Responding to Characters: A Study of French
Learners' Interpretive Skills and Affective
Responses to Literature
Miranda I. Kentfield
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of French
Original Research Objectives:
I. Evaluate students’ ability to read and interpret literary
texts as they pass from the intermediate to the advanced
stages of language learning



How successful are French learners at comprehending and
interpreting literary texts?
What types of interpretive skills do they master at different
levels of language learning?
Can they identify formal elements of prose narratives and
evaluate the relationship between form and ideas/meaning in
a text, or are they more comfortable with thematic analysis?
II. Learn about students’ affective responses to
characters in prose fiction



What sorts of attitudes do students adopt in relation to
fictive characters?
Under what circumstances do they identify with
characters in a story?
What traits or dimensions of characters are most
appealing or interesting to students?
I developed two separate studies based on
excerpts from Hugo’s Les Misérables:


A written response task to measure reading
comprehension and interpretive skills
An oral interview procedure to measure
affective response to character
The Project Evolves…
Result:

I completed the first study on comprehension
and interpretation, using a written response
protocol.

The affective response study was not completed
due to time constraints and a lack of upperdivision subjects.
Reading Les Misérables: A Study of French
Learners’ Developing Ability to Comprehend and
Interpret French Literature
Research Design
Two Subject Groups:
27 Intermediate Language Learners

Subjects were enrolled in French 4, the fourth
semester in Berkeley’s lower-division language
sequence
7 Advanced Language Learners

Subjects were enrolled in upper division literature
courses for which an introductory course, French 102,
was a prerequisite.
Assessment Vehicle: A Three-Page Written
Task
•
Students read short paragraphs from Les
Misérables
•
Eight questions to answer
•
Students may respond in English or in French
•
At the end, an optional feedback sheet to fill out
Testing Procedure
Time frame: 45-75 minutes (no limit imposed)
Dictionary Usage:
17 Intermediate Subjects did not use a dictionary
10 Intermediate Subjects used a dictionary
Advanced Subjects did not use a dictionary
Results of the Written Task
Comparing the Performance of Intermediate
and Advanced Language Learners
Three types of skills were evaluated:
Reading comprehension
Interpretation I: Thematic Analysis
Interpretation II: Formal Analysis
Reading Comprehension
General Definition: An ability to understand
and accurately reproduce factual information
conveyed by the text.



Recount events described
Describe traits/characteristics of characters
Explain character’s evolution
Intermediate Learner Performance: Reading Comprehension
(results based on four questions)

Mastery in responding to basic, factual questions.

Developing mastery with more complex comprehension
questions (less than 50% achieved full success).

For complex questions, students often offer justifiable,
but incomplete answers.

Conclusion: Student show intermediate skill. Some
results suggest partial comprehension, or difficulty
attending to the specifics of the questions asked.
Advanced Learner Performance: Reading Comprehension
(Results based on four questions)

Mastery in responding to basic, factual questions.

Developing mastery with more complex comprehension questions.

Performance was stronger than that of the intermediate group:
Increased knowledge of vocabulary words.
Higher rates of success with complex questions.

Conclusion: Intermediate to advanced skill. Students still had some
difficulty providing complete answers to the more challenging
questions, suggesting that some students have not fully understood
the passages they are reading.
A Reading Comprehension Issue of
Interest: Question 4
Quelle est la « lutte colossale » qui a lieu
à l’intérieur de l’esprit de Jean
Valjean ? Qu’est-ce qui la provoque ?
Translation:
What is the « colossal struggle » that
takes place within the mind of Jean
Valjean ? What provokes it?
Findings from Question 4:
• Vocabulary problems blocked reading comprehension for many
students: only 26% produced a complete and justifiable answer.
• However, 26% admitted to not knowing what “lutte” meant but still
mentioned relevant ideas by relying on context.
• A dictionary helped: the success rate on this question increased
from 18% (without dictionary) to 40% with dictionary.
•
Even with a dictionary, over 50% did not provide a complete and
justifiable response. In addition, the use of a dictionary did not
influence performance in significant ways for the rest of the test
questions. Thus vocabulary problems do not appear to be the
primary factor blocking reading comprehension.
Interpretation I: Thematic Analysis
General Definition: An ability to offer a justifiable interpretation
of the themes, ideas, or implied meanings in a text by relying on the
use of textual evidence.
•
Take a specific textual example and generalize from it. For
example, identify what is representative about a family or a
character.
•
Identify the ideological or philosophical message of the text.
•
Identify and interpret literary symbols, such as symbolic
images, and explain how they relate to the content and themes
of the passage.
Intermediate Learner Performance: Thematic Analysis
(Based on response to four questions)

Success in generalizing from specific textual examples (a basic
interpretive task).

Difficulty identifying the ideological/philosophical message and
interpreting symbols (Success ranged from 22%-37% by question)

The majority of students produced justifiable, but incomplete
answers to the three more complex questions.

For the more complex interpretive questions, a significant number
(at least 25% for each question) of students produced problematic or
very insufficient answers, or did not respond.

Conclusion: Students are developing their interpretive skills, but are
still far from achieving mastery of these skills as a group.
Advanced Learner Performance: Thematic Analysis

Students outperformed the intermediate learner group.

Mastery in generalizing from specific textual examples (the most
basic interpretive task).

Developing ability to identify an ideological or philosophical
message – strong success on one of the two questions .

Strong performance (7/8 students succeeded) on analysis of
symbolic imagery.

Conclusion: Students show considerable skill with thematic
interpretive tasks, but have not yet reached full mastery.
Interpretation II: Formal Analysis

Motivating Questions:

Do undergraduate students of literature learn to
attend to the formal features of prose fiction?

Do students have an awareness of or express
interest in the how of fiction-writing?
An attempt to measure formal analysis
(Two questions)

Formal interpretive analysis can be conceived of
as having two steps:

Identify poetic or figurative language, use of
imagery

Interpret how such formal aspects contribute to
the meaning or ideas conveyed by the text – i.e.,
what effects are produced by poetic/figurative
language?
Results Part I: Identify poetic or figurative
language, use of imagery
Response from both learner groups was
similar:

Success in identifying imagery
 Partial success in identifying poetic/figurative
language


One third of intermediate learners succeeded
Nearly half (3/7) of the advanced learners succeeded
Results Part II: Connecting formal elements
to meaning/ideas

Both learner groups were partially successful in linking
imagery to the meaning/ideas. Advanced learners did a
better job of responding specifically to the question
posed (question 3).

Both learner groups had difficulty connecting
poetic/figurative language to meaning/ideas (question 8):


Intermediate learners achieved 15% success, 70% ignored the
question
Mixed success among advanced learners, but all attempted to
respond
Summary of Results:
Intermediate Learner Group: French 4 Students

Reading Comprehension: Success with basic questions and
developing skills with more complex questions.

Thematic Analysis: Partial success – students are developing
their skills.

Formal Analysis: Some skill with interpreting imagery. About
one third of students succeeded in identifying poetic and
figurative language in the text. Very few students successfully
linked these formal features to the meaning/ideas.
Advanced Learner Group: Upper
Division Students

Reading comprehension: Success with basic questions.
The majority of students achieved mastery of more
complex questions and all are developing their skills.

Thematic analysis: Many students show mastery,
and all are developing their skills.

Formal analysis: Considerable skill with imagery.
Partial success in identifying poetic or figurative
language. Students are beginning to develop an
ability to connect such language to meaning/ideas in
a prose narrative.
Limitations of this Study

Small sample size of upper division group

Limited number of questions designed to
measure formal analysis

Lack of two raters to establish inter-rater
reliability

Variations in the difficulty of literary texts makes
it hard to generalize findings
Implications and Applications of this
Study
 Findings
are relatively predictable:
students show noticeable improvement
from intermediate to advanced levels of
language learning.
 Utility
of findings.
Pedagogical Applications
Students at both learning levels might benefit from:

Discussions of what makes prose narratives
literary. In general, how does literary writing
differ from other types of writing?

More explicit instruction about formal aspects of
prose narratives and how they contribute to the
establishment of meaning in a text.