Adolescents’ Literary Understanding: Types of Responses to Korean American Novels and Newspaper

Departing from and/or building on reader response studies, this study aims at examining types of responses which could be elicited when Korean/Korean American adolescents read and discuss Korean American young adult novels and newspaper articles. A qualitative approach was employed, and data were collected through oral and written responses and participant observations. The findings revealed that the participants produced five types of literary responses as the ways to exhibit their literary understanding: analytical, personal, intertextual, transparent, and social/dialogic responses. They utilized the texts to construct meaning in various ways: analyzing and evaluating characters; evaluating and critiquing authors’ crafts; summarizing; questioning the meaning of a word; and using peritextual analysis. They also made meaningful connections between text and their life. By making intertextual connections, they compared and contrasted the texts they read. Through the process of scaffolding, competing, and synthesizing, they could build up meanings. The elicitation of the participants’ responses could be underpinned by text messages, reasoning, personal experiences, cultural knowledge and background, and interpretive community.