The Achievements of Informal Adult Reading Group Talk through Vernacular Expression: Challenging the Dominant Discourses of Literary Study

When reading is framed as literary study in formal education, especially in the secondary phase (ages eleven to eighteen), it has an influence on how individuals view themselves as readers (Clark, Osborne and Akerman, 2008). This can have enduring effects on the reading habits and self-esteem of individuals into adulthood, becoming an issue of social justice when it begins to affect how we think about what reading is for, what sort of reading we value and who can engage in what types of reading and when. This chapter examines how adults participating in book groups talk about what they read, and identifies how the focus, structures and discourse of their conversations differ significantly from how students talk about texts with their teachers in formal education.