A Mixed-Method Study of Iser’s Reader-Response Theory with Literature and Language Teaching in Postmodern Drama: A Case Study of Undergraduate Students at SBBU-SBA

Abstract

The article investigates Reader Responses with literature and language teaching in the postmodern drama Waiting for Godot in the light of Wolfgang Iser's Reader Response theory (1978) and Gillian Lazar’s model of "literature and language teaching"(1993). The study utilizes a mixed-method approach, and the selected population of 20 undergraduate students of BS English literature at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Shaheed Benazirabad (old Nawabshah), Pakistan. The data collected from anonymous participant via questionnaires with random sampling after completion of the assigned text for reading. The qualitative data analysis is based on Reader-response theory that states that reading is a unique experience in which a reader involves himself morally, intellectually, socially, and artistically. Second, the study concludes quantitatively by applying Lazar’s model of "literature and language teaching". The results are based on 40% positive and 60% negative responses from the students, thus, this paper finds that readers’ development is significant and they are self-assured who could go beyond the written texts. Further, more approachable texts and models that support students in connecting with and comprehending the text's should be incorporated into the literary scholarship.