The Role of Teaching Oral Literary Texts (Short Stories) in Improving Listening Comprehension in EFL Contexts

The Role of Teaching Oral Literary Texts

(Short Stories) in Improving Listening Comprehension in EFL

Contexts

First Author: Behzad Badri

Corresponding Author: Dr. Omid Varzandeh

Abstract

According to Khatib & Rahimi (2012) after the GTM era, literature did not achieve its proper place in thefield of language learning and teaching. During the recent decades, however, this required attention has started being given to this precious source of material. Of course, numerous excuses have been broughtfor not using literature in the classroom, although theresults obtained from voluminous research during the last decade have proved them to be wrong. But as Hişmanoğlu (2005, p.59) stated “the study of literaturein a language class is mainly associated with reading and writing”, and its use in other skills has not been satisfactorily taken into consideration. So the presentresearch tries to investigate the effect of this valuable source of material on EFL learners’ listening comprehension, and for this purpose 108 participants willingly participated in the study, 44 of whom were chosen based on an Oxford Placement Test and were put, according to stratified random sampling, in the experimental and the control groups. Before the treatment a pre-test and after it a post-test were administered. The results revealed that the listening comprehension of the experimental group, using oral literary texts, outperformed the control group, with

oral non-literary texts .Keywords: Short story, Listening comprehension, Literary

text, Non-literary text.

Introduction

During the 1970s, with the coming out of CLT, due to the dissatisfaction with previous methods applied inthe language teaching contexts, the role of listening in learning a new language started gaining paramount importance and as a result new definitions were presented for this skill for example Postovsky (1975, as cited in Cheung, 2010, p.4) uttered, “Listening ranges in meaning from sound discrimination to aural comprehension (i.e., actual understanding of the spokenlanguage)”. Devito (1995, as cited in Kutlu & Aslanoğlu, 2009, p.2014) defined listening as the efficient process of perception, comprehension, recognition, evaluation and reaction in communication. It was at this time that listening gained more and morepopularity among linguists, researchers, and language teachers, for example Dunkel (1986, as cited in Cheung,2010, p.11) asserted that developing proficiency in listening comprehension is the key to achieving proficiency in speaking. In spite of the conspicuous augment of the value of listening among linguists, researchers, and language teachers, due to some reasons, the improvement observed in the listening skills of language learners, at least in EFL contexts, has not been satisfactory. One of most important reasons as Tsinghong Ma (2009) articulated is that the methods used to teach listening have been simple, dull,unscientific, discouraging, and more seriously, have not been able to improve students’ communicative

competence . Yet in the recent years some movements regarding

the importance of listening and the need to deal with this skill have been noticed, and as a result different

techniques have been put into practice to increase the listening proficiency of EFL/ESL learners, including using captions in videos (Rahmatian, 2011), phonetic instruction (Ghorbani, 2011), or even using strategy training (Marzban & Isazadeh, 2012). One of the ways, that seems to have the required potential to improve listening proficiency, is the use of literature for this purpose. But it should be mentioned that the use of literature is not a new phenomenon. “Literature was initially the main source of input for teaching in language classes in the era of Grammar Translation Method but since then it has been dropped down the pedestal. In fact with the advent of structuralism and audiolingual method, literature was downplayed and ergodiscarded to the periphery” (Khatib and Rahimi (2012,

p.201) . The present research, however, will focus on the

fact that foreign/second language learners may benefit from the use of literature as a rich resource for gaining the required competence in the second or foreign language, especially with respect to listening,but it should be mentioned that the present researcher,due to the diversity of literature, delimits it to short stories with the purpose of gaining more accurate

results .

Significance of the Study

Due to the importance of listening, one of the current concerns of applied linguists, researchers, language teachers, and materials developers is centered

on devising the most effective ways to teach listening to EFL/ESL learners, and the most effective materials to do so. The result of such concerns is the appearanceof a variety of techniques and materials to teach listening, including using videos (Rahmatian, 2011), phonetic instruction (Ghorbani, 2011), or even using

strategy training (Marzban & Isazadeh, 2012) . Nevertheless, according to Maley (1989), Collie

and Slater (1990), and other researchers, literature, as well, can be a good alternative material to be used in the classroom. Louka (2006, p.34) asserts, “A story-based framework of teaching and learning can become a very powerful tool in the hands of a teacher. A well-organized story session can intrigue the students and make them want to explore many features of the language”. “Literary devices like metaphor, structural ambiguity, alliteration, semantic density, and some phonological patterns create an atmosphere of meanings through their subtle usages. When we examine our everyday language, we notice with an almost astonishingrealization that these devices play a great role in shaping our everyday speech” (Qareeballah and Syed

Sarwar, 2010, p.9) . Henceforth, the purpose of the present research is

to investigate the potential effect of oral literary texts (short stories) on the listening comprehension ability of EFL learners, and to examine the differencesbetween the effects of oral literary texts (short stories) and oral non-literary texts in improving

listening comprehension ability of EFL learners.

Review of the Related Literature

Background to Literature Literature is considered as a work of writing thatthe writer likes, and its objective is to educate the reader or listener a life lesson with the development and growth of the main character as the plot progresses. It uses symbols and metaphors to demonstrate the hero’s journey through the story and ranges from easy to difficult. This type of text has a meaning behind its written or spoken form. And they mainly focus on societal problems or humanistic flaws that are exposed for the world to read or listen, and

some of them offered ways to help fix the issue . A general categorization of approaches to teaching

literature is provided by Maley (1989, as cited in Bagherkazemi & Alemi, 2010, p.4) who distinguishes ‘thestudy of literature’ as a cultural artifact from ‘the use of literature as a resource for language learning’.He further asserts that the study of literature can be

either critical or stylistic : 1 .The critical literary approach: This approach mainly

focuses on what Maley calls “the literariness of the texts we study”, i.e. motivation, characterization, background, etc. He believes this approach assumes a reasonable level of language proficiency and

familiarity with literary terms and conventions .

2 .The stylistic approach: This approach is aimed at making textual discoveries and interpretations by describing and analyzing the language of a literary text. The use of literature and literary texts goesback to the grammar translation era, during which literature was considered as the main source of material to be used in the classroom, founded on the reason that studying the literary texts of the target language is the best way to learn both the new languageand culture. But later there was a slow movement towarddiscarding literature as a source to be used in the classroom, and finally in the period from 1940s to the 1960s it disappeared from the language curriculum entirely, possibly because as De Riverol (1991, p.65) states “literary texts were thought to embody archaic language which had no place in the world of audiolingualism where linguists believed in the primacyof speech, thus considering the written form somewhat static”. One of the most influential figures in the field of literature, Maley (2001, as cited in Khatib & Rahimi, 2012, p.1) mentions the lack of empirical research in support of the facilitative role of literature as the main reason for the negative view. Carter (2007, P.6) declares that during this time “literature was seen as extraneous to everyday communicative needs and as something of an elitist pursuit”. “This way the once indistinguishable fields of literature and language studies were dissociated andthe role of literature in language teaching with its emphasis on form and correctness at the time was put under a question mark for a number of reasons which

were to sojourn the mysterious land of ELT for a matter

of a century” (Bagherkazemi & Alemi, 2010, p.1). However, in the 1970s and 1980s with the growth of

communicative language teaching, methods led to a reconsideration of the place of literature in language classrooms. Mainly as Carter (2007, p.6) believed, because of the “recognition of the primary authenticityof literary texts and of the fact that more imaginativeand representational uses of language could be embeddedalongside more referentially utilitarian output”. Kramsch and Kramsch (2000, as cited in Carter, 2007, p.6) term this the “proficiency movement” and underlinehow it saw in literature “an opportunity to develop vocabulary acquisition, the development of reading strategies, and the training of critical thinking, thatis, reasoning skills”. During this time as Hall (2005,as cited in Paran, 2008, p.11) points out there has been a rise of a view which sees literature “as potentially playing a role in facilitating the

learners’ access to this English using culture.”Why to Use Literature Regarding the advantages of using literature in language classrooms, different lists have been presented (Maley, 1989; Collie & Slater, 1990; Ur, 1996; Hirvela, 2001; Ghosn, 2002; Tanseen, 2010) that

can be paraphrased as follows:“Literature as Authentic Material” Argument

Literary texts are the products of great writers within a society and they are written for the people of

the same society with no consideration to people from other cultures, so based on the definition of authenticity, literature can play a paramount role in language teaching classrooms. “Literature creates subject-matter and provides ‘content’ material which can be catalogued as ‘authentic’ even though it does not reflect direct experience” (Zaro Vera, 1991, p.170). As Elliot (1990, as cited in Hişmanoğlu, 2005, p.65) mentions, literature provides students with a unique mine of authentic material over a wide range of registers. If students are given the opportunity to have these texts within their hands by developing literary competence, then they can “effectively internalize the language at a high level”.

“Literature as a vehicle for enriching culture” argument

Rivers (1981, as cited in Haji Maibodi, 2011) putsit delicately by saying that, the world created in literature is a foreign world, and literature is a way of assimilating the knowledge of this world, and of theview of reality, which its native speakers take for granted when communicating with each other. Learning a new language thoroughly without paying attention to theculture dominating the context of society that the target language is used is impossible. “Literary texts include cultural uses of linguistic expressions such asstylistics, pragmatics and semantics. This social communication reflects the usage of different language aspects in the literary texts. Moreover in the study oflanguage and culture, literary study can make a valuable contribution in tracing the development of thelanguage in all its components and skills. What is moreimportant is that, non-native students need to be

exposed to various literary texts in order to be able to consider the others’ culture in their international communication. Therefore the non-native learners’ curriculum should include teaching literary texts or literature to facilitate such international communication for the students” (Qareeballah and Syed Sarwar, 2010, p.6). Sharman (2002) believes that the foreign literary texts used in language classrooms can provide an “introduction” to the socio-cultural background and the political and historical developments of the context in which the text is used. Lantolf and Kramsch (2000, as cited in Carter, 2007, p.10) clarified that, when literature is seen, not as athing but an active and negotiated entity, a ‘verb’, a process in which learners do not simply learn new labels for what they already have, but directly engage with and participate in a new reality. In such an environment, literature has a place in fostering self-awareness and identity in interaction with a new language and culture. Equally, Ghosn (2002) in his listof the reasons for using authentic literature mentions that “literature can function as a change agent; good literature deals with some aspects of the human condition, and can thus contribute to the emotional development of the child, and foster positive interpersonal and intercultural attitudes” (p.173). Andfinally Hişmanoğlu (2005), indicates that “through the world of a novel, play, or a short story is an imaginary one, it presents a full and colorful setting in which characters from many socially regional backgrounds can be described, also literature adds a lot to the cultural grammar of the learners” (p.54).

“Literature as a vehicle for enriching language skills” argument

Since the first uses of literature in language teaching/learning contexts, it has been proved that this material has the capability to affect language-teaching process, depending the way it is used. One of the advantages of literature is its influence on different aspects of the second/foreign language learners’ skills, for instance, a few studies have shown that reading aloud literary texts regularly to students at the elementary school level, in a context of shared reading or recreational reading, produces measurable and sometimes dramatic gains in reading and listening skills. Sharman (2002) states that reading extended literary texts in the foreign language will improve the language skills of the students, both on the level of vocabulary and of grammar. Qareeballah andSyed Sarwar (2010, p.12) hold the same position and assert, “Literature offers a wide range of language structures, which can enhance our understanding of the range of language usages. This understanding has a direct impact on the learners’ ability to learn and uselanguage not for mechanical responses but for the expression and response of those thoughts and ideas, which would have stifled, in the brain in the absence of rich language resources. Literary work in such a situation becomes a vehicle for language learning”. Tasneen (2010) declares that with the help of literature, students can be exposed to real, authentic usages of language and this gives them the ability to notice a variety of styles, registers and language learning materials at every stages of difficulty. Haji Maibodi (2011) holds the same position regarding the linguistic advantages of literature; he similarly states that “literature is a vehicle for learning the differences between language varieties, it not only

introduces to the reader the different styles and registers found in different varieties of English whichauthors adopt according to text and purpose but also the correct form of language in discourse, and it illustrates a particular register embedded within a social context and thereby, provides a basis for determining why a particular form is used” (p.56).

“Literature as a vehicle for enriching critical and higher order thinking” argument

Learning a new language is not just mastering someskills in the target language, but there are some otherabilities involved that can be enhanced as a byproduct of learning a new language, and one of them according to a lot of research conducted in this case (Gadjuse and Van Dommelen, 1993; Diaz-Santos, 2000) is the enrichment gained in critical and higher order thinking(Paran, 2008). Bredella (2000, as cited in Paran, 2008,p.14) affirms that “literary texts in the foreign language classroom are not only important for foreign language learning, but also provide it with significanteducational goals”. How this process of going beyond the mechanical system of the language and reaching the higher and more important aspects of human mind is declared by Erkaya (2005); he says that “students can 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 the literary text to their minds to find meanings for ideas, leading to critical thinking” (p.2). There are many factors which if considered carefully, while usingliterary text in the classroom, can foster critical thinking, one of them according to Oster (as cited in

Erkaya, 2005, p.5) is to focus on individual charactersin the story and see the whole story with their points of view, in other words to put ourselves in the individual characters’ shoes, in this way as Oster states “literature can enlarge students’ vision and foster critical thinking by dramatizing the various ways a situation can be seen”.

“Literature as a vehicle for enriching motivation” argument

Motivation, especially intrinsic kind of motivation, isone of the affective variables in teaching/learning a new language and if it is worked on properly, can ultimately lead to autonomous kind of learning, which is one of the most important goals of language teachers. Due to its authenticity and variety and universality, literature has the required power to motivate the students intrinsically in learning a new language, since there is no reward except for the joy the students experience while dealing with a piece of literary work. Tasneen (2010), in his reasons for usingliterary texts in the classroom states, “As literary texts are the products of the writers’ particular feeling about certain aspects of life, this ‘genuine feeling’ motivates the reader a lot. Students can easily be stimulated to express their opinion, and to relate the topics and the characters in the literary texts to their own life” (p.3). “Literature provides subject matter that has the power to motivate learners and help them in exploring the possibilities of usages and meanings that enhances their language competence ina big way” (Qareeballah and Syed Sarwar, 2010, p.11). Ghasemi and Hajizadeh (2011) declared, “Reading a whole, unabridged and non-simplified literary text

gives the students a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, it will be encouraging when the students arepsychologically satisfied that they have read the very words of a great writer” (p.70). So as Bagherkazemi & Alemi (2010, p.3) state, “It can be realized that thosefeatures for which literature in the EFL classroom has been criticized, i.e. its cultural load, structural complexity and non-normative use of language, are exactly what can be employed to enrich language teaching and learning experiences “.

Why short story?

Short story has many benefits that make it a suitable option to be used in the classroom. For example, Erkaya(2005, p. 3-8) presents a list of the advantages of

using short story in language classrooms:1.Reinforcing skills: Murdoch (2002) indicates that

“short stories can, if selected and exploitedappropriately, provide quality text content whichwill greatly enhance ELT courses for learners atintermediate levels of proficiency” (p.9).

2.Motivating students: since short stories usuallyhave a beginning, middle, and an end, theyencourage students at all levels of languageproficiency to continue reading them until the endto find out how the conflict is resolved.

3.Introducing literary elements: with beginning andlow intermediate levels, instructors can teachsimple elements, such as character, setting andplot. The same and more complex elements, such as

conflict, climax, resolution, etc. can beintroduced with more advanced levels.

4.Teaching culture: short stories transmit theculture of the people about whom the stories werewritten. By learning about the culture, studentslearn about the past and present, and aboutpeople’s custom and traditions.

5.Teaching higher-order thinking: highintermediate/advanced students can analyze whatthey read; therefore, they start thinkingcritically when they read stories.

Bouache (2010, p.15-16) clarifies that “……… the primary function of short stories is to entertain and inform. They keep interest alive in the classroom and motivate students; they have factual and cultural values. They create a comfortable atmosphere and a goodand enjoyable environment. Every student will create their own setting, characters, physical appearance and relating them to their own reality and experience to that of the story, thanks to their background

knowledge .” Ghasemi and Hajizadeh (2011) compare short story and other non-literary texts, they elaborate that “the short story is a compact literary genre in which much is left unsaid in order for the reader to draw implications. Therefore, it makes students sensitive tothe hidden and implied meaning. While in reading non-literary material students learn to read the lines and decode the meaning, in reading short stories they learnto read between the lines” (69). They further claim that “short story, as a multi-dimensional literary genre can be profitably used in the acquisition of

various language skills. The short story’s distinctive features, i.e., its brevity, modernity, and variety make it appealing and interesting to language learners.When the short story is chosen based on the students’ level of English proficiency, it can offer them adequate linguistic, intellectual, and emotional involvement and enrich their learning experience” (69).

Limitations and Delimitations The present investigation is delimited to male language learners in private institutes in Sanandaj, between the ages of 12-16. So the results obtained fromthis research cannot be overgeneralized to all the TEFLlearners. Besides, due to the diversity of literature, the researcher narrows down literature to short storiesto make the interpretation of the results more plausible and defendable. And it should be added that although the oral literary texts used in this experiment are authentic and are not manipulated in thefavor of the language learners, the oral non-literary texts were obtained from materials developed specifically for language learners.

Statement of the Problems

Since the time listening started gaining its deserved attention among linguists, researchers, and language teachers, many techniques have been utilized to enhance this skill in foreign/second language learners, but no satisfactory attention has been given to literature as a valuable resource in this case. A

variety of rationalizations have been presented for notusing literature in language teaching/learning contexts, including linguistic difficulty; some of the researchers like Sullivan (1991), Or (1995), Savvidou (2004), and Tasneen, (2010) believe that literary textscontain structures which do not follow the normal structures common in every day communication, and this causes a lot of problems.

Another pretext for not using literature is the cultural complexity of literary texts, due to their detachment from the immediate social context of the learners, and the fact that literary texts do not represent the culture but rather one individual’s perspective of that culture prevents learners from understanding the text, because learners would need a lot of background knowledge about the target culture tocomprehend the text, and this consequently leads to their disappointment and dissatisfaction, and ultimately causing detriment to the whole process of learning a new language (Akyel and Yalçin, 1990;

Hanauer, 2001; Savvidou, 2004; Tasneen, 2010 ) . In spite of the presented comments regarding the inappropriateness of literary texts in language teaching/learning contexts, the present researcher hopefully believes that literary texts can be qualifiedas a potent resource to be used in language teaching classrooms, but as Edmondson (1997, as cited in Paran, 2008, p.66) articulates, “we need conceptual clarity regarding which role or roles, foreign language literature can or should play in language teaching”, helater points out that there is a paucity in empirical evidence for the claims being made about the use of

literature in language learning programs. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for more empirical research andevidence regarding the use of literature in language learning processes.

Method

Participants

For this experimental research 108 male Iranian English language learners between the ages of 12 to 16 from 4 private English language institutes (Sokhan, Soroush, Kimia, and Ayandesazan) in Sanandaj, for whom English was a foreign language, voluntarily, participated in the experiment. It should be mentioned that the participants’ level of language proficiency was intermediate to upper-intermediate, and they were all studying in public elementary and high school. Based on a placement test 44 participants were chosen and according to stratified random sampling were put in

the experimental and the control groups.

Materials

Oral short stories: 7 oral short stories, from different writers, were

obtained from www.Listen to Genius.com and www.Learnoutlout.com websites, whose readability level according to Flesch-Kincaid formula was Plain English, and due to the universality feature of short stories

even non-English short story writers were included in the list. It should be mentioned that some of the shortstories were long and since both literary and non-literary texts needed to be on the same level in all the aspects, so most of the short stories were divided

to two or three parts .Mark Twain: ON THE DECAY OF THE ART OF LYING

On the Decay of the Art of Lying is a short essay written by Mark Twain in 1885 for a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford, Connecticut. In the essay, Twain laments the dour ways in which men of America's Gilded Age employ man's 'mostfaithful friend'. He concludes by insisting that: "the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly, frankly, squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, with pusillanimous mien, as being ashamed of our high calling." (Goodreads, 2014).

Giambattista Basile: PERUONTO, THE TWO CAKES, CENERENTOLA

The three stories presented by Giambattista Basileare the stories taken from his collection of fairy tales, The Pentamerone. This Italian collection of folk-tales was first published at Naples, and in a Neapolitan dialect that kept it out of northern European tradition for two centuries. Originally it wascalled Lo Cunti de li Cunto (The Story of Stories,

1634). Published posthumously, it became known as the Pentamerone by 1674 and eventually influenced the form of fairytales in Europe. The frame-story is of a group of people passing time by sharing stories, as in the Decameron and other European collections of tales. The Pentamerone tells fifty tales over five nights (Strange, 2014).

M. R, James: CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOK

"Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" is the first story in the first collection of ghost stories published by M. R. James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The volume appeared in 1904, but "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" was written in 1894 and published soon afterwards in the National Review.The story has a detailed and realistic setting in the tiny decaying cathedral city of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, at the foot of the Pyrenees in southern France. An English tourist spends a day photographing the interior of the eponymus cathedral and is encouraged by the sacristan to buy an unusual manuscript volume. This, he concludes, had been createdlong ago, by cutting up volumes in the old cathedral library, by canon Albéric de Mauléon (an imaginary character, said to be a collateral descendant of the real 16th century bishop Jean de Mauléon) (Goodreads, 2014).

M. R, James: LOST HEARTS

"Lost Hearts" is a ghost story by M. R. James, found in his 1904 book Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. It is an unusual ghost story by MR James’s usual standards, and unlike most of his stories, it is set in the past –

1811, almost a century before it was written

(Hogsflesh, 2012).Honore De Balzac: INNOCENCE

Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His Magnum Opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comdie Humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napolon Bonaparte in 1815. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzacis regarded as one of the founders of realism in

European literature (Goodreads, 2014).

Oral non-literary texts: 16 oral non-literary texts were obtained from the second and third volumes of a textbook (Open Forum); Open Forum is a three-level listening and speaking skills series for English language learners who need practice in extended listening and discussion in preparation for academic work, or to attain a personal goal. The series is structured around high-interest listening texts with an academic focus that engage and motivate students. Units feature academic content areassuch as Business, History, or Psychology. The content areas are revisited as the series progresses, ensuring that students recycle and extend the ideas and vocabulary of each topic. Focused practice in listeningand speaking skills is integrated into each unit.

Open Forum 1 is for students at the high-beginning to low-intermediate level.

Open Forum 2 is for students at the intermediate level.

Open Forum 3 is for students at the high-intermediate to advanced level. (Duncan and Parker, 2007).

To assure that both groups of texts, short stories andnon-literary texts, have the same level of difficulty Flesch–Kincaid readability test was applied. This test is designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. There are two tests, the Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures (word length and sentence length), they have different weighting factors, so the results of thetwo tests correlate approximately inversely: a text with a comparatively high score on the Reading Ease test should have a lower score on the Grade Level test.

Both systems were devised by Rudolf Flesch .

Instruments

Homogeneity test: Oxford Placement Test3 B1 & B2

The Oxford Placement Test was provided by a multi-language service provider, Petr Borovicka. This websiteprovides some services including, translations, proofreading, interpreting, language courses, selectionprocedure, brand management, language audit, special language skill trainings, and language counseling. Thiswebsite has been working on language learning and

matters related to language learning and teaching since1997. The internet address of this website is http://www.englishservice.cz/references.php. It should be mentioned that the present placement test was designed, B1 for Threshold or intermediate, and B2 for Vantage or upper intermediate.

For the pre-test and post-test of the present researchLongman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test was used. Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test is intended to prepare students for the TOEFL test in both its paper and computer formats. It is based on the paper format first introduced in July 1995 and the computer format first introduced in July 1998. This book includes the following materials: Diagnostic Pre-Tests,Skills and Strategies, Exercises, TOEFL Exercises, TOEFL Review Exercises, TOEFL Post-Tests, Complete Tests, Scoring Information, Charts, and Recording

Scripts (Phillips, 2005) .

Pre-test: The listening diagnostic pre-test of Longman Complete

Course for the TOEFL Test (2001): This section of Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test includes 50 multiple choice questions in three parts; short conversations, longer conversations, and the last part includes several talks or lectures and the participantsshould choose the best answer for the imposed multiple choice questions. The time presented for the test is 35minutes, including the reading of the directions for each part. In this test the participants were not

allowed to take notes or write in their test books. Thepre-test was administered before the treatment

(Phillips, 2005).

Post-test: The listening post-test of Longman Complete Course for

the TOEFL Test (2001): this section of Longman CompleteCourse for the TOEFL Test includes 50 multiple choice questions in three parts; short conversations, longer conversations, and the last part includes several talksor lectures and the participants should choose the bestanswer for the imposed multiple choice questions. The time presented for the test is 35 minutes, including the reading of the directions for each part. In this test the participants were not allowed to take notes orwrite in their test books. The post-test was

administered after the treatment (Phillips, 2005).

Multiple choice listening tests : These tests were prepared by the researcher and each

test included 10 multiple choice questions that were piloted in a similar group, whose members were 30,

before the treatment.

Procedure

108 participants willingly participated in the experiment, and a week before the treatment an Oxford Placement Test was administered to serve two purposes; first as a sampling procedure and second, to assure thehomogeneity of the sample group’s language proficiency.74 participants were chosen and according to stratifiedrandom sampling 30 members were picked for the pilotingstage, and the remaining 44 members which included the sample of the experiment, again through stratified random sampling were put in experimental and control groups. In the experimental group oral literary texts were used and in the control group, oral non-literary texts. It should be mentioned that the sampling procedure was conducted before piloting the literary and non-literary tests to assure the homogeneity of thepilot, control, and the experimental groups. After piloting all the tests in the piloting stage, a listening pre-test was administered to the control and experimental groups. The treatment took 4 weeks, 2 sessions a week, and each session took one hour. Each

session went as follows;

First, the participants started with a warm up, withinwhich they were familiarized with the topic and the keyvocabulary of the listening file, so that their background knowledge were activated. After that they listened, twice, to the listening part (oral literary texts in the experimental group and oral non-literary texts in the control group) and answered the 10 multiple choice questions. It should be mentioned that the materials chosen to be used in the control and experimental groups were at the same level of

difficulty according to Flesch–Kincaid Readability Testand their Reading Ease Scores were between 60-69, so asit is obvious in table 4.1 their Readability Level were plain English (see Appendix A). Finally, the teacher who covered both classes presented the original transcript of the oral file to the students to compare

their comprehension with the original transcript . After the completion of the treatment, a listening

post-test was administered and the results of pre and post-tests were compared and evaluated to test the

hypotheses of the research.

Result

The main intention behind the presentresearch was to reveal the potential benefit ofliterature, in this case short stories, in the processof learning a new language and its fostering effect onthe improvement of different skills, in this caselistening comprehension ability, of EFL/ESL learners.To serve this purpose, 2 null hypotheses were presentedby the present researcher: (1) H0: Teaching oralliterary texts (short stories) has no significanteffect on the improvement of EFL learners’ listeningcomprehension ability. (2) H0: There is no differencebetween the effects of teaching oral literary texts(short stories) and oral non-literary texts on thelistening comprehension ability of EFL learners.

To test the above hypotheses, based on an Oxford Placement Test, 74 participants were chosen and

according to stratified random sampling 30 members werechosen for the piloting stage and the remaining 44 thatincluded the sample of the experiment, were randomly put in the experimental and control groups. Oral literary texts were used for the experimental group, and oral non-literary texts for the control group, and it should be mentioned that the difficulty level of thematerials used in the experiment were homogenized by Flesch Reading Ease test and their Reading Ease Scores were between 60-69, so their Readability Level were plain English. Before and after the treatment a pre-test (The listening diagnostic pre-test of Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test (2001)), and a post-test (The listening post-test of Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test (2001)) were administered andthe results obtained by these tests were analyzed in

this chapter.

Homogeneity Process through Oxford Placement Test

To ensure the homogeneity of the participants, the Oxford Placement Test was administered to 108 participants, and for determining the reliability of the placement test 30 scores of the total collected scores from the placement test were chosen randomly, then the scores were calculated. So for the placement test with 100 items the mean score was 43.00 and the variance was 154, as a result the KR-21 turned out to

be:

Table1.1 Reliability Statistics of Oxford

Kuder-Richardson 21N of questions

0.86100

Since the value of the KR-21 is more than 0.7 we can say that the placement test is reliable and can be used

for further assessment.Table 1.2 Descriptive Statistics for Oxford Placement Test

NRangeMin.Max.MeanMedianModeStd.Error

Std.Deviati

on

10851247543.0541.00401.09011.325

Then as it is shown in table 1.2 those language learners whose placement scores fell within one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected as homogeneous participants for this study. Therefore 74 students whose scores were between 32 and 54 were selected. The Figure 1.1 below demonstrates the range of scores of the population and the chosen sample out of

this population .

Figure 1.1 Students’ Scores in the Oxford Placement Test

Hypotheses Testing

To test the presented hypotheses two elements were taken into account before anything else. The first was normality of variances, which as it is obvious from table 1.3below the ratios of skewness and kurtosis overtheir respective standard errors were within the rangesof +/- 1.96. So it can be mentioned that the normality of variances among all sets of tests was met in the

present research.Table 1.3 Testing Normality Assumption

Group N Skewness KurtosisStatistic

Statistic

Std. Error

Ratio

Statistic

Std. Error

Ratio

Experimental

Placement 22 -.185 .491 -0.38

-.765 .953-0.80

Pretest 22 .368 .491 0.75 -.527 .953 -0.55Posttest 22 -.105 .491 -

0.21-1.307

.953-1.37

N 22Control Placement 22 .280 .491 0.57 -.423 .953 -0.44

Pretest 22 .711 .491 1.45 -.540 .953 -0.57Posttest 22 .378 .491 0.77 -.853 .953 -0.90N 22

The second element was assuring the homogeneity ofboth groups’ listening comprehension ability in pre-test. An independent t-test was run to compare theexperimental and control groups’ mean scores on thepre-test in order to prove that both groups enjoyed thesame level of listening comprehension ability prior tothe administration of the treatment. As displayed inTable 1.4 the experimental (M = 15.54, SD = 5.04) andcontrol (M = 15.09, SD = 5.71) groups showed almost thesame means on the pre-test of Listening Comprehension.

Table 1.4 Descriptive Statistics; Pretest of experimental and control Groups

Group N Mean Std.Deviation

Std. ErrorMean

Pretest Experimental

22 15.545 5.0401 1.0746

Control 22 15.091 5.7147 1.2184

The results of the independent t-test (t (42) = .28, P> .05, R = .043 it represented a weak effect size)(Table 1.5) indicated that there was not anysignificant difference between the experimental and

control groups’ mean scores on the pretest. Thus it canbe concluded that they enjoyed the same level oflistening comprehension ability prior to theadministration of the treatment.

Table 1.5 Independent t-test; Pretest of Listening Comprehension by Groups

Levene's Testfor Equalityof Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig.

T Df Sig.(2-

tailed)

MeanDiffere

nce

Std.Error

Difference

95%ConfidenceIntervalof the

DifferenceLower

Upper

Equalvariancesassumed

.233

.632

.280 42

.781

.4545 1.6245 -2.8239

3.7330

Equal variancesnot assumed

.280

41.354

.781 .4545 1.6245 -2.8254

3.7345

It should be noted that the assumption of homogeneity of variances was met (Levene’s F = .233, P > .05). That is why the first row of Table 1.5, i.e. “Equal variances assumed” was reported.The obtained result regarding the pre-test of both experimental and control groups is displayed in graph 1.2 below.

Experimental Control5.006.508.009.5011.0012.5014.0015.5017.0018.5020.00

Graph 1.2, Pretest of Listening Comprehension by Groups

Testing of Hypothesis 1

Hypothesis 1 claims that “Teaching oral literary texts (short stories) has no significant effect on the improvement of EFL learners’ listening comprehension ability.” To test this hypothesis a paired-samples t-test was run to compare the experimental group’s means on the pre-test and post-test, whose reliabilities according to KR-21 Reliability formula were 0.76 and 0.85.

Table 1.6 Descriptive StatisticsN Mean Variance KR-21

Pretest 44 15.318 28.408 .76Posttest 44 21.091 35.992 .85

As displayed in table 1.7, the experimental group showed a higher mean on the post-test (M = 23.36, SD = 5.10) than the pre-test (M = 15.54, SD = 5.04).

Table 1.7Descriptive Statistics; Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental Group

The results of the paired-samples t-test (t (21)= 8.26, P < .05, R = .87 it represented a large effectsize) (table 1.8) indicated that there was asignificant difference between the experimental group’smeans on the pre-test and post-test. Thus the firstnull-hypothesis was rejected. The experimental groupafter receiving oral literary texts (short stories)showed a significantly higher mean on the post-test.

Table 1.8 Paired-Samples t-test; Pre-test and Post-test of Experimental Group

Paired Differences T df Sig. (2-tailed)Mean Std.

Deviation

Std. Error Mean

95% Confidence Interval of the DifferenceLower Upper

7.8182

4.4362 .9458 5.8513 9.7851 8.266 21 .000

The difference talked about above can be seen in graph

1.3.

Mean N Std. Deviation

Std. ErrorMean

Posttest 23.364 22 5.1041 1.0882Pretest 15.545 22 5.0401 1.0746

Posttest Pretest5.007.5010.0012.5015.0017.5020.0022.5025.0027.5030.00

Graph 1.3: Pretest and Posttest of the Experimental Group

Testing of Hypothesis 2

The second hypothesis states that “There is nodifference between the effects of teaching oralliterary texts (short stories) and oral non-literarytexts on the listening comprehension ability of EFLlearners.” To test this hypothesis an independent t-test was run to compare the experimental and controlgroups’ mean scores on the post-test. As displayed inTable 1.9, the experimental group (M = 23.36, SD =5.10) outperformed the control group (M = 18.81, SD =6.06) on the post-test.

Group N Mean Std.Deviation

Std. ErrorMean

Posttest

Experimental

22 23.364 5.1041 1.0882

Control 22 18.818 6.0682 1.2937Table 1.9 Descriptive Statistics; Posttest of experimental and control Groups

The results of the independent t-test (t (42) =2.68, P < .05, R = .38 it represented a moderate tolarge effect size) (Table 1.10) indicated that therewas a significant difference between the experimentaland control groups’ mean scores on the post-test. Thusthe second null-hypothesis was rejected.

Table 1.10 Independent t-test; Post-test of experimental and control Groups

Levene'sTest forEquality

ofVariances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. T df Sig.(2-

tailed)

MeanDiffere

nce

Std.Error

Difference

95%ConfidenceInterval of

theDifference

Lower UpperEqual variances assumed

.383 .539 2.689

42 .010 4.5455 1.6905 1.1338

7.9571

Equal variances not assumed

2.689

40.803

.010 4.5455 1.6905 1.1308

7.9601

So, as it is shown in figure 1.4, the experimental group after receiving oral literary texts (short stories) outperformed the control group, which received

oral non-literary texts, on the post-test.

Experimental Control10.00

13.00

16.00

19.00

22.00

25.00

28.00

Graph 1.4: Post-test of experimental and control Groups

It should be noted that the assumption of homogeneity of variances was met (Levene’s F = .38, P >.05). That is why the first row of table 1.10, i.e. “Equal variances assumed” was reported.

Conclusions

Literature has become one of the main sources utilizedin the process of learning and teaching a new language,and different kinds of research have been conducted to test its utility in EFL/ESL contexts. In spite of many obstacles made by some conservative linguists, researchers, material developers, and teachers it has

found its way back to the classrooms of language teaching. As it has been mentioned in chapter 2, many language researchers have done experiments about the role of literature on different skills, and the presentresearcher has focused on the efficiency of literature (short story) in the listening comprehension ability of

EFL learners . To gain the desired purpose two hypotheses werepresented, the first one dealt with the potentialeffect of oral literary texts (short stories) on thelistening comprehension ability of EFL learners. Thenull hypothesis stated that “H0: Teaching oral literarytexts (short stories) has no significant effect on theimprovement of EFL learners’ listening comprehensionability.”

To test the above hypothesis a paired-samples t-test was run to compare the experimental group’s meanson the pre-test and post-test, and the experimentalgroup showed a higher mean on the post-test. Theresults indicated that the experimental group afterreceiving oral literary texts (short stories) showed asignificantly higher mean on the post-test than thepre-test. The reason can be sought in the very natureof literary texts, the interest they invoke, the highlevel of authenticity that they present, the structuresand vocabulary that the language learners achieve fromliterary texts without noticing it, or the pleasurethat they present to language learners. The second hypothesis dealt with the superiorityof oral short stories, as a source of material to beused in the classroom, over oral non-literary texts.The null hypothesis stated that “H0: There is no

difference between the effects of teaching oralliterary texts (short stories) and oral non-literarytexts on the listening comprehension ability of EFLlearners. To test this hypothesis, after assuring thehomogeneity of language learners in their listeningcomprehension ability in pre-test (The listeningdiagnostic pre-test of Longman Complete Course for theTOEFL Test (2001)), an independent t-test was run tocompare the experimental and control groups’ meanscores on the post-test (The listening post-test ofLongman Complete Course for the TOEFL Test (2001)). Theresult showed that the experimental group, receivingoral literary text (short story) during the treatmentoutperformed the control group which received oral non-literary texts.

So it can be stated that short stories can have the same or even a better effect on the listening comprehension ability of EFL learners, of course if applied properly, and according to the level and

preferences of the language learners. It is important to mention that the participants of

the present research were male Iranian students of private language institutes, thus the result should be dealt with cautiously and not generalized to all the

language learners in different contexts.

Pedagogical Implications Although the results obtained from the present

research cannot be generalized to all the EFL/ESL

contexts, it made it clear that literature, as it was before, can be a great asset to those having a share inthe process of learning and teaching a new language, including language learners, teachers, linguists,

material developers, syllabus designers, and etc . It has been demonstrated that principled evidence is

emerging that is showing the benefits of using literature, and we are now in a better position to

refute the claims made, for example by Edmondson (1997). By a quick look at the materials and textbooks used

for improving listening comprehension of language learners it can be found out that most of the subjects used in these materials are about scientific or social matters, but why not short stories? Recently short stories have been widely published and used in this field, but the materials prepared based on these literary texts are mostly utilized to enhance other skills in the classroom, mostly reading, but it can be categorized and classified , and be used for different levels of language learners to increase their listening

comprehension ability . This is very important to remember the level of

language learners and try to suit the literary texts inthe classroom to their linguistic proficiency level, because one of the most important factors in the utility of literature in the classroom is the consideration given to the level of the students, and if the materials given to the students is overwhelming and beyond their level of language proficiency, it can

even have a demotivating and detrimental effect on the

students, and their learning process . The teacher in here has got an important role and

should be careful about the materials he/she chooses touse in the classroom and, as it was mentioned before, should take into account the linguistic proficiency of the learners, their cultural backgrounds, their preferences, and their literary backgrounds to make literature even more productive, and can even encouragethe students to act as a materials developer and prepare their own materials for the classroom, this waythey become more active, and motivated, because they accept responsibility and feel that they have been

respected in the field of learning a new language . Besides, other aspects of learning a new language,

like the culture of target language can be acquired by the use of short stories, because these pieces of

literature are rooted in the culture of the writer . Finally, the main purpose of the teachers is to make

the students use the language and listen to it without paying attention solely to the linguistic matters. By using short stories in the classroom students don’t need to listen to polished and artificial language likethe kind of course books specifically designed for the language learners, instead they find a meaning in theirlistening and their main attention is given to the story, its plots, and the main characters, not the

language itself .

Suggestions for Further Research

The main concern of the present research was finding the effect of short stories on the improvement of listening comprehension ability of EFL learners. Due tothe limitations and delimitations imposed on this research with the purpose of controlling the variables,the findings cannot be generalized to all EFL/ESL learners. It should be mentioned in the first place that the present research can be duplicated with the

same variables but in a different setting . The present researcher used male participants from

different private English language institutes between the ages of 12 to 16 in Sanandaj, so other studies can be conducted with female participants, different age ranges, mixed groups of participants, and even

participants from public schools . The materials used in the experiment were short

stories from different writers, with different nationalities and backgrounds and it is proposed that other researches can be conducted with short stories from contemporary writers or writers from the same country, or with other forms of literature like poems, novels, dramas, and etc., Due to some limitations, thisstudy was limited to 4 weeks, and other researches can

be done with longer duration of time . The present experimental research focused solely on

the listening comprehension of EFL learners, but other

experiments can be conducted on other skills, like reading or speaking or even writing, even these skills can be combined and the effect of literature on two skills at the same time be measured, since it has been proved that no skill can be taught alone and all the

four skills are intertwined .

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