 and Question 5 show that the students held consistent opinions of literary works before and after the experiment in the enhancement of their (1) interest in reading English books, (2) understanding of western culture, and (3) promotion of English language competence.
However, what should be noted is that after the experiment, more students believed that literary works made them reflect on something they had never thought of and develop personal growth. Besides, more students regarded reading literary works not so boring after the experiment.
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In Question 6, the students were asked if literary works were very informative and if they made them reflect on something they had never thought of before, and develop their personal growth. The mean score in the post-instructional questionnaire (3.82) is higher than the mean score in the pre-instructional questionnaire (3.31).
Besides, the p-value of the t-test shows significant difference, indicating that the experiment had achieved the level of significance. In other words, more students considered literary works very informative and that they made them reflect on something they had never thought of after the experiment.
Question 7 examines if students regarded reading literary works not so boring as they thought before. The results of the t-test show that there is significant difference in the mean scores between the pre-instructional questionnaire and post-instructional questionnaire, representing that reader-based teaching approach enhances students’
interest in reading literary works.
Students’ Responses to Different Response-Based Tasks and Activities
In this part, the results of students’ responses to the response-based tasks and activities are presented and discussed. Table 6 illustrates the results.
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Table 6: Students’ Opinions of Response-Based Tasks and Activities
Items
No. of students for each option (Percentage)
Mean
SA A N D SD
8. I like the reader response tasks and activities in the literature instruction and do my best to fulfill the teacher’s requirement.
9. Reading the stories in advance and doing the pre-class
worksheets is helpful for the class activities. 11. I become more involved in the
storylines when watching my
13. The role play helps me express my interpretation of the stories.
22 14. The role play activity helps me
know that different readers
15. I like the discussion activity. 8 (20.5) 16. I think I can better understand
the stories by sharing and discussing the storylines with
17. I realize that different readers have different interpretations of the same stories from the group discussion and class discussion.
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18. I think participating in group discussion and class discussion helps me think more deeply of different questions.
19. In group discussion, I reconsider my opinions when my opinions are different from those of others. answer with my group members more than doing it myself.
19
21. Although it takes me much time to finish the response journals, I like writing down my reflection on the response journal.
22. I thinking the questions in response journals help me
23. I think the questions in the response journal help me make reader’s response and understand that my interpretation of the stories may change.
24. I think the freewriting part in the response journal enables me to explore and generalize my
25. I think the teacher’s feedback in the response journal encourages
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In Table 6, the mean score of Question 8 (3.97) is above 3.5, indicating that the students agreed they liked the response-based tasks and activities in the literature instruction and did their best to fulfill the teacher’s requirement.
To have better understanding of students’ responses to different activities and tasks, the results of their opinions of each activity and task are further analyzed.
The Pre-Class Worksheet
Before each class, students were assigned to read one story in the selected material and to finish the pre-class worksheet based on the story. In doing so, the teacher could know whether students had read the story and how much they
understood it. Question 9 is about students’ opinions’ of the pre-class worksheet. The high mean score (4.36) of this statement indicates that students considered reading the stories in advance and doing the pre-class worksheets helpful for the class activities.
The Role Play
As shown in Table 6, the mean scores of Questions 10 to 14 about the role play are very high, indicating that the role play activity appealed to students very much.
Question 10 shows that 87.2% of the students liked the role play while only 1 (2.6%) didn’t like it. Besides, the results of Question 11 to Question 14 also show that role paly helped students to (1) get involved in the plot of the stories when watching their classmates dramatize the stories, (2) understand a certain character from a different viewpoint, (3) express their interpretation of the stories, and (4) know that different readers would interpret the same stories differently. In a word, students considered the role play activity an effective medium to express what they had learned and interpret the stories they had read from different viewpoints. Students’ feedback and preference
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for the role play will further be discussed in their responses in the open-ended questions.
The Discussion
Questions 15 to 20 in Table 6 are about the discussion. The mean scores of all six questions receive a score of above 3.5, indicating that the students favored the
discussion activity. Question 15 demonstrates that 71.8% of the students (strongly) agreed that they liked the discussion activity. From the results of Question 16 to Question 20, it can be concluded that class discussion and group discussion helped students to (1) better understand the stories, (2) realize that different readers had different interpretations of the same stories, (3) reconsider their opinions when their opinions were different from those of their classmates’, and (4) figure out the answers with their group members more than doing it themselves. In the open-ended questions, students’ responses to the discussion activity will further be examined and analyzed.
The Response Journal
The mean scores of the five statements about response journals are comparatively lower than the mean scores of the role play and the discussion, although all of them receive a score of over 3.5. In Question 21, only 53.8 % of the students (strongly) agreed that they liked writing down their reflection on the response journal. Question 22 shows 59% of them considered that the questions in the response journal helped them rethink about different questions about life. Moreover, 10.3% of the students gave a negative answer to these two questions. However, in Question 23, when students were asked if the questions in the response journal helped them
understand that their interpretation of the stories might change, 74.3% of them
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(strongly) agreed to this statement. In addition, Question 24 shows that 74.6% of them (strongly) agreed that the freewriting part in the response journal helped them explore and generalize their opinions. However, what should be pointed out here is that in Question 25, 84.6% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the teacher’s feedback in the response journal encouraged them to express different viewpoints, showing that the teacher’s feedback motivated students to verbalize their different points of view.
Students’ Participation and Class Atmosphere in the Reader Response Approach
Table 7 shows the results of students’ opinions of their participation in the response-based teaching approach and the class atmosphere of this approach.
Table 7: Students’ Opinions of Their Participation and the Class Atmosphere in Reader Response Approach
Items
No. of students for each option (Percentage)
Mean
SA A N D SD
26. I think the reader response approach instruction helps me have better relationship with my classmates.
27. I think in the reader response tasks and activities, the atmosphere of discussion and peer interaction is quite good.
15 reader response approach than I am in the traditional explanatory teaching method.
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29. I think reader response approach is more interesting than the traditional grammar translation and vocabulary teaching method.
15
30. My interest in English literary works increases with the reader response approach instruction.
In Table 7, Question 26 and Question 27 investigate the class atmosphere in the response-based teaching approach. The mean scores of both questions are above 3.5, symbolizing that the class atmosphere in the reader response approach was quite good and that this approach helped the students have a better relationship with their
classmates. Question 28 and Question 29 compare students’ participation in the reader response approach and the traditional teaching method. The results demonstrate that the students regarded the response-based approach more interesting than the
traditional grammar and vocabulary teaching method and that they were more active in the reader response approach. Moreover, many students (74.4%) agreed or strongly agreed that their interest in literary works increased with the reader response
approach.
Students’ Improvement of the Four Language Skills
The last part of the statements investigates students’ improvement of the four language skills in the reader response approach. The statistical results of these questions are presented in Table 8.
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Table 8: Students’ Opinions of Their Improvement of the Four Skills
Items
No. of students for each option (Percentage)
Mean
SA A N D SD
31. My listening ability becomes better through the reader
32. My speaking ability becomes better through the reader
33. My reading ability becomes better through the reader
34. My writing ability becomes better through the reader
35. Overall, my English ability becomes better through the
As shown in Table 8, among the four language skills, what most students considered they had made improvement is the reading skill as 87.2% of them
(strongly) agreed that their reading ability became better through the reader response approach. On the other hand, 53.9% of them regarded that their speaking had
improved. However, only 41.0% of the students thought they had improved their listening ability, and 46.2% for writing ability. The last question examined if the students’ overall English ability had improved after the reader response approach, and 28 (71.8%) of them gave a positive answer. These results indicate that most students thought reader response approach enhanced their general English ability.
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Students’ Responses and Suggestions to Reader Response Approach
In the second part of the post-instructional questionnaire, there are five open-ended questions concerning students’ responses and suggestions to reader response approach. In the first question, students had to rank the order of what they obtained most in the reader response approach on literature instruction. Table 9 illustrates the results.
Table 9: What Students Attained Most from the Reader Response Approach What students attained most
from the reader response approach
No. of students for each order of priority (Percentage) b. Obtain more grammar
knowledge e. Have better understanding of
English literature. Note: 1 represents the first order when ranking.
When students were asked to give the order of what they learned most in the literature instruction using reader response approach, the answer of 61.5% of the students was to “do pleasure reading”, showing that many of them attained enjoyment in this approach. This result echoes the result in the pre-instructional questionnaire that what students wanted to get most in reading young adult literature is to do
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pleasure reading. Hence, it can be implied that when using the reader response approach to teach literature, students attained what they aspired to obtain—pleasure reading.
The second question inquires which activity students liked most in the reader response approach. After choosing their favorite activity, students had to provide some reasons for their choice. Table 10 demonstrates the allocation of students’
favorite response-based activity.
Table 10: Students’ Favorite Response-Based Activity
Students’ favorite activity No. of students (percentage)
a. The pre-class worksheet. 0 (0%)
b. Role play. 33 (84.6%)
c. Class discussion and group discussion. 5 (12.8%)
d. The response journal. 1 (2.6%)
According to Table 10, students’ favorite response-based activity was the role play as 33 students (84.6%) showed preference for it, followed by the discussion and the response journal. This result is consistent with the statistical results of the
close-ended statements in the post-instructional questionnaire. Some illustrative responses to the role play provided by the students include:
“This activity makes reading the stories more interesting. It also promotes our interaction and relationships with our classmates.” (Teresa)
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“From this activity, I come to know that sometimes the stories do not only carry the meaning on the printed marks, but they can evolve into many interpretations. Maybe a certain classmate has a different interpretation of a certain paragraph that I have never thought of before, or maybe all of our opinions are the same. I rethink about the true meaning and the hidden meaning with pleasure.” (Christina)
“When acting out the stories, I can train my speaking ability and imagination.
Because different people have different interpretations, we create many interesting stories.” (Edith)
“After reading the stories, [I] have some interpretations of the content and the characters. When we dramatize, we also incorporate our creativity and the current news, which adds much fun [to the role play].” (Jessie)
“When writing the scripts, we have different opinions and imagination…. This enriches our performance… Through the role paly activity, [we] also have a deeper impression of the stories.” (Beth)
“Because we exert our imagination and creativity, we are not afraid to be on the stage or to face many people.” (Abbey)
As some students had mentioned, when they were engaged in script writing, they exercised their imagination and creativity in the parts that were not mentioned in the book and created their own interpretation of the story. Moreover, when they watched
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other students act out the stories, they had a better understanding of the stories and came to know that different people had different interpretation of the same characters or the same stories. Rosenblatt (1978) mentions that “the transaction will involve not only the past experience but also the present state and present interests or
preoccupations of the reader” (p.20). In the present study, when students discussed the script with their classmates or watched the role play, they were also transacting with the stories and their classmates to create their new interpretation.
In addition to transacting with the text and gaining different interpretations, the students became more confident in giving out their opinions and expressing
themselves in front of many people. Moreover, they had better interaction and relationships with those classmates they were not familiar with.
Although many students favored the role play, some students liked the discussion.
Some of their opinions about discussion are listed below.
“In the discussion, we cooperated and shared our stories. Sometimes we figured out some details of the stories that I did not notice. This enhances our friendship. [Moreover], we can study English in a happy way; it’s so cool.”
(Siena)
“Because when we discussed and interpreted [the stories], we came to understand each other’s way of thinking, and try to make reflection. [This]
made me better understand the meaning of the stories.” (Eve)
“I think it is a good way to discuss the content of the stories and the characters with my classmates, because I could listen to their interpretation, which helps me have a deeper understanding [of the stories].” (Sue)
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“I can hear the different interpretation of the stories from my classmates. This activity helps us to have better relationship.” (Tina)
From these opinions, it is shown that in the discussion, students collaboratively constructed the meaning; they also helped each other to better understand the stories and reflect on their own interpretation. As Langer (1992, 1995) suggests, during textual discussion, individual interpretations are shaped, reshaped, and altered by others.
In addition, the discussion also facilitated students to learn English in a happy way and promoted their relationship. Thus, the discussion is seen as a sociocultural and dialogic event in which students improved their knowledge as well as
relationship.
In the third open-ended question, the students were further asked what they obtained most in the participation of using reader response approach to learn literary works. Below are some of their responses to this question.
“My impression of English becomes different. In the past, I hated English.
[Now], when I read the novel, although there are some unfamiliar words, what I care more is the content. When I read, I think the story has become more and more interesting. In the past, I considered [learning] English very boring, [because I was] memorizing new words all the time. Now when I feel bored, I will take out the novel and read it.” (Eve)
“Pleasure reading makes me know that English articles are not so difficult to understand.” (Susan)
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“I become more interested in English. Comparing with the conventional boring grammar knowledge, stories with plots attract me to do deeper reading.” (Mandy)
“We seldom have this kind of opportunity, so I really learn a lot…The stories are not boring, so [I] am willing to read them. The discussion with my
classmates is also full of fun. [I] discover that many of my classmates have many great ideas, and [they] know how to summarize others’ opinion.” (Sue)
“I have a sense of achievement when I finished the book and understood it. I not only understood the superficial meaning but also explored deeply into the text and use my experience to interpret it.” (Rae)
“Because of the different questions, I think of the questions of life.” (Traci)
“Because of the different questions, I think of the questions of life.” (Traci)