Inferences and recursive interpretation in reading L2 literary texts
Abstract
When it comes to L2 reading, literary texts are often seen as barriers which are difficult to overcome even in higher proficiency levels, since they do not rely solely on a certain level of language performance. This text questions the influence that inferential processing (Kintsch 1998; Koda 2004) has on deep comprehension (Bernhardt 1991: 2011) and on the distance that this genre demands from its reader (Armstrong 2013; Olson 1994). Advantages of literary reading are pointed out in what concerns a L2 learning process, insofar as they leave a mark on the reader’s mental flexibility, as s/he is forced to escape cognitive routines, and led into feeding a future cognitive reservoir (Armstrong 2013; Paradis 2004; Pinto 2010; 2013).
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