In order to give this study focus and delimitation, the following conceptual
operational definitions are provided.
Content-Based instruction refers to the type of instruction in foreign language teaching in
which teaching is planned around the content that students will acquire, rather than around a
linguistic syllabus. Krahnke offers the following definition: The term content has become a
popular one both within language teaching and in the popular media. New York Times columnist
and linguistic pundit William Safire addressed it in one of his columns in 1998 and
noted:Although content is used with a variety of different meanings in language teaching, it most
frequently refers to the substance or subject matter that we learn or communicate through
language rather than the language used to convey it. Attempts to give priority to meaning in
language teaching are not new. Approaches encouraging demonstration, imitation, miming, those
recommending the use of objects, pictures, and audiovisual presentations, and proposals
supporting translation, explanation, and definition as aids to understanding meaning have
appeared at different times in the history of language teaching. Brinton, Snow, and Wesche
(1989) propose that Saint Augustine was an early proponent of Content-Based Language
Teaching and quote his recommendations regarding focus on meaningful content in language
teaching.
For purposes of this study, Content-based instruction was implemented through application
of reader response and Literature Circles.
The Transactional Theory of Reader Response recognizes that a transaction occurs
between reader and text. Rosenblatt (1991) hypothesized the process of reading engagement as a
learner/reader construction of the text and student response as a transactional event. The dynamic
engagement the learner /reader stands for a text consists of two responses: (1) The efferent stance
which “pays more attention to the cognitive, the referential, the factual, the analytic, the logical,
and the quantitative aspects of reading. (2) the aesthetic stance which “pays more attention to the
sensuous, the affective, the emotive, the qualitative” (Rosenblatt, 1994, p. 1068). Thus, The
meaning the reader constructs from reading is the transaction.
In this study, Rosenblatt’s Transactional Theory provided the second theoretical
framework for the research.
Reader Response Theory in this study provided the primary theoretical perspective from
which to understand the ways second year undergraduate learners/ readers engaged with text, the
communicative tools they used in responding, and how the context influenced the construction of
textual meanings and subjectivities that learners used in social interactions.
Rosenblatt (1994) posited, “Every reading act is an event, or a transaction involving a
particular reader and a particular pattern of signs, a text, and occurring at a particular time in a
particular context”(p.1063). This means there is no inherent meaning in a text until a reader
transacts with it and brings meaning to the written word
In the current research, reader response, which is the independent variable, is
operationalized as the ability of the learner to understand, interpret, and respond to a literary text
following Mialls Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ). In order to measure literary Reader
response, LRQ corresponding checklist is adapted to design the pre-/post-tests.
Conceptually, The term literature circles refers to a learners who are formed in groups to
discuss the same text (Daniels, 1994, 2002a). Each member is allotted a role to simplify
discussion of the assigned. Group members meet on a regular basis and the roles may rotate
according to the members will. When a group finishes a text, the group then shares their
understanding in a whole-class setting through reading logs
For purposes of this study, literature circles provided the context for the implementation of
new practices to be used in response activities by second year undergraduate learners /readers.
In the current research, Literature Circles, which is the dependent variable, is
operationalized as a course design under the wings of CBI. The course design is meant to instruct
learners on a number of learning strategies on how to increase learners’ literary reader response.