Short stories in EFL classrooms: a focus on enlightening reading and writing skills

Abstract

Short stories have been used to support English learners in their instruction with the target language. Correspondingly, researchers have aimed to demonstrate whether short stories might be employed to further develop learners’ language skills, primarily in the case of reading and writing. By gathering, analyzing, and categorizing fifteen primary studies, the purpose of this research synthesis is to explore the effects of the implementation of short stories in EFL classes to teach the reading and writing skills. In addition, this synthesis examines the perceptions students have on this pursuit. Findings have shown positive effects of employing short stories in EFL instruction. Results revealed that short stories can help students increase their proficiency in reading and reading comprehension. Additionally, the results suggest that short stories help learners to improve their writing aptitude in English. Furthermore, the students’ perceptions revised have yielded positive results. In particular, there seems to be a noteworthy relationship between short stories and EFL learners’ motivation and involvement in class. The outcomes of this research synthesis can both raise awareness of the suitability of teaching reading and writing with short stories and promote further investigations in Ecuadorian educational contexts to ascertain a clearer perspective.