This study investigated the effects of readers’ empathy with English texts on their reading
ability and word acquisition. Lois Lowry's The Giver was chosen for this study. This young
adult novel is divided into two distinct parts in terms of affection and empathy. The narrative
of the earlier chapters are dry and unemotional because of the manner in which an emotionally
controlled dystopian society is described. The chapters of the second half of the novel, however,
tend to evoke empathy on the part of the readers since they focus mainly on the protagonist,
Jonas: his vivid feelings of pleasure, agony, suffering, and terror. This study examined whether
the students could remember the words and understand the context of the story better with
a higher degree of empathy. The study was conducted with 42 high school students who were
asked to read particular chapters of the novel, chapters that were different in their affective
style and content. After the experiment, the degree of student empathy was examined through
a questionnaire and individual interviews. The major findings of the study were: first, a high
degree of empathy with the text has a positive effect on students' reading ability. Second, a
high degree of empathy with the text can be helpful in improving word acquisition. Third,
students’ potential empathy can increase with the affective narrative of the novel.