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reading engagement (Bonilla, 1991). These issues are vital because they are believed
to enhance and enrich the receptive dynamics of the response process and maximize
the utilization of all the socio-affective means of meaning construction that accrue as
a result of involved reading endeavors:
• What did they like/dislike in their reading/why
• How did they like the illustrations in the text?
• What did the text remind them of/how did the text relate to their life
When students personalize the texts they read, they are naturally encouraged to
activate their hypothetical/ critical thinking about the issues they have encountered.
Very often they wish a person or a place had been different from the way they have
been placed in the text. They also feel that they have the power of their sensitivity/
understanding to change/alter the realities presented by the text, while at the same
time appreciating the parallels between their lives and what they come across in the
texts they read.
This is to suggest that the learners’ emotional investment- affect, in learning is an
integral part of reading. Therefore, understanding the emotional make-up of the
learners and its influence on reading can have a contributory effect on the students’
self-esteem. As observed by Stern (1983, p.386) ‘the affective component contributes
at least as much and often more to language learning than the cognitive skills.’
Moreover, I believe that the various concepts and meanings a learner encounters can
become part of his/her personal constructs only if they are experienced on a subjective
and emotional level. In the light of this, we need to understand that ‘emotions are not
extras. They are the very center of human mental life… (They) link what is important
for us to the world of people, things, and happenings’ (Oately and Jenkins, 1996:
122). Thus, emotions are at the very root of our motivation to do or not to do
something.
• What do they wish had happened?
• What do they wish the author had included?
When taken together, these two questions can have particular relevance to the
students’ immediate reading environment. When students personalize the texts they
read, they are naturally encouraged to activate their hypothetical/ critical thought
about the issues they have encountered. Very often they wish a person or a place had
been different from the way they have been placed in the text. They also feel that they