“Classroom criticism” Engagement Through Reader Response Journal Writing Project: A Case Study at an EFL Teacher Training

Abstract

The study aims at reporting the negotiated project of reader response journal writing at EFL pre-service teacher training. Reader response journal writing, underpinned by Reader Response Theory (RRT), is believed to have given meaningful effects on the trainees’ perspectives and meaningful literacy experiences. An intact group of second year EFL teacher trainees (N=22),of a private college in Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia, taking Introduction to Literature course, participated in the case study. The six-week observation of the reading-writing (literacy)-oriented project was focused on the trainees’ ways of reading literary works assigned and collaboratively responding to them, critically sharing with their peers to take and to give inputs, and displaying their artistic works as their reader responses. Interviews with the trainees revealed the trainees’ positive opinions towards reader response reflective journal writing. Observation of the classroom dynamics indicated the trainees’ active participation as their reflected responses. The study suggests further studies deal with the response based-classroom interaction patterns viewed from systemic functional linguistics.