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

Advantages of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context

Mashadi Said & Hendro FirmawanFaculty of letters

Gunadarma UniversityJakarta

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.

5.High-order

ThinkingSkills

4.

Culture and

values

3.Literary

1. ReinforceLg skills

Advantges of Short Stories

2. Developing

Motivation or Curiosity of

the stds

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 B1. Plead2. Discover3. Emotion4. Argue5. appearance

a. a strong feeling such as love or anger, or

strong feelings in general b. to give the reasons for your opinion,

idea, belief, etc.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 people’s customs and traditions.

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.

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.

Bloom’s taxonomy

Level 1: Knowledge: recalling names of characters, dates, places, etc.

Level 2: Comprehension: giving description, stating main ideas.

Bloom’s taxonomy (cont’d)

Level 3: Application: Solving problems by using knowledge they have about the story.

Level 4: Analysis: classifying/categorizing, interpreting

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 …?

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.