The study of literature in the secondary schools should not be based merely on affective and aesthetic grounds, but on cognitive and linguistic grounds as well. The facilitation of linguistic and cognitive growth can occur only in an environment that allows adolescents to experience literature on their own terms. The carefully structured, teacher-centered curricula that are most often used for high school developmental reading and traditional literature instruction are not in accord with sociolinguistic concepts of cognitive growth. Since English teachers are responsible for directing and enhancing their students' linguistic development, they should provide students with opportunities to explore and engage literature within personal limits and possibilities, which means adopting process-oriented, transactional, and dialogic emphases/methods in secondary school literature programs. (RL)