Using readers’ imagery of literary characters to study text meaning construction

Abstract

The purpose of the present research was to examine readers' Images of literary characters as a basis for studying text meaning construction. Given reading theory that emphasizes text/reader contributions to understanding, the investigation focused on the convergence and divergence of character descriptions both between text and readers and between readers themselves. Two students read two short stories and responded during and after reading to researcher prompts on story characters. Descriptive phrases In both texts and student reports were isolated for each character than then categorized as: (a) lifestyle characteristics, (b) personality traits, or (c) physical appearance. Based on comparisons made by story and character for the three categories, the findings indicated greater variation than commonality between the texts and readers, as well as between the two readers. The students appeared to select different textual cues that enabled them to elaborate upon and extend the text information in different ways. The implication of these results suggest consideration of dialogue and rereadings during instruction to aid in both developing and monitoring text understanding.