SCET Journal 2020

Prompting

Critical Thinking

(2012) also conducted a reader response study with college undergraduates; they found that during read- ing instruction, students were encouraged to respond to the text and provide multiple interpretations, unlike the traditional teaching methods of reading. They concluded that students were motivated to respond to reading tasks that cultivated their critical thinking. Previous studies have only focused on students’ second language (i.e. English) as a source of interpre- tation. The present study, however, gives freedom to participants to use their first language (i.e. Arabic) to support their interpretations of the text which is in line with Swain and Lapkin’s (2000) notion that “the de- velopment and maintenance of the L1 (first language) supports the development of the second language” (p. 251). I gave the option for students to use their first language (i.e. Arabic) to facilitate thinking and commu- nication rather than focusing on their English language proficiency. Context and Participants When I was looking for a short story to use for this reader response study, I stumbled upon and read “The Tell-Tale Heart ” (Poe, n.d.). Given that I come from a linguistics background, I had never encountered such a literary piece. The story revolves around two char- acters, the narrator and an old man. Throughout the story, the narrator talks about how the old man means no harm, but the narrator is afraid of the old man’s eye which he describes as a vulture’s eye in the story. The narrator watches the old man for seven consecutive nights as he goes to sleep, until on the eighth night, he decides to kill him, cut his body to pieces and hide his body parts under his living room wooden floor. The story was very engaging, and I could see some politi- cal plots that I personally could connect to the events. I was struck by the power of lived experiences and how much they influence our responses to literature, but more interestingly, how critical thinking plays into formulating responses, following the logic of the text. I wondered. What if I read this story aloud and asked my participants to provide responses? Where would their thinking take me, and how would they make con- nections to the world around them? I had five participants in my study, all Saudi ad- vanced ESL learners in a US southeastern university. I chose this population specifically because of my background, knowing that such thinking exercises are

not in our Saudi reading classes and wondering how they would respond. All names are pseudonyms: Ab- dul, Hassan, John, Jack, and Terry. We sat together in a classroom, and I read aloud the story. I asked them to write their feelings and thoughts as they listened to me read aloud. Then I asked them to make connec- tions from their own experiences. Responses to “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Critical Thinking across Contexts Throughout the study, I was fascinated by how Rosenblatt’s (1995) theoretical concept aligned with what participants shared: “Without linkage with the past experiences and present interests of the reader, the work will not come alive for him, or rather, he will not be prepared to bring it to life” (p. 77). I asked my participants: How do you see the “The Tell-Tale Heart” in today’s world? What have you seen, read, or experi- enced that you can connect to the story? The partic- ipants are referred to as Abdul, Hassan, John, Jack, and Terry. I labeled myself as “R,” the researcher: Abdul: You mean, you want us to link what’s happened in the story to reality? R: What have you guys experienced maybe in reading, listening, anything you can think of similar to the story? John: Well, I think when he was talking about cutting the body, the thought of Khashuggi came to my mind. R: Oh, that’s interesting! So you see there are similari- ties between the two stories, in the last part, maybe? Jack: Yeah, also there’s no evidence against the killer in story [“The Tell-tale Heart”] and I believe that with the Participants made connections between the “The Tell-Tale Heart” and the assassination of the Saudi journalist in Turkey. The journalist was living in the United States before he flew to Turkey to collect legal documents from the Saudi Consulate on October 2, 2018 (Jamal Khashoggi, 2019). He was assassinated when he walked in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey. News websites reported many conflicting viewpoints on who is responsible for his death. However, there is a consensus on the fact that his body was cut into pieces after he was killed (Daragahi, 2018; Kirkpatrick & Gall, 2018). What is clear in the responses is the societal connections. Would participants also say something about the motivation behind the killing in both stories, and could they make connections? journalist there’s no evidence either. John: Also, both victims are old men!

South Carolina English Teacher

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