Vol. 5 Issue 6 – Research Paper: ‘Using Children’s Literature to Explore the Issue of Exclusion: Language Learning Through Personal Connections, Multiple Perspectives and Critical Reflections’ by Hsiang-Ni Lee

Socio-cultural constructivism views reading as a holistic experience in which readers actively seek identity and make meaning of the world. Socio-cultural constructivist reading instruction recognizes the impact of one’s socio-economic background on comprehension and interpretation of a text. It also acknowledges one’s ability to identify, deconstruct and reconstruct self-positioning by critically examining the text’s messages. Although receiving more well-deserved attention in Western language education, such a constructivist notion has not yet seemed to be equally appreciated or practiced in Taiwanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms.