An intricate dance of intersubjectivity
The social and cognitive benefits of a digital shared reading group
This article deepens the understanding of characteristic features of Shared Reading (SR) that can shed light on
health benefits of this literary practice suggested by previous research. We provide a detailed analysis of language, interaction,
reading strategies and collaborative meaning-making in an online SR group in which participants read and discussed a modernist
poem. We triangulate our analysis with results from a focus group with the participants. Our study is informed by psychological
theories about joint attention and its effects on social cohesion, mentalisation and perspective-taking. The analysis shows how
the SR format provides a space in which ingroupness, intersubjectivity, and perspective-taking are created and realised in
language use and interaction. Furthermore, our study suggests that many characteristic features of SR identified in earlier
research can still be observed in an online SR group. The study lays the ground for more conclusive research of the benefits of
this reading practice.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Theory
- Data and method
- Analysis of SR session
- Results from the focus group discussion
- Connecting the analyses
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
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