Role of Short Stories in EFL Classes

Abstract

The research seeks to investigate why most teachers at Cristiano Paulo Secondary School are not using short stories in English Language Teaching despite the fact that they know the importance of short stories, and suggest techniques to increase the use of short stories in ELT (English Language Teaching). The study will take place in Niassa Province, specifically at Cristiano Paulo Taimo Secondary School – Lichinga. The sample of this study will be students and teachers of English of grade 12 of the school aforementioned and will be determined through simple random sampling, mixed approach will be the approach in use for this study and data for this study will be collected through questionnaires and observation. 2 teachers of English and 10 students of grade 12 participated in the survey study. The data will be analyzed through statistics and themes.  Searching for practical ways to improve students’ English language skills is a real concern for all English teachers. There is a consensus among English Language Teaching practitioners regarding the significance of reading for learning new languages, since reading gives depth to language learning (Stern, 2001). Therefore, teachers are obligated to provide their students with interesting and suitable texts to read. Real stories are by far more interesting and involving than scientific and historical texts. Thus, the researcher expects that this study will help teachers to improve the teaching of English Language through short stories and students will be able to develop speaking skills.