A Phenomenological Approach to Reading Research

Reading is seen as an activity of consciousness, since it is only through consciousness that the reader comprehends and understands the text. The main thesis of this article is the following: the application of a phenomenological approach expands and deepens the boundaries of the direct experience of reading research. The specific conceptual apparatus of phenomenological analysis reflects the inseparable nature of the Consciousness-World dyad or the Self-Other-World triad. The focus is on the interrelationships between the reader and their lifeworld, and therefore, such concepts as “phenomenon”, “intentionality”, “lifeworld”, “natural attitude”, “phenomenological reduction”, and “biographically determined situation” become analytical tools.

The Consciousness-World dyad defines the ontological and epistemological aspects of the study. The epistemological aspect is actualized by the question “What are the ways of understanding reading?”, which constitutes two modes of this phenomenon—that of the respondent/reader and that of the researcher studying reading. While the respondent draws on their own “biographically determined lifeworld situation”, the researcher’s perspective is shaped by theoretical constructs accepted in science. This article attempts to systematize existing definitions of reading according to four semantic types: procedural, communicative, semiotic, and praxeological.

From an ontological perspective, the object of study is the reader’s “lifeworld”, shaped by the intersubjective world of everyday life in a local community, where a group of people share similar interests, goals, and habits and live in their natural environment.

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