The running text is dead

Inviting the reader to learn from a bullet-pointed peritext-patchwork textbook

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the running text and the many peritexts commonly found in newer textbooks, along with the associated consequences for textbased learning. The paper is a theoretically driven case study that looks at the textual composition patterns in a language arts textbook for lower secondary schools in Norway. In particular, I investigate how these textual composition patterns facilitate learning from text—a main tool in the text analysis is comparing the signaled intentions in the text with the implied reader's fulfilment. The main finding of the study is that by enriching a textbook with many peritexts that contain essential content, one risks inviting the implied reader to employ a memorization strategy, even though the intention is to invite the implied reader to use deep-comprehension cognitive strategies. This is connected with the lack of running text. Without enough running text to synthesize the content, the running text appears dead, and rather than learning from the text, students are more likely to receive a memorization invitation from the text.