I resonate with Gordon, your formulation of the dilemma (a dilemma we face
as writers and readers?)... A text, once written, seems to have a life
of its own and beyond the control of the writer! (we can sometimes see
evidence of this on e-mail discussion lists, too). How others make of
it, interpret it, respond and react to it... all seem to be taking
tangents and directions quite unexpected by the writer sometimes. (This
is also one of the scary things about writing to public discussion
lists.... oh, well :-{ ...)
David Olson and cognitive psychologists of reading and literacy in
general believe in some stable meanings of text. Many L2 reading
theorists and researchers still operate with this model of reading
comprehension and thus the basis for standardized reading comprehension
tests. (c.f. and vs. Bonny Peirce's piece on reading tests in South
African university entrance exms, in Harvard Educational Review in 1994 or
95?).
I too find it difficult to strike a balance between the two positions.
Somehow, I feel that there are some relatively stable language
constraints and resources so that one can't write "I love you" and be
easily interpreted as "I hate you" without invoking a lot of other
contextual cues or pragmatic explanations to warrant such an interpretation.
But within the constraints, there does seem to be a lot of room for
negotiation and for alternative interpretations... and it all seems to be
related to the larger activity in which this writing and
reading/interpreting are situated and embedded in. e.g., I guess
sometimes M.Ed. students might be concerned with issues different from
their professors', e.g., they might be more interested in their own
theories than the writers'... it's a tough question to an educator how to
expand students' interests and theories so that they would be willing to
leave their comfortable familiar arenas and venture into
the unfamiliar, difficult areas of other people's thinking...
Just sharing some thoughts... :-)
Angel
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Angel M.Y. Lin
Doctoral Candidate
Modern Language Centre
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON M5S 1V6, Canada
E-Mail: MYLIN who-is-at OISE.ON.CA
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Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When ... we stand face to face in the cyber space? ...
--Adapted from: The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling
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