This article presents the pedagogical implementation of the reader-response theory in a class of English as a foreign language with language pre-service teachers as they experience the reading of two short stories. The research took place over a 16 week period in which students kept a portfolio of their written responses to the stories. Participants also discussed their interpretations in class. The core constructs of this study are the reader-response theory, the use of literature in English as a foreign language classes and its relation to critical thinking. Results showed that the application of tasks based on the reader-response theory encourages a meaning seeking process as well as the development of higher order thinking skills in future language teachers.

This paper problematizes the meaning of subjectivity constructed by Colombian English Teachers in response to a National Bilingual Program and its system of reason to produce English teachers' identity and promote bilingual education. The double-side character of subjection/subjectification (Foucault, 1982) is used to analyze English teachers' work of the self and contestarian/resistance practices to affirm themselves as researchers and critical thinkers but also to claim recognition as educators who produce relevant and situated knowledge. Historical Discourse Analysis, through archeological procedures (Foucault, 1972) to trace back English teachers' discursive and non-discursive practices, were key to unveiling how teachers think of themselves as English teachers, oppose policies and respond to dominant discourses in relation to English teaching. More than 100 English teachers' academic publications were revised and confronted with normalized discourses circulating in political programs, print media and experts' documents. Findings contribute to EFL teachers' understanding of their own struggles and the role of their resistance practices to affirm their subjectivities.