ABSTRACT
Teachers intending to teach reading and to improve the reading attainment of their pupils are more likely to succeed if they have already determined for themselves some characteristics which define a reader. Their teaching will then be more likely to enhance the features they have identified. It may seem unusual that any group of professionals can embark on a programme of improving something, without quite knowing what it is that they will bring about through that process. Yet, to a great extent, that is what has been happening in the teaching of reading within English studies. My caricature might be thought a little harsh, but when asked the direct question, 'How would your department describe a reader?' heads of English reach for some strange, and sometimes unrelated, criteria. The colleague who looked for: 'those pupils who can make out the words, then those who can make literal sense, and - at the top of the scale - those who can read between the lines' at least based his description on a progressive scale, but it revealed few areas of potential growth worth developing.
