The short story as a vehicle of literary engagement for Standard eight Afrikaans-speaking pupils in the Orange Free State

English: This study was motivated by discussions with Standard eight pupils who speak English as a second language. A survey revealed that pupils felt that they were seldom given an opportunity for making their own classroom contributions to literature. Pupils experienced that their responses were reduced to rote-learning of the teacher's response and reproducing this during examination. The survey demonstrated that pupils would rather be exposed to a variety of shorter texts than a laborious, lengthy discussion of one or two texts. An attempt was made, through a pupil-centred approach, to achieve meaningful literary engagement with second-language learners using shorter texts. Reception Theory formed the theoretical basis for this research and in particular, the theories of the Constance School of Jauss and Iser. The relevance of the horizon of expectations, repertoire of the text, and the text-reader communication process formed the basis for evaluation and analysis of pupil responses to four selected short stories. A thorough reader profile contributed to a better teacher prediction of and insight into pupil responses to the texts. This insight enabled systematic and informed teacher guidance of group work and classroom discussions. Analysis of responses pointed to a great degree of literary engagement in that pupils were increasingly able to identify theme in each story and demonstrated a clear understanding of the content of each story without any teacher intervention. Reader expectations were not always fulfilled, but through group discussion of selected pupil responses, the teacher was able to guide pupils to a better understanding but also of expectations. not only of the process of interpretation, the various components of the horizon of Pupils were encouraged to view reading as a process of communication with themselves as a vital link in that process.