ABSTRACT
Secondary school teachers of English in Britain have, traditionally, little experience in the teaching of reading which, in training institutions, has been the purview of educational psychologists and primary school teachers. On the one hand are the literary theorists whose writings promote the idea that ‘a theory of literature is a theory of reading’. In traditional reading lessons, literature teachers tend to be the leaders. But group work, collaborative learning, children choosing texts all offer opportunities for understanding what the very experience may shut out. This is in no way to undervalue the teacher’s competences, but simply to say that one must guard against living on a diminishing capital. Videotape recordings of lessons showed how even the most caring, insightful, well-read teachers can unwittingly take from a pupil what little competence he or she has.
