Mediating a text (Teacher Text, Explain to Pupils)

Creative texts are one of the main sources for Reading as a leisure activity and there are several
descriptors related to the reading of literature in the scale with that title. However, literature tends to
evoke a reaction, and this is often promoted in language education. This response may be expressed
in a classroom or in one of the amateur literacy circles often associated with foreign language
learning. There are perhaps four main types of classic response:

► engagement: giving a personal reaction to the language, style or content, feeling drawn to an
aspect of the work or a character or characteristic of it;
► interpretation: ascribing meaning or significance to aspects of the work including contents,
motifs, characters’ motives, metaphor, etc.
► analysis of certain aspects of the work including language, literary devices, context,
characters, relationships. etc.
► evaluation: giving a critical appraisal of technique, structure, the vision of the artist, the
significance of the work, etc.

There is a fundamental difference between the first two categories (engagement and interpretation)
and the last two (analysis and evaluation). Describing a personal reaction and interpretation is
cognitively far simpler than giving a more intellectual analysis and/or evaluation. Therefore, two
different scales are offered.

Let’s take a look at both that you need to develop:

► Expressing a personal response to creative texts (including literature)

Expressing a personal response to creative texts (including literature): This first scale reflects the
approach taken in school sectors and in adult reading circles. The scale focuses on expression of the
effect a work of literature has on the user/learner as an individual. Key concepts operationalized in this
scale include the following:
► explaining what he/she liked, what interested him/her about the work;
► describing characters, saying which he/she identified with;
► relating aspects of the work to own experience;
► relating feelings and emotions;
► personal interpretation of the work as a whole or of aspects of it.

Progression up the scale is characterised as follows: At the lower levels the user/learner can say
whether he/she liked the work, say how it made him/her feel, talk about characters and relate aspects
of the work to his/her own experience, with increased detail at B1. At B2 he/she can give more
elaborate explanations, comment on the form of expression and style and give his/her interpretation of
the development of a plot, the characters and the themes in a story, novel, film or play. At the C levels,
he/she can give broader and deeper interpretations, supporting them with details and examples.

► Analysis and criticism of creative texts (including literature)

Analysis and criticism of creative texts (including literature): This represents an approach more
common at an upper secondary and university level. It concerns more formal, intellectual reactions.
Aspects analysed include the significance of events in a novel, treatment of the same themes in
different works and other links between them, the extent to which a work follows conventions, and
more global evaluation of the work as a whole. Key concepts operationalised in the scale include:
► comparing different works;
► giving a reasoned opinion of a work;
► critically evaluating features of the work, including the effectiveness of techniques employed.

Progression up the scale is characterised as follows: there are no descriptors for A1 and A2. Until B2,
the focus is on description rather than evaluation. At B2, the user/learner can analyse similarities and
differences between works, giving a reasoned opinion and referring to the views of others. At C1,
analysis becomes more subtle, concerned with the way the work engages the audience, the extent to
which it is conventional, whether it employs irony. At C2, the user/learner can recognise finer linguistic
and stylistic subtleties, unpack connotations and give more critical appraisals of the way in which
structure, language and rhetorical devices are exploited in a work of literature for a particular purpose.