A Qualitative Study of Junior College EFL Learners’ Reading Transactions in Peer-Led Literature Discussions

[[abstract]]The use of peer-led literature discussions allows students to become actively engaged in meaning making through the exchange of interpretations of texts. However, relatively little published research has examined the collaborative reading process of EFL learners in the local context. The present study therefore aimed to explore how Taiwanese EFL learners created socially-mediated meaning from texts. Participants were two heterogeneous groups consisting of four second-year students with different levels of reading ability each, majoring in applied English from the five-year program at a junior college. Transcribed audiotapes of 8 representative discussions served as the major data source for the study and were analyzed using Rosenblatt’s (1994) definition of efferent and aesthetic transactions. Semi-structured interviews, informal conversational interviews, student’s reading logs, field notes and reflection journals were also collected to find out the changes that might have occurred in the two groups’ reading behaviors during the two month long study. The findings indicated that both groups approached the texts efferently and aesthetically. They produced two different types of efferent reading, namely searching for facts and analyzing the input. One group consistently clarified the confusing events to get the story facts, whereas the other group shifted from detailed story translation to brief plot summary and then to clarification of the confusing sources in the text. Additionally, while one group evaluated whether the different aspects of the input such as the title of the story were acceptable, the other group analyzed the same particular aspect of the text, character analysis. Regarding aesthetic transactions, three categories were identified, that is, personal engagement, character evaluation, and personal connection. One group expressed their personal engagement by articulating their emotional reactions and entering into the story world. The other group made personal connection by comparing what happened in the story to what happened in their own lives. Character evaluation is a consistent theme that both groups developed. Through efferent analyses and aesthetic responses, the EFL learners demonstrated critical thinking and developed reflective thoughts. The findings also revealed that both groups transacted between the efferent and aesthetic realms despite the fact that they journeyed through different reading patterns. One group switched back and forth along the efferent-aesthetic continuum throughout the entire study, whereas the other group didn’t move in and out between these two reading stances until the last two story discussions. This change was largely due to the low-achieving reader in this group who generated questions to inspire her peers to reflect on what they read, which stimulated personal transformation and personal growth. In conclusion, the EFL learners in this study were independent thinkers who could dissolve the barriers in comprehension to construct critical and reflective meaning. Therefore, second language reading, even at the beginning stage, should be viewed as an interactive transaction between the reader and the text. Also, the more knowledgeable peer can be the linguistically inadequate reader who takes the initiative to participate in social interactions around the literacy events.