Opportunities to develop literary competences

Creative approaches to literary texts may develop students’ literary competences, but little is known about how prevalent such approaches are and how they are implemented. This study explored naturally occurring, that is non-interventionist, literature instruction in the subjects L1 Norwegian and L2 English, based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 301 video-recorded lower secondary lessons from 73 classrooms in Norway in 2015–24. By juxtaposing L1 and L2, the study recognises the importance of literature instruction across school subjects, and it advances the understanding of how literary texts are taught in L1 relating to L2. The findings indicate that creative response activities were a recurring feature in both subjects across the studied decade, although they occurred more frequently in L2 lessons. In both subjects, teachers provided opportunities for students to exercise various literary competences when responding creatively to literary texts. However, they offered little guidance on how students could undertake these activities and rarely combined them with analytical reflection that could support students’ developing literary competences. The study discusses implications for teaching and research.