READING MEDIATION BEYOND ASKING THE RIGHT KIND OF QUESTIONS

Abstract

In an effort to provide reading mediators with concrete tools to stimulate an interpretative environment when facilitating dialogic reading encounters, research has dedicated quite some attention to the use of appropriate questions in order to do so. In empirical studies on this type of literary discussion, there are various proposals to categorize types of questions, and the distinction between vocabulary questions and interpretive questions is a recurring occurrence (Moss, 2002; van Kleeck, 2008; Blewitt, 2009; Munita & Manresa, 2013; Silva & Cain, 2015; Lightner & Wilkinson, 2016; Grolig et al., 2020). 

Based on a multimodal conversational analysis of 5 dialogic reading encounters, in which all the so-called vocabulary questions elicited interpretation, this article suggests complexifying the idea that certain types of questions can elicit certain types of responses. The results allow for a vision of mediation as an art of suggestion, in which the mediator and the participant cooperate to build the interpretive environment and co-manage the topic during the conversation, employing a myriad of interactive devices.