Script
Liss:
The integration of literature, particularly short stories, in English as Foreign Language
(EFL) classrooms has garnered considerable attention in recent years. Short stories are
valued for their brevity, diversity, and ability to engage students while enhancing
language skills. This literature review examines various studies and perspectives on the
effectiveness and benefits of using short stories in EFL classrooms to improve student’s
vocabulary.
Short stories provide authentic language input, offering students exposure to rich
vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and varied sentence structures. Pardede (2011) notes
that reading short stories helps improve students' reading comprehension, vocabulary
acquisition, and overall language proficiency. Storybooks and the activities related to
the storybooks could be applied as highly productive and beneficial techniques to teach
vocabulary to EFL students successfully. Parvareshbar and Ghoorchaei (2016) study
evidence that the use of short stories has positive effect on the learners' English
vocabulary learning. In other words, learners who took part in the program were able to
make more progress in their vocabulary acquisition than those who did not use short
stories.
Ahmed (2022) found that using short stories in classrooms to improve student’s
vocabulary students demonstrated a great ability to memorize vocabulary and use the
appropriate words correctly. Short story is a good tool to teach students new vocabulary
and by storytelling this strategy permits you to associate individual image clues into
long chains to memorize lists, processes, and all the points you want to make in
compositions or presentations.
Maulidia (2023) stated that teaching the English language through short
stories encourages students to perform better and develop their competencies in
memorization of new vocabulary.
The use of short stories offers a valuable strategy for improving students' vocabulary.
By providing rich and motivating contexts, short stories facilitate the acquisition of new
words and improve reading comprehension skills. However, to maximize the benefits, it
is essential to select the right technique and design effective follow-up activities. This
research aims to contribute to language education in our country, how the uses of short
stories can help students to learn new vocabulary in an effective way.
Karlita: Participants and setting
The participants of this study consisted of 40-beginner EFL
learners form 7-8 years old in school from Cuenca, Ecuador
whose mother tongue is Spanish. The participants who were
selected are students from fourth and fifth grade 20 students from
each level were chosen to ensure a uniform level of educational
experience and maturity for participating in the test.
Students with a Basic English level (A1-A2) were selected to focus on
early-stage vocabulary comprehension challenges and strategies.
Data Collection: We are applying a pretest and posttest assessing the development of
students' vocabulary among A1 EFL learners. The test consisted in 20 questions about
vocabulary The students from 4th grade were the control group, the vocabulary was
taught as an usual class. The students from 5th grade were the experimental group, the
vocabulary was taught with the use of short stories.
Data Analysis: The collected data were analyzed by calculating the mean, mode, and
median for both the pretest and posttest scores. The mean provides the average score,
the mode identifies the most frequently occurring score, and the median represents the
middle score when all scores are arranged in ascending order.
Sarita: Results of the pretest and posttest in 4th grade EFL learners
Y result of the pretest and pretest in 5th grade EFL Learners
Table 1 shows the results of the pretest and the posttest in the control group
The mean in the pretests is the 6. 2, the result of the mode were 6 and in the median the
result was 6 as well as in the pretest an the posttest, showing that teaching vocabulary as
an usual class didn’t work.
Table 2 two shows the results of the pretest and the posttest in the experimental group
The mean in the pretest is the 5,7 a low grade, the mode is 6 and the median is 6
The results of the posttest was of 8.8 showing a increment in the grades of students, the
mode was 9 and the results of the median was 9. This results shows a significant
increase in the grades of students, showing that the use of short stories to teach English
works.
The results indicate that short stories positively influence the development of students'
vocabulary among A1 EFL learners. The mean score increased from 5.7 in the pretest to
8.8 in the posttest, showing an improvement. This significant increase suggests that
incorporating short stories into the teaching-learning process can enhance vocabulary
acquisition. Additionally, the mode and median scores also show a notable
improvement, reflecting consistent gains across different statistical measures.