Literary Text Engagement and Critical Meaning-Making among Secondary English Learners

Abstract

This study traced how engagement with literary texts shaped the critical meaning-making of secondary English learners at Santo Tomas National High School. Using an explanatory-predictive cross-sectional design, data were gathered through the Literary Text Engagement and Critical Meaning-Making Battery, which measured focused attention, emotional involvement, interpretive participation, dialogic response, persistence with textual difficulty, and critical interpretation. Descriptive statistics, bias-corrected bootstrap correlation, hierarchical multiple regression with HC3 standard errors, and dominance analysis were applied. Results showed that learners demonstrated a high level of literary text engagement, with focused attention and emotional involvement receiving the strongest ratings. Their critical meaning-making, however, remained at a developing level, particularly in perspective awareness, use of textual evidence, and critical judgment. Overall literary text engagement was positively and significantly associated with critical meaning-making. Interpretive participation emerged as the strongest predictor, followed by persistence with textual difficulty and dialogic response. The findings indicated that learners’ interest in literary works did not automatically result in deeper interpretation unless engagement involved sustained analysis, evidence-based discussion, and willingness to work through textual complexity. The study concluded that literature instruction should move beyond recall and personal reaction by integrating close reading, guided rereading, dialogic interpretation, perspective analysis, and explicit use of textual evidence. These practices may help secondary learners become more reflective, analytical, and independent readers of literary texts.