ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, beliefs about literature education in secondary schools have changed considerably. ‘Text experiencing’ approaches have been developed and implemented, next to the already existing ‘text studying’ and literary historical methods (for The Netherlands, see Janssen, 1998). This development is certainly not uniquely Dutch, but appears to be an international trend in (the thinking about) literature teaching and learning in secondary schools (e.g. Applebee et al., 2000; Poyas, 2004). The interest in readers’ experiences and responses has been accompanied by a plea for more process-oriented approaches to literature. According to this view, literature instruction should focus more on the ‘how’ of reading and interpreting literary texts, on text-reader interaction, by paying attention to the literary reading strategies students may use (e.g. anticipating, questioning, problem detecting, filling in gaps) (Andringa, 1995a).
