“Readers are made, not born” (Chen)
In the British Literature class, we have been studying many authors and their works, and also one approach to working with literature: the Reader-Response. As I study English pedagogy, one of my main objectives is to incorporate literature in the class. I am very interested in working with literature in the EFL classroom and transmit my passion for literature to my students. The above quote can be explained as the need of introducing literature to students so that they can become good readers. Therefore, giving reading assignments is not enough, so we have to work and deal with literature in the class and help our students grow interested in reading. Consequently, the Reader-Response approach is essential and the most appropriate when my goal is to make readers. In this essay, I will use “The Virgin and the Gypsy” by D.H. Lawrence. I will briefly explain what the reader response is and what the short story’s main plot is. Afterwards, with this piece of art, I will provide various activities that can be used in the EFL classroom.
The Reader-Response approach is the most appealing to me because people get to bring themselves into their own readings. Readers’ experiences play a fundamental role in interpreting and understanding any piece of literature. This approach can be defined as the approach which emphasizes the individual as a reader—responder, the role of the reader as a re-creator who with his/her experience, previous readings, thoughts and feelings enrich any text. Also, the reader interacts with the text mainly because of the objectives of this approach such as encouraging individual readers to feel comfortable with their responses to a literary text, encouraging them to understand themselves better by giving arguments to their responses which will make them be aware of themselves (Chen).
“The Virgin and the Gypsy” is by definition a short story which makes it more accessible for high school students because it contains only one main plot and the language is easy to understand. The main plot of the story is the connection between the girl, Yvette, and the gypsy and the circumstances under which they met. We can also see that she and her sister had problems in her house especially with her aunt Cissie because they could not understand how this lady interfered with everything in the house. They also had to deal with the absence of their mother who left with a younger man. This story is a very accessible one because it is simple and easy to read. We need to consider our students’ proficiency level so that they do not feel overwhelmed by a piece of literature that is too complex for them.
By using the Reader-Response, we are compelled to include the student centered classroom. Most of the activities that I will briefly present need to be developed through group work and the teacher plays the role of a monitor and a guide in the class. This story can be used in the EFL classroom quite easily. We could be using this story for various classes and with many different activities. At the beginning they can build mind maps with characters’ relationships; that will make reading more understandable (Buehl, 2000). That would be the very first glance to the story. This process is completely necessary so that students do not get confused with the story or the characters.
Later on, we can focus on the story by asking different types of questions such as: factual or memory questions, interpretation questions, application questions and evaluation questions (Chen). So that understanding is clearer we should begin by asking factual or memory questions in order to make sure they do know the story and can later on provide an opinion with strong arguments about certain issues by including information and examples from the text. According to what I want to accomplish, the most suitable questions to be used would be application questions because students will draw on their own experiences because they will be relating the story to their personal lives. Their personal responses are essential for answering these questions.
Another activity in order to include this short story into the classroom is by asking our students to role-play different scenes or parts of the text (Chen). This is always fun and challenging for the students because they like to participate in the class. Through this activity, they will be able to show their own interpretations and maybe provide a twist to the plot. They should have as most liberty as possible and be able to disagree with what the writer decided to write in the story.
With “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, students can be asked to write several response journals to different questions so that they can prepare themselves for a conversation class because “selected readings have great potential for stimulating conversation, because once students are exposed to a given reading, they have a new fund of information that can be used as a departure point for discussion” (Dobson, 2005). The idea is that I decide on a few topics that are interesting and accessible from the reading so that students, after being assigned and prepared one topic, can participate in a discussion in groups where they can discuss the different topics presented in the story. 
The last activity I proposed for including this story in class is creating their own stories (Chen). They can be about the story itself, for example a different ending or something related to relationships between gypsies and people from other races. This would be a long process and I would include many revisions and editing. They can read each others’ stories and make comments and adjustments on how to improve the plot or the writing. The most remarkable characteristic of writing their own stories is that it makes the writing exercise more meaningful for students (Chen) since they will have freedom for writing and creating whatever that appeals to them.
As a conclusion, I can say that we should always try to find time to include literature in the class. The stories we can access can be of any kind as long as they are adequate for our students’ skills in the language. As you can see, the activities are quite varied and easy to develop because you only need to engage your students with the different processes. By using the Reader-Response approach students will be encouraged to provide their opinions about what they read and the process will not be as that of reading for a comprehension test. They will be reading for learning, for getting to know themselves better and for growing.
Bibliography
Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning.
Chen, Chi-Fen Emily. Teaching Literature to Children. <http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/Teaching.htm>.
Dobson, Julia. Effective Techniques for English Conversation Groups.
