Discusses the shift in literary teaching research paradigms from transmission to interaction, emphasizing the role of reader-response theory in this transformation, which has propelled literary studies from a focus on the author to a focus on the text, and then to a focus on the reader's personal interpretation. The reader-response approach is widely applied in ESL/EFL teaching, particularly in areas such as reading instruction, translation, reflective writing, and literary teaching. Since the early 1990s, the fundamental principles and methods of the reader-response approach have been established and extensively discussed in academic literature. In recent years, attention to the reader-response approach has grown rapidly, especially after 2016, with the number of related English-language publications remaining at a relatively high level. However, most teaching practices still remain at the level of efferent responses and information extraction based on textual content, lacking emphasis on aesthetic response instruction. Furthermore, there is controversy surrounding the classic texts of the reader-response approach, and issues such as the complexity of reader stance and how to measure readers' vast subjective responses are still under discussion. This article aims to comprehensively grasp the application patterns and trends of the reader-response approach abroad, providing a basis for its reasonable use and offering experience and references for domestic foreign/second language teachers and researchers implementing reading or literary teaching reforms to develop effective instructional strategies.

1. Analytical Framework

Introduces the application of the reader-response approach in foreign EFL/ESL teaching research and constructs a typological analytical framework based on "research text - research logic." The research text dimension focuses on the formal and content features of the text, referring respectively to its external and internal characteristics, which play different roles in readers' understanding of the text. The research logic dimension is divided into efferent and aesthetic responses; the former concerns information extraction and task completion, while the latter concerns the reader's experience of the story and emotional reactions. It emphasizes the importance of aesthetic responses in teaching and points out that cultivating readers' aesthetic responses is an important trend in foreign language teaching research.

2. Application Patterns of the Reader-Response Approach in Foreign ESL/EFL Teaching Research

The reader-response approach is widely used in foreign ESL/EFL teaching. Initially focused on poetry, it emphasized understanding the general meaning of poems. Richards highlighted the dual nature of poetry, requiring students to modify and refine their reading materials, i.e., to summarize. Harker pointed out that Richards acknowledged the authority of the text, with meaning residing in the text itself. However, with the diversification of text sources and types, reliance on readers' personal knowledge and experience to interpret texts leads to pronounced individualization. Researchers need to focus on the "dialogue" and "interaction" between readers and authors, readers and readers, and readers and texts, as these interactions are crucial for developing readers' aesthetic relationship with the text and constructing deeper textual meanings. The analytical objects of the reader-response approach include the formal and content features of the text. This article follows the logical framework of "formal features → content features" and "efferent responses → aesthetic responses" to review teaching practices of the reader-response approach in this field. Early research emphasized the interpretation of texts by authorities (teachers), while contemporary research focuses more on interactive meaning construction between readers and texts.

Regarding efferent responses based on formal features, formal features are those with a relatively high degree of textual structure, and different types of texts exhibit certain differences in structural characteristics. Expository texts have a relatively high degree of structure, with formal features including word frequency, titles, position, syntactic structure, etc.; fictional and narrative texts typically have an even higher degree of structure, with formal features encompassing characters, plot, theme, and language style, among others. By analyzing these features, researchers can uncover rich internal textual patterns. The formal features of a text exist largely independently of its content features. Key formal features such as genre, theme, language style, and characters provide a natural benchmark for analyzing reader responses. Researchers can use these formal features to compare readers' stances and their responses to the text. Takayoshi Yoneyama, based on Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tale "The Restaurant of Many Orders," categorized readers' responses from the three aspects of "response focus," "response behavior," and "response stance" according to readers' written reflections, exploring each reader's understanding differences and the process of deepening comprehension. Yoneyama also noted that for a deep understanding of the text, what is important is not analyzing the text's genre but paying attention to the constant shifts between "efferent stance" and "aesthetic stance" during the reading process. Cullinan et al. used their self-developed 5-level evaluation index for understanding novel forms and 3-level evaluation index for understanding story content to analyze the responses of learners from different grades to novels. The results found that lower elementary students only understood the literal meaning of the novel and did not grasp its symbolic or metaphorical meanings; however, middle school students could make appropriate judgments and evaluations based on the existing text and could discover multiple meanings contained within the text. Additionally, a similar tendency appeared in the interpretation of textual themes. This provides reference for teachers to use novel themes and frameworks to cultivate students' efferent responses. Through lexical analysis of the fairy tale "Ozbel and the Elephant," Yoneyama presented the different reactions of minors and adults in text reception. This study, by analyzing learners' written reflections, found that learners' response foci varied by grade and age. Furthermore, some researchers have compared gender indicators among readers to understand differences in response types among different subjects. Results found that females were generally more likely to empathize with characters' experiences than males, and females outperformed males. Other researchers have explored reader responses from aspects such as reader proficiency level, local awareness, text type, and response quality, which is beneficial for critically assessing the universality of the reader-response approach.

Compared to efferent responses, directly utilizing the formal features of a text to develop aesthetic responses is more difficult. This is mainly due to two factors. First, the formal features of a text typically have a higher degree of structure than its content features, indicating that the "information gap" provided by formal features is relatively limited. Second, formal features exist largely independently of the text's author, meaning that explaining differences in understanding among different reading subjects (readers, authors) at the level of formal features does not touch upon their deep understanding of the text. These factors suggest that directly comparing the reactions of different subjects using the text's formal features is not a desirable method for conducting textual reading and cultivating readers' aesthetic responses. In this regard, Rosenblatt pointed out that whether a text is read as an informational text or a literary text depends on the stance the reader adopts. The reader's stance is not unilaterally determined by the text but depends on the reader's reading purpose and experiential background. Experienced readers are typically "very sensitive to the cues provided by the text and, unless an alternative purpose intervenes, automatically adopt the appropriate dominant stance." Even when facing natural science textbooks, some readers can adopt an aesthetic stance for reading. For informational texts, if there is an intervening purpose or an aesthetic-based teaching strategy, readers may exhibit both aesthetic and efferent stances. A research path that balances practical significance and feasibility could utilize the text's formal features, combined with the environment and the text's theme, allowing teachers to guide readers' aesthetic responses by altering the stance of text reading. For example, by comparatively analyzing accident reports submitted to insurance companies and private letters by parties involved in a traffic accident, Rosenblatt revealed how the same event presented different stances due to differences in reader identity. Teachers can also use linguistic symbols within the text, employing language scales to measure learners' responses to textual vocabulary, thereby better understanding learners' reactions to different words. This situation

3. Development Trends of the Reader-Response Approach

Explores the development trends of the reader-response approach in foreign language education teaching research, proposing three potential development paths. First, the research text dimension should shift from formal analysis to content analysis to broaden the research scope. Second, the research logic dimension should integrate aesthetic responses to the text to deepen research depth. Finally, through exploration of classroom teaching cases, combining evaluation scales for reader responses can enrich the reader-response approach, laying the foundation for achieving broader and higher-quality aesthetic responses. These development paths are interrelated and jointly promote the application of the reader-response approach in the field of foreign language education. The core development trend of the reader-response approach is cultivating readers' aesthetic responses and integrating them into the mainstream methodological system of humanities and social sciences. In the field of foreign language education, it should be grounded in literary texts, focusing on the cultivation and deepening of readers' aesthetic responses. Simultaneously, the reader-response approach is also applicable to expository and persuasive texts to cultivate readers' aesthetic responses. In terms of teaching practice, the reader-response approach needs to develop from utilizing the formal features of texts to their content features, expanding the scope of textual analysis objects. Researchers attempt to use textual content to improve students' understanding of texts through classroom teaching, strengthening students' aesthetic responses. Additionally, designing high-quality response evaluation scales is crucial for grasping learners' deep and high-quality responses. Scale design needs to comprehensively consider factors such as learners' age, grade, and cognition.

4. Summary

Discusses the progress in the application of the reader-response approach in ESL/EFL teaching research, points out its diversity in methodological perspective expansion and practical exploration, while also noting existing problems such as insufficient practical validation, small sample sizes, limited coverage of participant groups, and narrow text types. Despite the challenges, the reader-response approach is considered an effective teaching method for improving comprehension levels and aesthetic responses. The author calls for more scholars to pay attention to this methodology to promote deeper research and quality enhancement.