Influence of short stories in the development of the reading skill

Abstract

The use of literature has been applied as an essential component of English language curriculum, (2017). The objective of EFL teaching is to help students to communicate fluently. However, some teachers still believe that an EFL class should focus on mastering linguistic elements only, but recent trend in EFL teaching indicates the necessity of integrating literature because of its rich potential to provide an authentic model of language use. Among literary genres, short stories seem to be the most suitable choice for this due to its potential to help students enhance the four skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing, more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories. This paper discusses the findings of a study carried out to investigate the influence of short stories to improve reading skills. The findings of the study, obtained through quantitative and qualitative approaches, hopefully provide insights to help teachers in designing more appropriate strategies to train students.