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This semiotically informed article problematizes the concept of literacy as an aesthetic activity rather than reading skills and offers strategies for assessing young readers’ understanding of fictional texts. Although not based on empirical research, the essay refers to and theorizes from extensive field studies of children’s responses to literature. The concept of the implied reader, derived from reception theories, is employed to explore the skills demanded in order to make meaning from fictional texts. The essay presents a number of interpretative codes, including anticipatory, narrative, hermeneutic, semic, symbolic and referential. The implication of these codes is investigated in their relevance for texts specifically addressed to young readers. The article argues that literary competence is an essential component of a child’s intellectual growth that should be trained and encouraged, and that the acknowledgement of this competence it is of overall importance for educational research as well as for practitioners.
Maria Nikolajeva (2010) studied this question.