Empirical studies on verbal interaction and literary understanding: an annotated list of references

The following list of publications was initially compiled in preparation of the symposium, "Verbal interaction and literary understanding", held at the 6th IAIMTE-conference, in Exeter (England), March 27-29, 2007.
The list is based on a search of several digital databases, such as the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsycINFO, and the Web of Science. Publications were selected which contained reports of empirical studies - quantitative as well as qualitative - of verbal interaction in the literature classroom, the theme of this special issue of L1. The studies were published between 1985 and 2008.
Our search terms were; ‘empirical’, ‘(case)study’, ‘research’, ‘experiment’, combined with ‘literature discussion(s)’, ‘literature conversation(s)’, ‘classroom talk’, ‘book talk’, 'interaction’ or ‘literature dialogue(s)’. Only publications written in English were included.
Although the resulting list undoubtedly is incomplete, we believe that it may be of interest and useful to researchers, teacher-trainers, and teachers in the field of literature education.