Advantages of Using Short

Stories in the EFL Context

Mashadi Said & Hendro Firmawan
Faculty of letters
Gunadarma University
Jakarta
Use of literature in FLT
19th century (1945-1968), literature
plays a very important role in FL
teaching. The purpose of FLT is to read
and appreciate literature.
FL teaching paradigm changed. The
emphasis of FL teaching was Oral
Communication. Literature was ignored.
Past two decades: New Image
Literature as found its way back into the
teaching of FL as one of main course
material.
Authentic, fun, reinforce lg skills,
character building, developing high-
order thinking skills, cultural knowledge,
universal values.
Purpose
To familiarize EFL teachers with the
effectiveness of using literature in EFL
instruction.
How short stories are used in ELT.
What experts say?
Lao & Krashen (2000): The group reading
literary texts showed improvement in
vocabulary and reading skill.
Scher (1976): literary texts can be used for:
language practice

reading comprehension

aesthetic appreciation

(for beginning and intermediate levels)

Muyskens (1983)
Developing knowledge of world literature,
Practice in rgd and discussing creative work,
The introduction of literary concepts and
terminologies
Stds gain insight into literature by gaining
entrance to a world familiar or unfamiliar to
them due to the cultural aspects of stories,
and taking a voyage from literary text to their
minds to find meanings for ideas, leading to
critical thinking.
 1.
Reinforce
Lg skills

5. 2.
High-order Developing
Motivation
Thinking or Curiosity of
Skills the stds
Advantges of
Short Stories

4.
Culture and 3.
values Literary
Advantage 1:
Reinforce Lg Skills
Pronunciation:
o The teacher reads the story out loud or
play the story if a recording is available.
The students listen to the correct
pronunciation
o The students read the story out loud. The
teacher improves the students
pronunciation.
Listening
The teacher reads the story out loud or
plays a record and the students listen.
The teacher provides listening exercises
(for example: multiple choice items,
completing sentences about the story,
retell the story in Indonesian)
Completing sentences
Example:
1. The women who claimed to have the
baby lived in the same _________.
2. One of the babies was _________.
3. In the end, Solomon rejected to
_____ the baby in half.
Writing
Dictation: the teacher dictates the story.
Rewrite a dialogue; for example a dialogue
between King Solomon, the women, and the
guard (see the attachment)
Summarize the story in three/four sentences
Write a paragraph on what causes people to
lie
Speaking
Students form a group of four: a king,
two women, and a guard
Acting out a dialogue: The students
may perform a drama
Vocabulary
Write the letter of the definition in column B that most
closely matches each word/phrase in column A

Column A Column B
1. Plead a. a strong feeling such as love or anger, or
2. Discover strong feelings in general
3. Emotion b. to give the reasons for your opinion, idea,
4. Argue belief, etc.
5. appearance c. to make an urgent, emotional statement or
request for something
d. the way a person or thing looks to other
people
e. to find information, a place or an object,
especially for the first time
 Advantage 2: Developing
Motivation or Curiosity of the stds

Since short stories usually have a

beginning, a middle, and an end, they
encourage stds to continue reading them
until the end to find out how the conflict is
resolved.
 Advantage 3:
Introducing literary elements

Elements of a short story:

Theme, message, characters, setting,
plot, metaphorical language
 Advantage 4:
Culture and values
Short stories transmit the culture of the
people about whom the stories were
written
By learning about the culture, stds learn
about the past and present, and about
peoples customs and traditions.
Advantage 4:
Culture and values (contd)
Culture teaches stds to understand and
respect peoples differences
By learning others culture, stds become
more aware of their own culture
Stds can learn universal values, e.g.
justice, honesty, humanity, religiousity,
and social, moral, and spritual values.
 Advantage 5:
High-order thinking skills
Lead the stds to think more critically;
Stds learn from the beginning that critical
thinking is more natural, familiar, and even
fun.
Blooms taxonomy
Level 1: Knowledge: recalling names of
characters, dates, places, etc.
Level 2: Comprehension: giving
description, stating main ideas.
Blooms taxonomy (contd)
Level 3: Application: Solving problems
by using knowledge they have about
the story.
Level 4: Analysis:
classifying/categorizing, interpreting
Blooms taxonomy (contd)
Level 5 & 6: Synthesis and evaluation:

How would you change the plot?

What would happen if ?,
Do you agree with the actions ?
 Question of High-order thinking
skills: Example 1

In the story, The Wisdom of Solomon,

would it make any difference if the real
mother of the baby who was about to be
cut in half, had stayed quiet instead of
pleading to King Solomon not to cut him
and give him to the other woman?
Example 2:
What would have happened if King
Solomon had not heard the real mother
of the baby and cut the baby in half,
giving half to the real mother and half
to the other woman who claimed to be
the real mother?
 Questions 1 and 2 require stds to think
of a different end to the same story and
probably see both the real mother of
the baby and King Solomon in different
ways from how they were portrayed in
the original story.
Example 3 & 4
(3) Do you agree with the way King
Solomon acted? Do you agree with the
way the real mother acted?
(4) Do you agree with the resolution of
the story?

Questions 3 and 4 require students to

make judgments.
Conclusion
Since the goal of EFL teaching is to
communicate fluently, teachers not only
focus on linguistic but also non-
linguistic benefits (cultural knowledge
and sensitivity, and values.
Short stories help students expand their
linguistic and high-order thinking skills.