A study on using short stories in teaching reading skill at nguyen khuyen secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM LAN ANH

A STUDY ON USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING READING
SKILL AT NGUYEN KHUYEN SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng truyện ngắn trong giảng dạy kĩ năng đọc
tại trường trung học cơ sở Nguyễn Khuyến)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM LAN ANH

A STUDY ON USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING READING
SKILL AT NGUYEN KHUYEN SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng truyện ngắn trong giảng dạy kĩ năng đọc
tại trường trung học cơ sở Nguyễn Khuyến)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Mai Thị Loan, PhD

HANOI - 2016


CANDIDAT’ES STATEMENT

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:A STUDY OF
USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING READING SKILL AT NGUYEN
KHUYEN SECONDARY SCHOOL is the result of my own work for the Degree of
Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi
National University. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for
assessment in any other courses of study.

Hanoi,2016
Signature

Phạm Lan Anh

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ACKNOLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to express my deep and faithful gratitude to my
supervisor, Ms Mai Thi Loan, PhD. for her whole hearted and valuable guidance,
significant suggestions and useful materials in the process of writing this thesis.

Thanks to her noble devotion, the research report has been successfully completed.
My sincere thanks were also presented to my classmates for their support and
recommendations in choosing necessary materials so that I can fulfill this study.
Their sincere friendship has encouraged me a lot.
I would like to thank to teachers and students at Nguyen Khuyen secondary
school for their constructive suggestions and important help. Without their support,
there would not be a completion of this thesis.
I also thank our university library for their sources of books and documents
about methodology studies. In addition, I was grateful to researchers, authors and
teachers whose materials suggest necessary information for my reference.
My true family deserves my gratefulness for their long lasting help and
encouragement so that I have been able to complete this study.

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ABSTRACT

Reading comprehension has been highlighted as a problem among secondary
school students. This study examined the effects of short stories on 80 seven grade
students to show if the method had an impact on students‟ reading comprehension.
Besides, this research also figured out the suitable methods teachers used to exploit
short stories in teaching reading skill. To serve this purpose, some instruments were
used: pre-test, post-test; questionnaire for teachers and questionnaire for students.
Although the findings revealed some limitations, the use of short stories helped
students to improve their reading comprehension. The result in reading test showed
a slight improvement on the students‟ average score. In addition, the result from
questionnaire and interview indicated both teachers and students had difficulties
when teaching and learning reading through short stories. However, many suitable
methods had been applied to help students and teachers overcome these obstacles

and ensure the better use of short stories in teaching reading skill. It is thus
recommended for further studies to minimize the challenge found in this study and
vary kinds of short stories used in teaching English skills.

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TABLE CONTENT
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ................................................................................ i
ACKNOLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ........................................................................ iv
PART I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study ............................................................................................. 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study ............................................................................ 2
3. Research questions .................................................................................................. 2
4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 2
5. Significance of the study ......................................................................................... 2
6. Method of the study ................................................................................................ 3
7. Design of the study.................................................................................................. 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 4
1.1 Reading in foreign language teaching ............................................................... 4
1.1.1 Definitions of reading ............................................................................................... 4
1.1.2 Techniques of reading ............................................................................................... 5
1.1.3 Reading comprehension ............................................................................................ 6
1.1.3.1 Definitions of reading comprehension ................................................................. 6
1.1.3.2 Reading comprehension skills .............................................................................. 6
1.1.3.3 Causes of poor reading comprehension among students ................................. 8
1.2 Short stories in language teaching ..................................................................... 9

1.2.1 Definition of short stories................................................................................... 9
1.2.2 Benefits of short stories in language teaching ..................................................... 10
1.2.3 How to choose short stories in teaching language skills .................................... 12
1.3 Review of the previous related studies ............................................................ 14
1.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 15
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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 16
2.1 Setting of the study ............................................................................................ 16
2.1.1 Teachers‟ background information .................................................................. 16
2.1.2 Students‟ background information ................................................................... 16
2.1.3 Teaching and learning condition at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school ........... 16
2.2 Research design ................................................................................................. 17
2.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................... 17
2.2.2 Data collection instruments .............................................................................. 17
2.2.2.1 Tests .............................................................................................................. 17
2.2.2.2 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................ 18
2.2.3 Data collection procedure ....................................................................................... 19
2.2.3.1 Pre intervention ............................................................................................. 19
2.2.3.2 While intervention ......................................................................................... 19
2.2.3.3 Post intervention............................................................................................ 21
2.2.4 Data analysis method ....................................................................................... 21
2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 21
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ........................................... 22
3.1 Tests .................................................................................................................... 22
3.1.1 Aims ................................................................................................................. 22
3.1.2 Participants ....................................................................................................... 22
3.1.3 Test description ................................................................................................ 22
3.1.4Data analysis of pre-test .................................................................................... 23

3.1.4.1Frequency distribution ................................................................................... 23
3.1.4.2 Correlation ..................................................................................................... 23
3.1.5Data analysis of post- test ................................................................................ 24
3.1.5.1Frequency distribution .................................................................................. 24
3.1.5.2 Correlation............................................................................................................ 24
3.2 Questionnaire for students ............................................................................... 25

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3.2.1 Aims ................................................................................................................. 25
3.2.2 Participants ....................................................................................................... 25
3.2.3 Data analysis .................................................................................................... 25
3.2.3.1 Students‟ attitude towards short stories ........................................................ 25
3.2.3.2 Types of short stories students expect to learn ............................................. 26
3.2.3.3 The activities students like most before reading a short story ...................... 26
3.2.3.4 Students‟ favorite activities while reading a short story ............................... 27
3.2.3.5 Students‟ favorite activities in the post-reading stage .................................. 28
3.3 Questionnaire for teachers ............................................................................... 29
3.3.1 Aims .......................................................................................................................... 29
3.3.2 Participants ............................................................................................................... 29
3.3.3 Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 29
3.3.3.1 Teachers‟ frequency of using short stories to teach reading skill for students ........ 29
3.3.3.2 Class organization ................................................................................................ 30
3.3.3.3 Pre- reading activities .................................................................................... 30
3.3.3.4 While-reading activities ....................................................................................... 31
3.3.3.5 Post-reading activities .......................................................................................... 32
3.3.3.6 Assessment .................................................................................................... 32
3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 33
PART III: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 34

1. Recapitulation ....................................................................................................... 34
2. Pedagogical suggestions in using short stories in teaching reading skill.............. 34
2.1 Strategies to improve comprehension skill ......................................................... 34
2.1.1 Encouraging the use of oral language .............................................................. 34
2.1.2 Motivating students .......................................................................................... 35
2.1.3 Providing practice in reading easy material ..................................................... 36
2.1.4 Encouraging purposeful reading ...................................................................... 36
2.1.5 Stressing vocabulary development ................................................................... 36
2.2 Suggested activities in teaching reading using short stories ........................... 37

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2.2.1 Pre-reading activities ........................................................................................ 37
2.2.1.1Strong lines..................................................................................................... 37
2.2.1.2Picture walk .................................................................................................... 38
2.2.1.3Storylines ........................................................................................................ 38
2.2.2While-reading activities .................................................................................... 38
2.2.2.1Modeling reading strategies ........................................................................... 38
2.2.2.2In-class oral reading ....................................................................................... 39
2.2.2.3Textual analysis and group work ................................................................... 39
2.2.3Post- reading activities ...................................................................................... 40
2.2.3.1 Sequencing activity ....................................................................................... 40
2.2.3.2Writing assignments ......................................................................................... 40
3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 41
4. Suggestions for further study ................................................................................ 41
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 42
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1: Some stories used in the study ........................................................... I
APPENDIX 2: Tests ................................................................................................. III

APPENDIX 3: Raw results of test marks .................................................................IX
APPENDIX 4: The fomular of mean, median and standard deviation .....................XI
APPENDIX 5: Survey questionnaire for students ............................................... XVII
APPENDIX 6: Câu hỏi khảo sát cho học sinh .......................................................XIX
APPENDIX 7: Survey questionnaire for teachers .................................................XXI
APPENDIX 8: Sample lesson plan ..................................................................... XXIII

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LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
Chart 1: Frequency distribution (pre-test) .................................................................23
Chart 2: Frequency distribution (post-test) ...............................................................24
Chart 3: Students‟ attitude towards short stories ......................................................25
Chart 4: Types of short stories students expect to learn ...........................................26
Chart 5: The activities students like most before reading a short story ....................26
Chart 6: Teachers‟ frequency of using short stories to teach reading skill ...............29
Chart 7: Class organization .......................................................................................30
Table 1: Data collection procedure ...........................................................................19
Table 2: Mean and Std. Deviation (pre-test) .............................................................23
Table 3: Mean and Std. Deviation (post-test) ...........................................................24
Table 4: Students‟ favorite activities while reading a short story .............................27
Table 5: Students‟ favorite activities in the post-reading stage ................................28
Table 7: Pre – reading activities ................................................................................30
Table 8: While-reading activities ..............................................................................31
Table 9: Post- reading activities ................................................................................32
Table 10: Reading assessment ..................................................................................32

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.

Rationale of the study

Reading comprehension, as a fundamental language skill, requires a complex
acquisition process which can account for the way that learners comprehend what
they read. Many of the Vietnamese students are suffering from the weakness in
reading comprehension. Especially, based on individual teaching experience, the
researcher finds out that the capability of understanding English text of students at
Nguyen Khuyen secondary school is very poor. The problem is that the 7th graders
in this school lack the ability of reading comprehension, so because of
misunderstanding the meaning of the text, they find it difficult to answer questions
related to the specific text and get bad scores in reading tests. It is the reason why
many students dislike, even fear of English classes. One of the main causes of this
problem is because of the boring and unattractive traditional method most of
teachers use in teaching reading comprehension. This fact raises a question of how
to make the students interested in reading English text and how the teachers choose
the suitable materials that motivate students to read.
In fact, many researchers and educators have made untiring attempts to find
more efficient ways of enabling the learners to become more proficient readers.
Teaching English through literature has become the fashionable phenomenon. Some
researchers believe that teachers provide students with heavy, boring and somewhat
redundant literature which has no use to solve students‟ problems and provides no
room for creativity. The students are taught literary terms, the meaning of words
and the process of analysis; therefore, they take the form of repeating the material
understanding mostly by memorization. The idea of using short stories in teaching
comprehension may come as an effective way to deal with this problem. It helps

students to cope with original texts, use the language creatively, improve their
language level, loose themselves from the barriers of instructional texts and even
learn some literature.

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Based on the explanation above, the researcher decides to conduct a study on
using short stories in teaching reading skill for the 7th grade students at Nguyen
Khuyen secondary school.
2.Aims and objectives of the study
The study aims at investigating the use of short stories in teaching reading skill for
the seventh graders at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school.
To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to:
- find out the degree of effectiveness of using short stories to teach reading skill
for the 7th grade students at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school.
- propose some suggestions to teach reading skill for students with the use of
short stories
3. Research questions
In order to reach the above aims and objectives, the study is going to seek
answers for the following research questions:
a. To what extent can reading short stories affect students‟ reading skill?
b. What are methods of using short stories in teaching reading skill?
4. Scope of the study
In this study, the writer intends to deal with the questions that how effectively
short stories are used in teaching reading comprehension for students, and what
suitable ways of using short stories to teach reading skill are. The short stories used
in this research are one page long with simple contents and various topics such as
friendship, love and moral lessons.
5. Significance of the study

By looking into the perception of the use of short stories in teaching reading
comprehension and the satisfaction of students about their achievement and
improvement in reading skill, the study is hoped to raise teachers‟ awareness,
especially teachers at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school about the application of
short stories as a useful material source in their teaching process. The research is

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hoped to inform teachers of the benefits of short stories and suggest some effective
ways of applying them in teaching English to make the lessons more interesting.
6. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following data collection
instruments will be used:
(1) Tests for students
(2) questionnaire for students
(3) questionnaire for teachers
The data collection time lasts 10 weeks from April to June 2015.
7. Design of the study
The study will be divided into three parts:
Part 1: Introduction shows rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope,
significance, methods and design of the study.
Part 2: Development includes three chapters:
Chapter 1, Literature review deals with some theoretical background relevant
to the study: reading in foreign language learning, review of some methods and
approaches for teaching reading and some benefits of short stories in language
teaching
Chapter 2, Research methodology focuses on the current situation of teaching
and learning at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school, participants of the study, data
collection instruments and data collection and analysis procedure.

Chapter 3, Data analysis and findings
This chapter provides an analysis of collected data and the findings.
Part 3: Conclusion summaries the major findings discussed in part 2, shows
pedagogical suggestions in using short stories to teach reading, and points out some
limitations of the study and gives suggestions for further study.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1

Reading in foreign language teaching

1.1.1 Definitions of reading
Reading is one of the most important skills for mastery of a foreign language.
Reading is more than simply referring the activity of pronouncing the printed
material or following each line of written page. It is also more than recognizing
words within a sentence; it includes whole activity of thinking process to evaluate
the information.
According to Grellet (1981:7), reading is defined as medium of communication,
the power to get information from the written language. It is also an active taughtarousing problem solving process. In this process, the reader must take an active
contribution by drawing upon and using concurrently various abilities that he has
acquired.
Wallace (1992: 4) says that reading as interpreting means reacting to a written
text as a piece of communication; in other words, readers assume some
communicative intent on the writer‟s part which the reader has some purposes in
attempting to understand.

Aebersold and Field (1997:15) claim that reading is what happening when
people look at the text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text,
further, the text and the reader are the two necessary physical entities for the reading
process to begin. Therefore, there is an interaction between the text and the reader
that constitute actual reading. Meanwhile, Heilman, Blair and Rupley (1981:4) state
that there are some basic aspects of reading with which most authorities are in
agreement as follow:
-

Reading is interacting with language that has been coded into print.

-

The product of interacting with the printed language should be comprehension.

-

Reading ability is closely related to oral language ability.

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-

Reading is an active and ongoing process that is affected directly by an

individual‟s interaction with his environment.
It can be concluded that reading is a process of reacting and understanding a
written text as a piece of communication. Reading does not need to look everything
in a given text. It is significant to comprehend genre to catch the information and

message in the text. In short, reading is a mean of communication which is an
active, communicative and interactive process that goes on between the reader and
the text, resulting in comprehension.
1.1.2 Techniques of reading
Some linguists have proposed many ways of reading, Grellet (1998:40) summarized
the way of reading including as follow:
a, Skimming: quickly running one‟s eyes across a whole text (an essay, article or
chapter) to get the gist of it. The reader goes through the text quickly. The purpose
of skimming is simply to see what a text is about. The reader skims in order to
satisfy a very general curiosity about the text. Skimming is useful in three different
situations:
 Pre-reading: skimming is more thorough than simple previewing and can give a
more accurate picture of text to be read later.
 Reading: skimming is most useful for quickly reading material that does not need
more detailed attention
 Reviewing: skimming is useful for reviewing text already read.
b,Scanning: quickly going to a text to find a particular piece of information.
Williams (1996:100) states that scanning occurs when reader goes through a text
very quickly in order to find a particular point of information. In addition, scanning
is very useful for finding a specific name, date, static or fact without reading the
entire article.
c, Extensive reading: reading longer text usually for someone‟s pleasure. This is a
fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding.

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d, Intensive reading: reading short text to extract specific information. This is more
an accuracy activity involving reading for details.
In my opinion, these techniques are very important and useful for students

who want to enhance their reading comprehension skill. Consequently, teachers
should consider teaching these techniques systematically to help students get
thorough knowledge to improve their language skills.
1.1.3 Reading comprehension
1.1.3.1 Definitions of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is a development in which the reader devises sense,
using as the building materials, the message on the printed page, and the
information stockpiled in the reader‟s head. It involves deliberate thinking, in which
significance is built by exchanges between manuscript and person who reads.
Efficient comprehenders not only make logic of the text they are reading, they can
also utilize the message it holds.
Miller (2002:8) states that reading comprehension is the ability to understand
or to get meaning from any types of written material. It is the reason for reading and
the critical component of all content reading.
Grellet (1981:3) assures that reading comprehension is understanding written
text that means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.
Reading comprehension is not enough to understand the gist of the text but more
detailed information is necessary as well.
In short, comprehension is powerful because of the ability to construct
meaning comes from the mind of the reader. Therefore, specific comprehension
instruction-modeling during targeted mini-lessons and varied opportunities for
practice during small group and independent reading is crucial to the development
of strategic and effective readers.
1.1.3.2Reading comprehension skills
Dallman (1982:133) states that there are various skills that make the ability to
comprehend what is read. These specific skills may be classified as the purpose of
the reader and the length and nature of the selection or reading units.

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a, According to the reader’s purpose
The skills dependent upon the reader‟s purpose are classified into nine levels of
comprehension skills:
 Reading to find main idea: to get the general idea of a selection.
 Reading to select significant details: to note important details.
 Reading to answer question: to answer questions.
 Reading to summarize and organize: to make summaries and organizes what he
reads.
 Reading to arrive at generalization: to note specific instances and then decide
whether the data presented are sufficient to warrant a significant conclusion.
 Reading to follow direction: to note details to organize and to note the sequence
of events.
 Reading to predict outcomes: to predict each sentence in a paragraph.
 Reading to evaluate critically: to make critical evaluations of what is read.
 Reading graphs, tables, charts and maps: to recognize the value of tables, charts,
graphs and maps
b, According to the structure of length of reading unit
 Phrase meaning: skill in comprehension of phrases
 Sentence meaning: skill to comprehend a complex sentence
 Paragraph meaning: skill to comprehend the main idea, selecting important
details, answering questions, arriving at generalizations, and following in a
paragraph.
 Comprehension of longer selections: skill to comprehend longer selections,
special attention needs to be paid to the mains of reading short stories, articles,
chapters and books.
From the above theories, the author thinks that students must understand that good
readers use a variety of these strategies every time they read. Therefore, simply
knowing the individual strategies is not enough, nor is it enough to know them in

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isolation. Students must know when and how to collectively use these strategies.
1.1.3.3Causes of poor reading comprehension among students
Literature suggests that a lack of systematic direct instruction is one of the main
causes for inadequately developed reading comprehension (Carrier, 2006:25). There
are print specific skills that need to be taught instead of leaving children on their
own to discover them (Moats, 2002:96). Not all children will discover
comprehension strategies on their own; therefore instruction must be tailored to
facilitate students in doing so.
Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins (2001: 245) thinks that poor readers do not construct
their own meaning and need direct explicit instruction on how to be strategic while
reading. According to Chittenden & Salinger (2003) many teachers assumed that
students would just “figure out” comprehension strategies all on their own.
Children with low aptitude or impoverished literacy backgrounds are not likely to
figure out reading strategies for themselves. Research has shown that effective
reading programs and explicit directed instruction with clearly defined goals and
objectives can improve students‟ comprehension (Foorman, Francis, Fletcher,
Schatschneider, & Mehta, 1998).
Poor reading comprehension can also be attributed to students lacking reading
strategies. Chittenden & Salinger (2001:54) state that our lack of knowledge, until
recently, to identify comprehension skills has made it difficult for teachers to help
students with strategies.
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and as a result, must not be taken
lightly. Struggling readers in upper elementary grades must be provided with
systematic explicit instruction to improve their understanding of text, and indeed,
their knowledge of the world in which they live. Salinger (2003:108) points out that
instructional approaches which did not work for yesterday‟s children will not
improve tomorrow‟s students‟ comprehension skills in grade 4 and higher.

Therefore, teachers must retool themselves and possess a repertoire of effective
reading strategies that they can employ to help struggling readers overcome their

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comprehension difficulties. In addition, students‟ reading difficulties must be
identified, and carefully addressed to prevent them from falling further behind
academically.
Vocabulary knowledge is a requisite for reading comprehension. Individuals who
do not know the meanings of words can be described as poor readers. Therefore,
lack of vocabulary development is a likely cause of poor reading comprehension
(Moats, 2002: 102). Research also suggests that large class size directly affects
inadequately developed reading skills by limiting teacher interaction with individual
students during reading instruction (Gillet & Temple, 1994).
Poor comprehenders are often unaware of their inability to comprehend what they
read. They may not be able to monitor their own comprehension, but often times
these students will realize that they are not successful academically, and often
experience low self esteem, and lack of motivation (Duke & Pearson, 2002).
To sum up, teachers should find out students‟ problems so that they can use
suitable approaches to help poor comprehenders to develop the necessary skills and
strategies to improve their comprehension, thus becoming active and purposeful
users of text.
1.2 Short stories in language teaching
1.2.1 Definition of short stories
Stories are as ancient as humankind itself. In real life people read short stories
extensively for variety of purposes. Fairy tales, folk tales, fables and short stories
have always been used as a vehicle for developing understanding of centuries old
wisdom of mankind, for entertaining and instructing the people because of their
distinctive pattem and narrative elements.Poe (in Abrams, 1970:158) defines short

story as “a narrative that can be read at one sitting of from one-half hour to two hour
and that is limited to a certain unique or single effect to which every detail is
subordinate”.

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Webster‟s dictionary (1983:137) describes story as the full sequence of events in
a work of fiction as we imagine them to have taken a place, in the order in which
they have occurred in life.
Wright (1995:6) states that the stories are motivating, rich in language
experience, and inexpensive. He adds that stories should be central part of the work
of all primary teachers whether they are teaching the mother tongue or a foreign
language.
In general, short story is one of the most useful types of literary texts to teach
culture and language skills especially reading skill. The reason is that most learners
in EFL contexts have little or no opportunity to contact with native speakers, so
reading short stories will give them the chances to have better interaction with
foreign culture, language and people.
1.2.2 Benefits of short stories in language teaching
Almost all short stories have the following unique characteristics which make
them especially suitable to be used in reading comprehension classes: universality,
non-triviality, personal relevance, variety, interest, economy and suggestive power,
and ambiguity (Maley, 1989:12). Moreover, each learner's interpretation has
validity and an almost infinite fund of interactive discussion is guaranteed.
Various advantages have been proposed for the use of short stories in the
language classes. Short stories are selected among many kinds of literary genre
because of the length of the story and readability for foreign language learners
especially for low-intermediate level of students. Collin and Slater (1991:196)
explained that short stories can be used for EFL learners because 1) the length of the

story is appropriate for one or two class session, 2) it is not complicated for
students, 3) it has variety choices, and 4) it can be used for all leveland all ages.
Besides, short stories provide real examples of grammatical structure and
vocabulary items (Pardede, 2011) which provide the students an exposure of native
language that could not be encountered in EFL setting. Moreover, reading short stories
gives the students enough exposure to L2 reading. According to Davis (1995, cited in

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Harmer, 2001:204), giving enough exposure to L2 reading can lead studentsto enhance
their comprehension skills and add their active and passive vocabulary.
In addition, Arigol (2001 as cited in Hismanoglu, 2005:15) lists the
following benefits of stories over other literary texts:
 make students' reading task easier becase it is simple and short
 give learners a better view of other people and cultures
 require more attention and analysis
 offer a fictional and interesting world
 help students to be more creative and raise the critical thinking skills
 raise cultural awareness
 reduce students‟ anxiety and help them feel more relaxed for multicultural
contexts because of its universal language
Moreover, short stories let educators drill four skills at every stage of verbal
communication expertise. Murdoch (2002: 9) indicates that “short stories can, if
selected and exploited appropriately, provide quality text content which will greatly
enhance ELT courses for learners at intermediate levels of proficiency”.
Young (1996:90) also argues that exploiting of stories to bring in critical things
to seminary learners. He trusts that stories have two crucial advantages over
traditional content: (1) because they are entertaining, students‟ pervasive
apprehension is reduced, and they learn from the beginning that critical thinking is

natural, familiar, and sometime even fun. (2) the stories put issues of critical
thinking in an easily remembered contexts. Howie (1993:24) concurs on the
application of short story to tutor critical thinking. He wisecracks that teachers have
been undertaking to assist learners to swell cognitive skills since eachone desires to
“make judgments, be decisive, come to conclusions, synthesize information,
organize, evaluate, predict, and apply knowledge.”
On the other hand, the language in a short story is somehow different from
other forms of discourse that it breaks the language norms; therefore, through

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reading students will have chances to approach the language outside the classroom,
which are not only increasing the students‟ reading skill but also solving problem
that a student learning grammar rules very well still gets confused when talking to
the native speakers (Widdowson, 1983:37).
Moreover, short story is handy in teaching culture to foreign language learners.
Short story conveys the culture of the populace regarding whom the story is
portrayed. Through learning the culture, students learn about the old times as well
as modern, along with concerning people‟s civilization and customs. Culture
educates students to understand and respect people‟sdifferences. Misinterpretation
may occur due to differences between the two cultures as Gajdusek (1998:232)
explains. To avoid misinterpretation, instructors should introduce the culture to the
students or ask them to find relevant information about it.
Finally, for the teachers, short stories offer some advantages as Colin and Slater
(1991:113) lists below:
 Their practical length means they can be read within one or two lessons; novels
or plays can be sectioned in the same way but still take a few classes.
 A teacher can choose very different short stories, so that there is a greater chance
of finding something to appeal to each individual‟s taste and interests.

 Short stories are valuable for sectional courses or for teachers with shifting
classes or continuous-intake adult classes.
In conclusion, short stories bring various advantages for teachers to teach
language skills. However, teachers should consider how to use them correctly and
effectively to get the best results.
1.2.3 How to choose short stories in teaching language skills
In using short stories in EFL/ESL classes, story selection plays an important role.
Each story has a different aim to accomplish within the parallel syllabus depending
on its contents, language features and writing tasks to be performed. Since the
literature is intended to reinforce the language items, both grammar and vocabulary,
each literary text is chosen with specific learning points in mind, matched the

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instructional objectives in the ongoing syllabus to enable students to reinforce the
language. Therefore, teachers should choose a short story well enough to handle
within the teaching hours and help the students to complete a given task and give
the students a feeling of achievement and self-confidence. Therefore, it can be
encouraging when students are psychologically satisfied that they have read the
very words of a great writer. Generally, the more confident choice concerning a
suitable text for EFL/ESL learners may be the short stories which are more
contemporary and short enough to be discussed in one or two teaching sessions.
Besides the length, the linguistic aspects of the text should concern the language,
style and diction, appropriate to the level of the students. Lazar (1990:206) proposes
that “the text should be sufficiently challenging without being so difficult as to be
demotivating …[It] should be within the student‟s grasp, in terms of their linguistic,
intellectual, and emotional capacities”. Moreover, Hill (1994:15) recommends
considering three other criteria in story selection: (1) the needs and abilities of the
students; (2) the linguistic and stylistic level of the text, and (3)the amount of

background information required for a true appreciation of the material.
Furthermore, to use short stories in the learning process, it is required for the
teacher to think creatively how to plan the activity that makes the students to have
direct experience so that reading comprehension can be attained.
When choosing a short story, teacher should also consider about the students‟
cultural background and social experience which help them understand the text. It
would be difficult for most readers to make sense of the story without having any
knowledge of the value and culture of the society they describe.
Last but not least, factors connected with the text like availability and
exploitability are also necessary to be considered. Teachers should think of some
questions such as: How easily can teachers make the short stories available to the
students?; What kinds of tasks and activities can teachers exploit the stories?, etc.
In the author‟s point of view, whether the use of short stories in teaching can be
successful or not depends to a large extent on how the teachers apply them and

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whether this sits the teaching situation. It can help teachers avoid serious
unexpected problems and help students actively take part in the learning process.
Therefore, the issue of text selection is a very significant consideration teachers
should pay much attention in language classes.
1.3 Review of the previous related studies
It is clear that using literature, especially short stories in teaching language is one
of the most suitable methods that enhance learning in all fields. Moreover, it also is
an influential and powerful way to improve students‟ skills, especially reading
comprehension. These are the reasons why teaching reading skill through story has
drawn much attention of researchers in Vietnam as well as other countries recently.
First of all, Fitriya (2010) conducted an action research on using picture-stories to
improve students‟ reading comprehension at the eighth grade of SMP N I

Tasikmadu Karanganyar. The author concluded that the use of picture-stories of
narrative texts could improve the students‟ reading comprehension. From the
observation, she also found that the situation of the teaching and learning process
became more enjoyable and interesting, and the students became happy and
enthusiastic in the classes.
In 2012, Noura investigated a research on the effect of using animation on the 6 th
graders‟ attitudes and comprehension of short story in Gaza governmental schools.
In this study, animation films proved the large effects in enhancing the students‟
ability in the reading comprehension. In addition, this strategy enhanced students‟
predictions and expectations, and attracted their attention in classes.
Next, Merli (2013) carried out a case study on using children short stories to
enhance students‟ reading comprehension. The author drew conclusion from the
findings that the use of children short stories improved the students‟ reading
comprehension. It could be seen from students‟ average scores which were slightly
improved from diagnostic test. Moreover, in this study, the use of children short
stories displayed some advantages: it facilitates students to enrich their vocabulary;
it encourages the students to have critical thinking, it increases students‟ motivation;
and it accommodates the students to practice their language skill.

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Also in 2013, Omid and Nasibeh investigated teaching reading comprehension
through short stories in advance classes. They found out that all respondents in a
group that the researchers taught reading comprehension through short story
showed improvement after the reading course. The result pointed out that the
control group and experimental group had a significant difference in their post-test.
Besides, the results of this research found sufficient reasons for teaching short story
in Iranian reading comprehension classroom.
In the context of Vietnam, Nguyễn Hồng Quyên (2006) did a research on

integrating short stories and poems in developing the reading skills for 2nd year students
in Hai Phong University. In the study, she presented the potential values of using
literary text in language development in general and how to integrate short story and
poem in aiding reading comprehension in particular. From the results, it can be claimed
that language teachers should include more literary texts into their language lessons.
Phạm Thu Hà (2009) conducted a study on using short stories in teaching
English in the context of Vietnam Australia school-Hanoi. The research found out
that it is necessary and beneficial for teachers to use short stories in teaching
English to enhance students‟ language proficiency and creative expressions in the
target language. In addition, students also felt motivated and interested in their
teachers‟ use of short stories in English class.
In 2010, Đào Thị Minh Hương was concerned about the relationship between
first-year Nghe An college students‟ motivation to read and their use of reading
strategies. She drew conclusion that motivation had important influence on
students‟ use of reading strategies. She also claimed that the reading texts played a
significant role to students‟ motivation in reading in terms of its level of challenge,
topics and content. Therefore, she suggested teachers should use authentic materials
such as magazines, articles, songs and stories
1.4 Summary
In short, this chapter has established the theoretical background concerned with
the topic of the research. It has mentioned an overview of reading, short stories and
their benefits in teaching language and previous related studies.

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