Conversational Implicature for Language Teachers: Reading between the lines in John Marsden's Tomorrow, when the war began

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate how John Marsden’s Tomorrow, when the war began (1993) could be used for reading-between-the-lines practice in the English language classroom. It answers questions relating to how reading between the lines can be understood in relation to Grice’s cooperative principle, the effects of implicature in the text and how teachers can use this information to facilitate reading between-the-lines practice. These questions are answered through an analysis of a young adult novel, Tomorrow, when the war began, which is considered suitable for use in Swedish upper-secondary English-teaching. The study draws on perspectives from Gricean theory and teaching practice, including reader response and reciprocal teaching. To collect data the novel was coded after five categories based on Grice’s theory of conversational implicature. The analysis is focused on how reading-between-the-lines relates to the cooperative principle. This is described using examples from the narrator as well as conversations between characters. These examples form the basis for a discussion of the effects of implicature and how this can inform the planning of teaching activities. The results show that conversational implicature can be a way for teachers to understand reading-between-the-lines in literature and that the effects of implicatures include humoristic comments, character description and the creation of suspense which makes the story more interesting and engaging to read. Teachers can use this knowledge to plan reading activities to activate reading-between-the-lines strategies in several ways.