The Use of Short Stories to Develop Student’s Reading Comprehension Skill

SCIENTIFIC WRITING

By :

HESTY RETNO SARI

10.1.01.08.0115

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

UNIVERSITY OF NUSANTARA KEDIRI

Jl. KH. Achmad Dahlan No.76 Kediri

2013

The Use of Short Stories to Develop Student’s Reading Comprehension Skill

Abstract

This study investigates the effect  of  employing  short  stories on reading comprehension ability of learners. To this aim, a group of 40 students in Junior High School took part in the study. They were divided into two groups of twenty students. During a course of 4 sessions of 1 hours, one group received instructional reading-based textbook. The other group received short stories as the texts to be covered in their classrooms during the course .At the end of the course, a  reading comprehension test composed of both the  reading passages similar to the text book and pieces of short stories as reading comprehension texts were given to the participants. It was followed by a questionnaire  which was also administered to the participants to tap their personal feelings towards these two types of text. The results were analyzed using T-tests. It was found that the group which received short stories as their reading text out performed the other group. 

Key words: Literature, short stories, reading comprehension ability

Introduction

Reading comprehension skills are important for students to become effective  readers (Grabe &  Stoller, 2002). Reading begins  with the  decoding letters,  letter groups and the sounding out of words. Later, learners begin to read words,  sentences, picture books, short stories and other texts.  Reading aloud helps  learners  to develop  their  decoding skills which can  be a valuable diagnostic aid. This process concentrates on  the development of  fluency. The movement  from passive to active reading involves the development of reading  comprehension skills (Machado, 2010).

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand what we read where words  have context and texts have meaning. Reading comprehension skills allow us to read proficiently, learn effectively and to conceptualize. These skills are, basically, based on earlier stages of reading development, including oral reading and reading fluency. Without developing these earlier reading skills, students must continually focus on decoding letters and words, rather than progressing to meaning and understanding (Grabe & Stoller, 2002). The key to developing proficient reading skills in the early years of education is an even earlier foundation in underlying language learning skills (Brewster & Ellis, 2002). Therefore, strong reading comprehension skills are viewed as being dependent on the strength of the cognitive strategies established in the early years.

Reading as an effective skill usually receives a special attention. This can be verified by examining high school books which are generally developed by focusing mainly on readings. Despite this fact, majority of students are not that competent in reading comprehension and they usually admit having different difficulties in reading. In order to improve reading as an important skill, different researchers in different parts of the world, have determined the possible sources of the problems and have proposed different solutions to enhance students' reading comprehension ability (Richards &Renanday, 2002).

            In some accounts of reading, priority is given to the text and parts of texts (Wallace, 2002).When a person reads, he tries to relate the new information in the text to what is already known.(Rumelhart , 1980).  Consequently, textual features play important role in activating prior knowledge which would lead to the comprehension. Some researchers claim that literature contains the type of text which would activate the background knowledge. This would facilitate reading comprehension ability of language learners.  This study seeks to investigate the effect of using short stories (as a part of literature) on the reading comprehension ability of  learners.

The use of literature to teach second/foreign languages can be traced back to over one century  ago. In the nineteenth  century, second/foreign languages were taught with the help of the Grammar Translation Method. Students would translate literary texts from the second/foreign language to their native language. When this method was replaced by methods that emphasized structures and vocabulary, literature was no longer used. Thus, neither the Direct Method nor the Audiolingual Method utilized literature to teach second/foreign languages. In the seventies, methods such as the Community Language Learning, Suggestopedia, the Silent Way, Total Physical Response, and the Natural Approach did not utilize literature to teach second/foreign languages, and neither did the Notional-Functional Syllabus.

For the past two decades or so, literature has found its way back into the teaching of EFL; however, not the way it was used with the Grammar Translation method. Instructors have realized that literature can be used to reinforce the skills and complement language teaching. Scher (1976) affirms that with students at the beginning and intermediate levels, instructors can use literary texts for “language practice, reading comprehension, and possible aesthetic appreciation” (Muyskens, 1983, p. 413). In contrast, with advanced students literary texts may be utilized for the“development of knowledge of world literature, practice in reading and discussing creative work, and the introduction of literary  concepts, genres, and terminologies—e g, recognition of figures of speech, levels of meaning, and other stylistic features” (p. 413). Moreover, 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 own minds to find meanings for ideas, leading to critical thinking.

One of the main problems that learners of English as a foreign language  (EFL) confront is how to improve  their reading comprehension proficiency. This is actually the concern of both EFL learners and teachers in Iran since it is the major classroom activity  in the Iranian educational system. Reading skill is necessarily required in the Iranian university entrance exam which most high school and pre-university graduates need to pass. Reading is one of the most important activities in language classes Kirby (2007). It enables learners to work at their own pace and to increase their world knowledge. It also helps  them consolidate their knowledge of language. Reading is a means of getting information from different sources including scientific and literary books.

Reading tasks encourage students to reflect upon what they are going to read. For the information to stay with the students, they need to go beyond simply reading it. By engaging students in reading tasks, teachers not only support  students understanding of content, but also provide them with opportunities to develop their comprehension, vocabulary and study skills without interrupting content learning  (Pakhhare, 2007).

The learners retain  information more easily if  they use  reading tasks during and after reading materials. There are many  tasks that will refine, enrich, and heighten interest in the assigned topic; however, the primary goal of  the reading tasks in many studies is to further develop and clarify interpretation of the text, and to help students remember what they have individually  created in their minds from the text  (Phan, 2006; Willinghah, 2006).

            Reading is not merely a receptive process of picking up information from the page in a word-by-word manner (Grabe, 1991, p.1). Rather, it is a selective process and characterized as an  active process of comprehending. Therefore, non-English-speaking readers find it important to employ reading strategies to read English texts more effectively. According to Grabe (1991), effective reading is rapid, purposeful, comprehending, flexible and  gradually developing. So, reading is a very complex process, and this is what drives many researchers to attempt to understand and explain its process.

Reading comprehension has always been of paramount importance in Iranian educational system, and comprehension of both general and academic texts has been the aim of many educational centers for years. This precisely can be due to the fact that there have been many people wishing to understand what the texts of both academic and non-academic wants to say in the target language so that they can follow their aims  regarding their profession and/or any other motivation they have.

Therefore, in many language centers and institutes much attempt has  to be made by teachers to teach students the appropriate strategies for understanding the texts of the target language they learn.

According to Kirby (2007, p. 1),  students who cannot read or comprehend are those who might not know how to process the texts meaningfully by making use of appropriate strategies. Linguistically speaking,  there are a number of particular textual characteristics influencing the comprehension of texts. In addition to those textual characteristics, metacognitive strategies impact  the degree of comprehending and/or understanding of the text. Metacognitive strategies are used in information-processing theory to indicate an  executive function of strategies that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring of ones production or comprehension.

The short story is an engaging literary genre and can therefore be utilized for language learning purposes. Almost all modern short stories have the following unique characteristics which make them especially suitable to be used in reading comprehension classes: universality, non-triviality, personal relevance, variety, interest, economy, suggestive power, and ambiguity; moreover, each learner's interpretation has validity and an almost infinite fund of interactive discussion is guaranteed. 

The short story creates the tension necessary for a  genuine exchange of ideas in class discussions. In addition, the short story pushes the students out of a passive reading state into a personal connection with the text and then beyond, extending the connection to other texts and to the world outside of school. Closely related to the issue of implied meaning, Knutson (1993) argues that there are two processes through which proficient readers figure out the meaning of a text.

One is what she terms “bottom-up process” and the other she calls “top-down process” (13). The bottom-up process is when the reader decodes the individual elements of the text to build a total meaning; however, in the top-down process the reader starts with forming hypotheses and making predictions. It is obvious that  these two strategies are used simultaneously by a successful reader. With regard to the above argument, the advantage of using a short story rather than a non-literary text is that some pre-reading activities which  can be nicely applied to the short story (such as the discussion of the topic and narrative structure) are very useful in facilitating the readers’ top-down process. The short story offers certain advantages for material design for  students since this genre includes short textual material to be satisfactorily handled in a one or limited teaching sessions.

Researchers who advocate the use of short stories to teach ESL/EFL list several benefits of short stories. These include motivational, literary, cultural and higher-order thinking benefits. Nevertheless, before instructors look at these benefits in more details, they need to be reminded of one benefit that all instructors should take advantage of, reinforcement of skills.

The issue of text selection is a very significant one  in using literature in general in language classes. Basically literary material is more suitable for students with a high level of language proficiency. Regarding literary material, apart from the reader’s linguistic proficiency, text difficulty depends on text’s characteristics and the reader’s literary competence.

Literary competence can be achieved through repeated exposure to literary material. However, regarding the text’s features, a  careful attention should be paid to the structure of the text. It is generally preferred to choose texts with straightforward structures. 

Generally, the more confident choice concerning a suitable text for learners may be the short stories which are more contemporary and short enough to be discussed in one or two teaching sessions.  The linguistic aspects of the text should concern the language, style and diction, appropriate to the level of our students; Gillian Lazar proposes that “the text should be sufficiently challenging without being so difficult as to be demotivating….[It] should be within the student’s grasp, in terms of their linguistic, intellectual, and emotional capacities” (1990, p. 206). 

Furthermore, reading a whole, unabridged and non-simplified literary text gives the students a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, it will be encouraging when students are psychologically satisfied that they have read the very words of a great writer. 

There are many good reasons for using short stories in the classroom. Here are a few:

·         Short stories are authentic .It makes students ready for the type of the language that students find outside the classrooms.

·         Short story encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple levels of meaning, and can be successfully used for discussions and communicating feelings or opinions.

·         Short story and literature as a whole expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes them more aware of the norms of language use (Widdowson, 1975 as cited by Lazar 1993).

·         By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom.

·         Literature and as a result short stories are motivating. Literature has a high position in many cultures and countries. Therefore, students can experience a real sense of accomplishment at understanding a piece of literature. Also, literature is often more interesting than the texts found in course books.

Procedures and Strategies

A systematic teaching strategy for the short story can include the following stages: 

·         Pre-reading activities: to provide students with vocabulary exercises and cultural background

·         In-class oral reading: to improve listening and spoken  abilities

·         Textual analysis and group work: to improve reading comprehension and communicative skills

·         Post-reading assignments: to establish the acquired knowledge and improve written skills

Keeping in mind that the comprehension of the text is the central focus of the reading of the short story, as Richard A. Raschio elucidates, the teacher must pay attention to the nonlinear process of the skill of reading. 

For each short story, a number of tasks can be designed to cover the basic language skills required for an efficient reading comprehension. These tasks may include vocabulary work, reading comprehension questions, oral presentation of the text, in-class discussion and interpretation,  and finally follow-up tasks which can take the form of written responses or keeping a journal.

Pre-reading activities: Vocabulary work

One vital issue concerning preliminary comprehension involves the task of overcoming the vocabulary presented by the text. Research studies have confirmed that the comprehension of reading passages which might present linguistic difficulties can be facilitated by appropriate pre-reading tasks. One aspect of the reading material is the vocabulary work. Students can be required to identify the new vocabulary in the text. 

The teacher can work together with the students to make a vocabulary list which includes new and targeted vocabulary list.  The list can, then, be discussed in class.  Students can form groups and work on portions of the list to find their meanings, both denotative and connotative.  Since unfamiliar vocabulary will usually interfere with the students' comprehension and may demotivate them to finish the text, such a list can be very useful.  

Pre-reading the vocabulary items can also be used to facilitate the introduction of the necessary cultural background and even refer to thematic features of the short story. 

However, the real vocabulary task occurs when students try to use these words  in the textual context. A related and accompanying activity can be preparing a brief cloze-type exercise to encourage the  students to guess the meaning from the context.  In selecting and making the final vocabulary list, items which contain vital or emotional clues should be chosen.

In-class oral reading: Comprehension work 

In the second stage, students focus on smaller units of the text. At the third stage, the teacher may activate the students' initial response to the text and finally in the fourth stage the teacher can introduce the formal features (figurative language) of the text.

During  the reading process, the teacher can help students prepare questions which can ultimately lead to the overall understanding of the text and thus facilitate the reading comprehension objectives. This list of questions can serve various purposes. It can stimulate a motivated reading at home, prior to the short story's live presentation in the classroom. 

At the same time, it aids the comprehension of the text.  It can also draw the students' attention to the major issues and ideas presented in the text.  It will also serve to prepare and assist the students' capacity for developing independent literary and critical skills. It is not, however, recommended that the teacher provide a plot summary or a statement of the theme since that should be reserved for the end result.  The teacher should allow the students to enjoy the pleasure of discovery and learn how to comprehend and appreciate literature.

Textual analysis and group work: 

A useful activity at this stage is allowing time to the students to think about major issues of the text. To initiate this process, the teacher can give the text to the student, to read at home, using the prepared glossary, and requiring the students to comment on basic issues of the text.

The teacher can stimulate their imaginative power by inviting the students to write one or two paragraphs on the main ideas of the text or relate these ideas to their own real life experiences or even imagine themselves in circumstances suggested in the text.

When working with motivated students, even two readings of the short story at home prior to its oral presentation in the classroom can be achieved. The first reading can accomplish comprehension objectives and the second one interpretation and critical analysis.

In addition, the objectives of a language class should be carefully followed and implemented. Students' interest should be stimulated  by activating their particular skills. They should be encouraged to read aloud the parts of the story, supply summaries of the parts or whole of the text, and take part in group discussions concerning the important issues of the text. At this stage, students can move towards more mature critical analysis of the text.  

Knutson further suggests small group activities which can follow whole group work. These small group activities, focusing on a specific task, such as close reading of a significant part of the text, can encourage students to write relevant questions and later try to answer them. 

Follow-up activities and further tasks

Re-reading of the short story provides the students with an added advantage of establishing their previous knowledge about the text. To augment the  effect of this re-reading activity, short writing assignments can be given to students to enable them to articulate and further develop their thoughts and the thematic meanings they have  discovered through class discussions.

Writing assignments based on the assigned short story enhance the students' involvement with the text and encourage them to think about, re-read, and further explore the text. Tierney and Shanahan confirm that recent researches have indicated that writing tasks as a follow-up activity promote better learning and comprehension compared to reading alone; they lead to long-term recall of text content (267-69).  

Indeed, students should be able to carry an interaction with the short story beyond the oral class discussion to develop their language skills effectively. A more useful task would be to require the students to prepare creative, relevant written responses and reaction reports. This opportunity allows the students to express their independent attitudes and opinions about the significant issues of the story.

Writing tasks at this stage can take various forms. Students may be encouraged to keep a short story journal. Thus, they may be asked to write their personal attitudes about the short  story. They may also be asked to comment on the outcome of the story and how they evaluate the ending.

Conclusion

In the long run, the teacher's role is a facilitator who guides the students as they draw inferences and form learning experiences through personal involvement with the text. The exposure of the students to literature as material can ensure that they enjoy, understand and  appreciate a life-like material while they are improving their linguistic proficiency. Thus, it will be to the overall benefit of the learners if the instructors promote the use of stories as a tool to introduce, accompany, and supplement tried and basal teaching techniques. The power and emotional impact found in a short story can offer the learners deeper meaning about the acquisition of language skills. Finally, short stories invite students to engage in a more active and informed discussion of their involvement with the text and their own personal experiences relevant to the world of the text.

References

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