VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM LAN ANH

A STUDY ON USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING READING
SKILL AT NGUYEN KHUYEN SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng truyện ngắn trong giảng dạy kĩ năng đọc
tại trường trung học cơ sở Nguyễn Khuyến)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM LAN ANH

A STUDY ON USING SHORT STORIES IN TEACHING READING
SKILL AT NGUYEN KHUYEN SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng truyện ngắn trong giảng dạy kĩ năng đọc
tại trường trung học cơ sở Nguyễn Khuyến)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Thanks to her noble devotion, the research report has been successfully completed.
My sincere thanks were also presented to my classmates for their support and
recommendations in choosing necessary materials so that I can fulfill this study.
Their sincere friendship has encouraged me a lot.
I would like to thank to teachers and students at Nguyen Khuyen secondary
school for their constructive suggestions and important help. Without their support,
there would not be a completion of this thesis.
I also thank our university library for their sources of books and documents
about methodology studies. In addition, I was grateful to researchers, authors and
teachers whose materials suggest necessary information for my reference.
My true family deserves my gratefulness for their long lasting help and
encouragement so that I have been able to complete this study.

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ABSTRACT

Reading comprehension has been highlighted as a problem among secondary
school students. This study examined the effects of short stories on 80 seven grade
students to show if the method had an impact on students‟ reading comprehension.
Besides, this research also figured out the suitable methods teachers used to exploit
short stories in teaching reading skill. To serve this purpose, some instruments were
used: pre-test, post-test; questionnaire for teachers and questionnaire for students.
Although the findings revealed some limitations, the use of short stories helped
students to improve their reading comprehension. The result in reading test showed
a slight improvement on the students‟ average score. In addition, the result from
questionnaire and interview indicated both teachers and students had difficulties
when teaching and learning reading through short stories. However, many suitable
methods had been applied to help students and teachers overcome these obstacles

1.2.1 Definition of short stories................................................................................... 9
1.2.2 Benefits of short stories in language teaching ..................................................... 10
1.2.3 How to choose short stories in teaching language skills .................................... 12
1.3 Review of the previous related studies ............................................................ 14
1.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 15
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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 16
2.1 Setting of the study ............................................................................................ 16
2.1.1 Teachers‟ background information .................................................................. 16
2.1.2 Students‟ background information ................................................................... 16
2.1.3 Teaching and learning condition at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school ........... 16
2.2 Research design ................................................................................................. 17
2.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................... 17
2.2.2 Data collection instruments .............................................................................. 17
2.2.2.1 Tests .............................................................................................................. 17
2.2.2.2 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................ 18
2.2.3 Data collection procedure ....................................................................................... 19
2.2.3.1 Pre intervention ............................................................................................. 19
2.2.3.2 While intervention ......................................................................................... 19
2.2.3.3 Post intervention............................................................................................ 21
2.2.4 Data analysis method ....................................................................................... 21
2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 21
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ........................................... 22
3.1 Tests .................................................................................................................... 22
3.1.1 Aims ................................................................................................................. 22
3.1.2 Participants ....................................................................................................... 22
3.1.3 Test description ................................................................................................ 22
3.1.4Data analysis of pre-test .................................................................................... 23

1. Recapitulation ....................................................................................................... 34
2. Pedagogical suggestions in using short stories in teaching reading skill.............. 34
2.1 Strategies to improve comprehension skill ......................................................... 34
2.1.1 Encouraging the use of oral language .............................................................. 34
2.1.2 Motivating students .......................................................................................... 35
2.1.3 Providing practice in reading easy material ..................................................... 36
2.1.4 Encouraging purposeful reading ...................................................................... 36
2.1.5 Stressing vocabulary development ................................................................... 36
2.2 Suggested activities in teaching reading using short stories ........................... 37

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2.2.1 Pre-reading activities ........................................................................................ 37
2.2.1.1Strong lines..................................................................................................... 37
2.2.1.2Picture walk .................................................................................................... 38
2.2.1.3Storylines ........................................................................................................ 38
2.2.2While-reading activities .................................................................................... 38
2.2.2.1Modeling reading strategies ........................................................................... 38
2.2.2.2In-class oral reading ....................................................................................... 39
2.2.2.3Textual analysis and group work ................................................................... 39
2.2.3Post- reading activities ...................................................................................... 40
2.2.3.1 Sequencing activity ....................................................................................... 40
2.2.3.2Writing assignments ......................................................................................... 40
3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 41
4. Suggestions for further study ................................................................................ 41
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 42
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1: Some stories used in the study ........................................................... I
APPENDIX 2: Tests ................................................................................................. III


PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.

Rationale of the study

Reading comprehension, as a fundamental language skill, requires a complex
acquisition process which can account for the way that learners comprehend what
they read. Many of the Vietnamese students are suffering from the weakness in
reading comprehension. Especially, based on individual teaching experience, the
researcher finds out that the capability of understanding English text of students at
Nguyen Khuyen secondary school is very poor. The problem is that the 7th graders
in this school lack the ability of reading comprehension, so because of
misunderstanding the meaning of the text, they find it difficult to answer questions
related to the specific text and get bad scores in reading tests. It is the reason why
many students dislike, even fear of English classes. One of the main causes of this
problem is because of the boring and unattractive traditional method most of
teachers use in teaching reading comprehension. This fact raises a question of how
to make the students interested in reading English text and how the teachers choose
the suitable materials that motivate students to read.
In fact, many researchers and educators have made untiring attempts to find
more efficient ways of enabling the learners to become more proficient readers.
Teaching English through literature has become the fashionable phenomenon. Some
researchers believe that teachers provide students with heavy, boring and somewhat
redundant literature which has no use to solve students‟ problems and provides no
room for creativity. The students are taught literary terms, the meaning of words
and the process of analysis; therefore, they take the form of repeating the material
understanding mostly by memorization. The idea of using short stories in teaching
comprehension may come as an effective way to deal with this problem. It helps

By looking into the perception of the use of short stories in teaching reading
comprehension and the satisfaction of students about their achievement and
improvement in reading skill, the study is hoped to raise teachers‟ awareness,
especially teachers at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school about the application of
short stories as a useful material source in their teaching process. The research is

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hoped to inform teachers of the benefits of short stories and suggest some effective
ways of applying them in teaching English to make the lessons more interesting.
6. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following data collection
instruments will be used:
(1) Tests for students
(2) questionnaire for students
(3) questionnaire for teachers
The data collection time lasts 10 weeks from April to June 2015.
7. Design of the study
The study will be divided into three parts:
Part 1: Introduction shows rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope,
significance, methods and design of the study.
Part 2: Development includes three chapters:
Chapter 1, Literature review deals with some theoretical background relevant
to the study: reading in foreign language learning, review of some methods and
approaches for teaching reading and some benefits of short stories in language
teaching
Chapter 2, Research methodology focuses on the current situation of teaching
and learning at Nguyen Khuyen secondary school, participants of the study, data
collection instruments and data collection and analysis procedure.

Aebersold and Field (1997:15) claim that reading is what happening when
people look at the text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text,
further, the text and the reader are the two necessary physical entities for the reading
process to begin. Therefore, there is an interaction between the text and the reader
that constitute actual reading. Meanwhile, Heilman, Blair and Rupley (1981:4) state
that there are some basic aspects of reading with which most authorities are in
agreement as follow:
-

Reading is interacting with language that has been coded into print.

-

The product of interacting with the printed language should be comprehension.

-

Reading ability is closely related to oral language ability.

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-

Reading is an active and ongoing process that is affected directly by an

individual‟s interaction with his environment.
It can be concluded that reading is a process of reacting and understanding a
written text as a piece of communication. Reading does not need to look everything
in a given text. It is significant to comprehend genre to catch the information and

who want to enhance their reading comprehension skill. Consequently, teachers
should consider teaching these techniques systematically to help students get
thorough knowledge to improve their language skills.
1.1.3 Reading comprehension
1.1.3.1 Definitions of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is a development in which the reader devises sense,
using as the building materials, the message on the printed page, and the
information stockpiled in the reader‟s head. It involves deliberate thinking, in which
significance is built by exchanges between manuscript and person who reads.
Efficient comprehenders not only make logic of the text they are reading, they can
also utilize the message it holds.
Miller (2002:8) states that reading comprehension is the ability to understand
or to get meaning from any types of written material. It is the reason for reading and
the critical component of all content reading.
Grellet (1981:3) assures that reading comprehension is understanding written
text that means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.
Reading comprehension is not enough to understand the gist of the text but more
detailed information is necessary as well.
In short, comprehension is powerful because of the ability to construct
meaning comes from the mind of the reader. Therefore, specific comprehension
instruction-modeling during targeted mini-lessons and varied opportunities for
practice during small group and independent reading is crucial to the development
of strategic and effective readers.
1.1.3.2Reading comprehension skills
Dallman (1982:133) states that there are various skills that make the ability to
comprehend what is read. These specific skills may be classified as the purpose of
the reader and the length and nature of the selection or reading units.

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isolation. Students must know when and how to collectively use these strategies.
1.1.3.3Causes of poor reading comprehension among students
Literature suggests that a lack of systematic direct instruction is one of the main
causes for inadequately developed reading comprehension (Carrier, 2006:25). There
are print specific skills that need to be taught instead of leaving children on their
own to discover them (Moats, 2002:96). Not all children will discover
comprehension strategies on their own; therefore instruction must be tailored to
facilitate students in doing so.
Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins (2001: 245) thinks that poor readers do not construct
their own meaning and need direct explicit instruction on how to be strategic while
reading. According to Chittenden & Salinger (2003) many teachers assumed that
students would just “figure out” comprehension strategies all on their own.
Children with low aptitude or impoverished literacy backgrounds are not likely to
figure out reading strategies for themselves. Research has shown that effective
reading programs and explicit directed instruction with clearly defined goals and
objectives can improve students‟ comprehension (Foorman, Francis, Fletcher,
Schatschneider, & Mehta, 1998).
Poor reading comprehension can also be attributed to students lacking reading
strategies. Chittenden & Salinger (2001:54) state that our lack of knowledge, until
recently, to identify comprehension skills has made it difficult for teachers to help
students with strategies.
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and as a result, must not be taken
lightly. Struggling readers in upper elementary grades must be provided with
systematic explicit instruction to improve their understanding of text, and indeed,
their knowledge of the world in which they live. Salinger (2003:108) points out that
instructional approaches which did not work for yesterday‟s children will not
improve tomorrow‟s students‟ comprehension skills in grade 4 and higher.

story as “a narrative that can be read at one sitting of from one-half hour to two hour
and that is limited to a certain unique or single effect to which every detail is
subordinate”.

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Webster‟s dictionary (1983:137) describes story as the full sequence of events in
a work of fiction as we imagine them to have taken a place, in the order in which
they have occurred in life.
Wright (1995:6) states that the stories are motivating, rich in language
experience, and inexpensive. He adds that stories should be central part of the work
of all primary teachers whether they are teaching the mother tongue or a foreign
language.
In general, short story is one of the most useful types of literary texts to teach
culture and language skills especially reading skill. The reason is that most learners
in EFL contexts have little or no opportunity to contact with native speakers, so
reading short stories will give them the chances to have better interaction with
foreign culture, language and people.
1.2.2 Benefits of short stories in language teaching
Almost all 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 and suggestive power,
and ambiguity (Maley, 1989:12). Moreover, each learner's interpretation has
validity and an almost infinite fund of interactive discussion is guaranteed.
Various advantages have been proposed for the use of short stories in the
language classes. Short stories are selected among many kinds of literary genre
because of the length of the story and readability for foreign language learners
especially for low-intermediate level of students. Collin and Slater (1991:196)
explained that short stories can be used for EFL learners because 1) the length of the

natural, familiar, and sometime even fun. (2) the stories put issues of critical
thinking in an easily remembered contexts. Howie (1993:24) concurs on the
application of short story to tutor critical thinking. He wisecracks that teachers have
been undertaking to assist learners to swell cognitive skills since eachone desires to
“make judgments, be decisive, come to conclusions, synthesize information,
organize, evaluate, predict, and apply knowledge.”
On the other hand, the language in a short story is somehow different from
other forms of discourse that it breaks the language norms; therefore, through

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reading students will have chances to approach the language outside the classroom,
which are not only increasing the students‟ reading skill but also solving problem
that a student learning grammar rules very well still gets confused when talking to
the native speakers (Widdowson, 1983:37).
Moreover, short story is handy in teaching culture to foreign language learners.
Short story conveys the culture of the populace regarding whom the story is
portrayed. Through learning the culture, students learn about the old times as well
as modern, along with concerning people‟s civilization and customs. Culture
educates students to understand and respect people‟sdifferences. Misinterpretation
may occur due to differences between the two cultures as Gajdusek (1998:232)
explains. To avoid misinterpretation, instructors should introduce the culture to the
students or ask them to find relevant information about it.
Finally, for the teachers, short stories offer some advantages as Colin and Slater
(1991:113) lists below:
 Their practical length means they can be read within one or two lessons; novels
or plays can be sectioned in the same way but still take a few classes.
 A teacher can choose very different short stories, so that there is a greater chance
of finding something to appeal to each individual‟s taste and interests.

background information required for a true appreciation of the material.
Furthermore, to use short stories in the learning process, it is required for the
teacher to think creatively how to plan the activity that makes the students to have
direct experience so that reading comprehension can be attained.
When choosing a short story, teacher should also consider about the students‟
cultural background and social experience which help them understand the text. It
would be difficult for most readers to make sense of the story without having any
knowledge of the value and culture of the society they describe.
Last but not least, factors connected with the text like availability and
exploitability are also necessary to be considered. Teachers should think of some
questions such as: How easily can teachers make the short stories available to the
students?; What kinds of tasks and activities can teachers exploit the stories?, etc.
In the author‟s point of view, whether the use of short stories in teaching can be
successful or not depends to a large extent on how the teachers apply them and

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whether this sits the teaching situation. It can help teachers avoid serious
unexpected problems and help students actively take part in the learning process.
Therefore, the issue of text selection is a very significant consideration teachers
should pay much attention in language classes.
1.3 Review of the previous related studies
It is clear that using literature, especially short stories in teaching language is one
of the most suitable methods that enhance learning in all fields. Moreover, it also is
an influential and powerful way to improve students‟ skills, especially reading
comprehension. These are the reasons why teaching reading skill through story has
drawn much attention of researchers in Vietnam as well as other countries recently.
First of all, Fitriya (2010) conducted an action research on using picture-stories to
improve students‟ reading comprehension at the eighth grade of SMP N I

integrating short stories and poems in developing the reading skills for 2nd year students
in Hai Phong University. In the study, she presented the potential values of using
literary text in language development in general and how to integrate short story and
poem in aiding reading comprehension in particular. From the results, it can be claimed
that language teachers should include more literary texts into their language lessons.
Phạm Thu Hà (2009) conducted a study on using short stories in teaching
English in the context of Vietnam Australia school-Hanoi. The research found out
that it is necessary and beneficial for teachers to use short stories in teaching
English to enhance students‟ language proficiency and creative expressions in the
target language. In addition, students also felt motivated and interested in their
teachers‟ use of short stories in English class.
In 2010, Đào Thị Minh Hương was concerned about the relationship between
first-year Nghe An college students‟ motivation to read and their use of reading
strategies. She drew conclusion that motivation had important influence on
students‟ use of reading strategies. She also claimed that the reading texts played a
significant role to students‟ motivation in reading in terms of its level of challenge,
topics and content. Therefore, she suggested teachers should use authentic materials
such as magazines, articles, songs and stories
1.4 Summary
In short, this chapter has established the theoretical background concerned with
the topic of the research. It has mentioned an overview of reading, short stories and
their benefits in teaching language and previous related studies.

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