Advantages of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context

1. Advantages of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context Mashadi Said & Hendro Firmawan Faculty of letters Gunadarma University Jakarta

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Purpose • To familiarize EFL teachers with the effectiveness of using literature in EFL instruction. • How short stories are used in ELT.

5. 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)

6. 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.

7. 2. Developing Motivation or Curiosity of the stds

8. Advantage 1: Reinforce Lg Skills • Pronunciation: • The teacher reads the story out loud or play the story if a recording is available. The students listen to the correct pronunciation • The students read the story out loud. The teacher improves the students’ pronunciation.

9. 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)

10. Completing sentences Example: • The women who claimed to have the baby lived in the same _________. • One of the babies was _________. • In the end, Solomon rejected to _____ the baby in half.

11. 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

12. Speaking • Students form a group of four: a king, two women, and a guard • Acting out a dialogue: The students may perform a drama

13. Vocabulary Write the letter of the definition in column B that most closely matches each word/phrase in column A

14. 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.

15. Advantage 3: Introducing literary elements Elements of a short story: Theme, message, characters, setting, plot, metaphorical language

16. 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 people’s customs and traditions.

17. Advantage 4:Culture and values (cont’d) • Culture teaches stds to understand and respect people’s 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.

18. 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.

19. Bloom’s taxonomy • Level 1: Knowledge: recalling names of characters, dates, places, etc. • Level 2: Comprehension: giving description, stating main ideas.

20. Bloom’s taxonomy (cont’d) • Level 3: Application: Solving problems by using knowledge they have about the story. • Level 4: Analysis: classifying/categorizing, interpreting

21. Bloom’s taxonomy (cont’d) • Level 5 & 6: Synthesis and evaluation: • How would you change the plot? • What would happen if …?, • Do you agree with the actions …?

22. 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?

23. 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?

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.