We are delighted to announce that we will be writing a book based on our research and some of our blog posts, to be published by Routledge education! Cognitive linguistics, and specifically cognitive poetics, is a relatively new discipline within the field of language and linguistics. The last fifteen years have brought huge advances in… Continue reading NEWS! We’re writing a book!

Here you can read two articles we have published together recently. The first appeared in English in Education in 2015 and the second in Changing English in December 2017. Both examine the nature of studying fiction and address some issue regarding reading in schools. We have presented papers based on this research at a number… Continue reading Read some of our research here!

In this post, we step away from our previous few topics and come back to a question that we believe is a crucial one for anyone interested in the study of literature in schools: how does meaning arise? Not an easy question to answer, but in the light of recent curriculum reform in English, debates… Continue reading Transactions and worlds: Reading, interpretation and meaning

In our previous post, we discussed Richard Gerrig’s work on reading as a form of transportation. We argued that Gerrig’s ideas offer useful ideas for teachers to think about when planning lessons and talking about reading with their students. We outlined how Gerrig’s research showed that readers who felt greater levels of transportation were more… Continue reading The willing construction of disbelief

Look at this image: what do you see? Well, what’s visible is either a framed black cross (against a white background), or four white boxes against a black background. As you look at the image, one part of it will always stand out to you against the background of the other. It’s impossible to see… Continue reading Attention in the Classroom!

Welcome to studyingfiction! We are two university researchers interested in making links between cognitive linguistics and education. We have set up this blog to share our research and ideas, and generally encourage new ways of thinking about literary study in the classroom. The kinds of topics this blog will discuss include: literature and the mind,… Continue reading Welcome to our blog!