Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS using short stories in teaching english in the context of vietnam australia school hanoi

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

Today, English is the global means of communication It is now an official language in more than 75 countries, with a total population of over 2 billion speakers Three quarters of the world‟s mail are in English and 80% of the world‟s electrically stored information is also currently in English (Crystal, 1997) English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN and the official language of the European Central Bank (Wallraff, 2000) Briefly, with the spread of globalization and the rapid expansion of information technologies has come an explosion in the demand for English worldwide

Unexceptionally, in Vietnam, English is considered the key to success in modern life

The number of English learners has been increasing rapidly in the last few decades To meet the demand, a great deal of schools and centers with special English teaching and learning programs have been set up everywhere, especially in big cities Vietnam Australia School- Hanoi (VAS), a private high school which is located in My Dinh, Hanoi, is one example

Established in 2007, VAS is to offer an ideal environment for learning English It cooperates with PLC, a famous school in Australia in curriculum and education programs Students in VAS have to follow the English syllabus of Vietnam carried out by Vietnamese teachers

Besides they have global English and global commerce classes with Australian teachers, hence, there are many chances for them to practice and improve English in real life conversations with native speaking people All of the parents hope that their children can have the best learning conditions, especially the best English learning environment so that their children will be able to go on studying overseas or to have the best preparation for their future

However, one of the challenges facing English teachers of VAS, including the author of this study, is composing extra materials In VAS, students have five to six periods a week with Vietnamese teachers, which is twice as much as other ordinary schools Therefore, besides the textbooks, extra materials are needed Normally, many teachers select or compose more written practice tests to drill what students have learned in the textbook However, this type of materials does seem to have attracted much interest Sometimes, extra written practice tests are blamed for a boring atmosphere in many classes Thus, there should be variations so that students feel more interested in learning In VAS, a number of sources of teaching materials such as poems, short stories, drama, films, English songs, etc have been exploited now and then Among these, using short stories as teaching supplementary materials has been taken into consideration for some following reasons

Firstly, short stories can be seen as an interesting and suitable source of teaching materials As reading texts, short stories can serve the language skill drilling function quite well More importantly, short stories in particular and literary texts in general are favorable for students‟ language and cultural development and personal involvement Since literature enables students to understand and appreciate other cultures and societies, it encourages personal growth and intellectual development According to Ibsen‟s view (1990), literary texts appeal to students in term of emotion and personal experience because each student will meet the text in his/her own way based on experiences and knowledge of literature and life This creates meaningful and interesting discussions among students and draws on personal responses form learners In other words, learners become more personally involved in the process of language learning and can begin to own the language they learn more fully It also retains a good learning climate in a relaxing atmosphere

Moreover, in comparison with other sources of teaching materials such as written practice exercises, poems, films, English songs, short stories are believed to have several advantages Written practice exercises as mentioned above do not always interest students

Poems seem rather complex and abstract for schoolchildren Not every available English song and film which suits the taste of students can serve the language skill drilling function properly Whereas, there is a variety of short stories to choose, ranging from elementary to proficiency levels Relatively short, fun, memorable and meaningful short stories are not too bring about room for endless debate where students can live in the real human experience world Above language, they can learn many useful lessons about real life to develop their personalities

In Vietnam- Australia school, Hanoi, short stories are mostly used as supplementary material for teaching by Australian teachers and sometimes applied by Vietnamese teachers

However, there has been no official research on using them in teaching English This study has been conducted with the purpose to investigate how other teachers and students think about the use of short stories in teaching English and to what extents they have employed them in their teaching

All these above explain why the author tries to do the research It is hoped to result in useful ideas of using short stories in language classroom, especially in the context of Vietnam Australia School, Hanoi.

Aims of the study

Parallel with the reasons leading to the research are some following aims:

- To investigate the perception of students towards the use of short stories

- To study on the current use of short stories by teachers in Vietnam Australia School, Hanoi

- To discuss some suggestions of using short stories in classroom such as selecting materials and using these materials in a way that is relevant to the students

This study seeks the answers to the following questions

1 How do teachers percieve the use of short stories in teaching English in terms of necessity?

2 How do students percieve short stories as a source of language input in terms of interest and importance?

3 How do teachers exploit short stories in teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency?

4 To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching English?

5 What are the obstacles that have limited teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching English?

6 What are the obstacles that challenge students in learning English with short stories?

7 What are the recomendations for using short stories in teaching English given by students and teachers?

Scope of the study

In this study, the author intends to deal with the question of using short stories beneficially in language teaching Other literary texts are not concerned in the study

The study was conducted in VAS with the participation of 10 teachers, both Vietnamese and Australian, and 100 senior high school students, who were chosen randomly from the alphabetical list of names The number of the teacher participants made up three- fourths and the students participants accounted for five-sixths of the whole population

However, the focus of the researcher was not put into junior high school students, so the implication might be not applicable in classes of junior high school students.

Research methods

Data collection for analysis in the study are mainly gained through survey questionnaires and interviews

The questionaires aim at studying the students‟ and the teachers‟ attitude towards using short stories in classroom and their feedbacks after having lessons with short stories

Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews were conducted among the teachers to triangulate the data collected from the questionnaires and to gather further information

After that, the data collected were collectively analyzed to address the research questions Tables, charts and diagrams were used for clearer presentation and comparison.

Significance of the study

By looking into the perception of the use of short stories in English classes, the satisfaction of both teachers and students with their achievements and improvement in teaching and learning process, and the obstacles facing them, the study brings about an overall teachers, especially those teaching in VAS, of one possible source of teaching material, short stories It also informs teachers of the benefits of using short stories and suggests some useful ways of applying them in teaching English.

Structure of the study

This study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction, briefly presents the reasons for doing the study, its aims, scope, subjects as well as the research methodology

Chapter 2, Literature review, presents an overview of literature and short stories in language teaching

Chapter 3, Methodology, states the reason for choosing research methodology and the descriptions of the setting, subjects, instruments and the procedure of data collection and analysis

Chapter 4, Data analysis and Results, provides an analysis of collected data and the findings

Chapter 5, Conclusion and recommendations, suggests teaching techniques and conclusion

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature and language teaching

The term "literature" has different meanings depending on who is using it and in what context Different people approach literature in their own ways

Lazar (1993, p.1) introduced some definitions of literature:

Literature is “feelings” and “thoughts” in black and white Literature is the use of language to evoke a personal response in the reader or listener Literature is the world of fantasy, horror, feelings, visions put into words Literature means to meet a lot of people, to know other different points of view, ideas, thoughts, minds to know ourselves better

According to Iris Murdoch (1978), literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotion And for Ezra Pound (1981), great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree

From these definitions quoted above, it can be concluded that literature is as literature does In exploring what literature is, it is useful to look at some of the things that literature does Literature is something that reflects society, makes us think about ourselves and our society, allows us to enjoy language and beauty, it can be didactic, and it reflects on the human condition It both reflects ideology and changes ideology, just like it follows generic conventions as well as changing them Literature is the creation of another world, a world that people can only see through reading literature

Literary texts are distintive from other texts Its language involves a special, or unusual use of language Many linguists have pointed out that there are a number of features of literary language which can be isolated Many of these features occur in other forms of discourse as well, but in many literary texts they combine to form a highly unified and consistent effect, which strongly reinforces the message of the text (Brumfit and Carter, 1986)

2.1.3 Using literature in language classroom

The use of literature in language teaching tends to be ignored since it is treated as a means of relaxation Because most of ESL teachers think literature is too structurally complex for learners to read, it is supposed by ESL teachers to contribute very little to their main goal - to teach learners the grammar of the language so that learners can use the language in daily communication However, in fact, literature is not just for literature students; literature should be sensibly used in a language classroom for a number of reasons

Literature- motivating and valuable authentic material

“Literature is “feelings” and “thoughts” in black and white Literature is the world of fantasy, horror, feelings, visions put into words Literature means to meet a lot of people, to know other different points of view, ideas, thoughts, minds to know ourselves better ”

(Lazar (1993, p.1) Therefore, literature is human life In other words, literature reflects real life all around the world More than that, it transcends the time and culture to speak directly to a reader of a different country at a different period of time (Collie & Slater, 1987) This is the reason why many works of famous writers such as William Shakespears, Nguyen Du, Mark Twain, ect are still alive despite the challenge of time What‟s more, literature is not written for the specific purpose of teaching but the native readers There are many different linguistic forms and uses used in daily life Thus, through the language of literature, learners can be exposed to such a kind of authentic language, which is the aim of any language teachers

Furthermore, once students are familiar with literature in their own language, then studying some literature in English can provide an interesting and thought-provoking point for comparison For example, teachers can ask students to retell short stories from their own culture before getting them to read an authentic story in English on a similar theme It could be highly motivating Additionally, a good novel or short story can involve students in the suspense of unravelling the plot When reading literary texts, readers are said to live with the characters they like They respond to what the characters say and do and keep sharing their emotion from the beginning to the end Readers are absorbed in the events of the story and eager to find out what happens next Really, the students are well-motivated and willing to take part in the journey of exploring the unknown language territory, which wil create the very positive effects on the process of language learning

Literature- a good access to cultural background

Literature can provide students with access to the culture of the people whose language they are studying Sage (1987, p9) said “literary texts can serve as open windows to the target language.” When reading literature students can find out much information about the social, political and historical events which form the background of the literary work Besides, literature “does seem to provide a way of conextualising how a member of a particular society might behave or react in a specific situation” (Lazar, 1993, p.17) It is very interesting and useful to find out insights into the relationship, emotions, beliefs, attitudes, lifestyles of people from other cultures Hence, literature is considered as the best complimentary material that helps to increase learners‟ knowledge about other countries

Literature- an encouragement for language acquisition

In many countries in the world including Vietnam students have limited access to spoken English, and written English often takes on primary importance for stimulating language acquisition Literature may provide a particularly appropriate way of stimulating this acquistion as it provides meaningful and memorable contexts for processing and interpreting new language Obviously, at lower level, students may be unable to cope on their own with a genuie novel or short story in English Any extensive reading should be of graded material

However, at higher levels, students may be so absorbed in the plot and characters of an authentic novel or short story that they acquire a great deal of new language Because literature is very rich in meaning, the use of literary texts within the classroom is often a particularly successful way of promoting activities in which students need to share their feelings and opinions such as discussion and groupwork Focussing on a task which demands that students express their personal responses to multiple levels of meaning can only serve to improve the students‟ acquisition of language

Besides linguistic benefits, literature has an educational function, which is considered the strongest and the most important effect on the language learners It stimulates the imagination of students, develops their critical abilities and increases their emotional awareness For example, if we ask students to respond personally to the texts we give them, they will become incresingly confident about expressing their own ideas and emotions in English They will feel empowered by their abilities to deal with the text and its language and to relate it to the values and traditions of their own society.

Short stories in language classroom

The following definition about short stories is extracted from the encyclopedia: “The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format The short story is characterized by the number of words contained therein.”

Determining the actual length of a short story is problematic Short story definitions based upon length differ somewhat even among professional writers Many short story writers define their work through a combination of creative, personal expression and artistic integrity

As a result, definitions of the short story based upon length splinter even more when the writing process is taken into consideration A classic definition of a short story‟s length is that it must be able to be read in one sitting but in contemporary usage the term most often refers to a piece of fiction up to 20,000 words In practice, however, a short story‟s length is determined by the publisher In the United States, for example, short stories, which are called

“long short stories”, can be anything up to 10,000 words In the United Kingdom, short stories average around 5,000 words but in Australia, they are rarely more than 3,500 words Although some short stories called micro narratives can be just a few hundred words long, there is an expectation among contemporary readers that short stories are at least 1,000 words in length

Short stories are considered shorter than novels Therefore, they are also less complex

Usually a short story focuses on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a small number of characters who are somehow connected with each other, and covers a short period of time and a sequence of events

2.2.2 Benefits of using short stories in language classroom 2.2.2.1 Reinforcing the skills

Murdoch (2002) indicates that “short stories can, if selected and exploited appropriately, provide quality text content which greatly enhances ELT courses for learners ”(p.9) In other words, short stories allow teachers to teach the four skills to learners of all language proficiency levels

Oster (1989) affirms that literature helps students to writes more creatively Teachers can create a variety of writing activities to help students to develop their writing skills They can ask students to write dialogues or more complex writing activities if students have reached a high level of language proficiency

In addition, stories can be used to improve students‟ vocabulary and reading Lao and Krashen (2000) compared a group of students that read literary texts and another group that read non-literary texts at a university in Hongkong The group who read literary texts showed inprovement in vocabulary and reading What they read gave them the oppotunity to come up with their own insights and helped them to speak the language in a more imaginative way

They became more creative since they faced with their own point of view, that/those of the main character(s) of the story and those of their peers

Focusing on point of view in literature enlarges students‟ vision and fosters critical thinking by dramatizing the various ways Therefore, when students read, they interact with the text By interacting with the text, they interpret what they read By interpreting what they read, they can work toward speaking English more creatively

In reference to listening, teachers can read the story out loud or play the story out loud so students have the oppotunity to listen to the story and correct their pronunciation first

Students listen and find answers to questions given to them prior to the listening activity For students to understand the story when they listen to it for the first time, the questions can be based on literary structures such as “who is the main character of the story? Where/when does the story take place?; what is the problem in the story?”

Since short stories usually have a beginning, development and ending, they encourage students at all levels of language proficiency to continue reading them until the end to find out how the conflict is resolved Elliott (1990), for example, affirms that literature motivates advanced students and is “motivationally efective if students can genuiely engage with its thoughts and emotions and apprecite its aesthetic qualitites” (p.197) He stresses the importance of developing student-response (individual and group levels) and competence in literature In addition, literature motivates students “to explore their feelings through experiencing those of others” (p.1) Besides, according to the Internet article (author not named) “Using Literature in Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language” (2004),

“Literature is motivating Literature holds high status in many cultures and countries For this reason, students can feel a real sense of achievement at understanding a piece of highly respected literature Also, literature is often more interesting than the texts found in coursebooks” As a result, teachers should agree that literary texts encourage students to read, and most literary texts chosen according to students‟ language proficiency levels and preferences will certainly be motivating

Teachers can introduce literary elements with short stories With beginning and low intermediate levels, teachers can teach simple elements such as characters, setting and plot

The same and more complex elements, such as conflicts, climax, resolution, etc can be introduced to more advanced levels Gajdusek (1988) explains how literature can be introduced by describing the order of activities: pre-reading activities, factual in-class work, analysis and extending activities In the pre-reading activities, students have the oppoturnity to learn about the background of the story and vocabulary In factual-in class activities, students should be introduced to who, what, when, where of the story, or the point of view, chatracter, setting and action The question should be placed next to the paragraph in which the answer is found so students can begin to understand each literary element means with the help of the teacher The questions can be: Who is the main character of the story? Where does the story take place? When does the story happen? Who is narating the story?

Extending activities, on the other hand, deals with “why”, that is, “involvement and experience” (Gajdusek, p 245) Students must be able to use their knowledge of the language to express their ideas Thus, only students who have reached a high intermediate/advanced level of language profiency should be introduced to these activities For him, these activities ask for “creative and relevant response from the readers” (p 251) Role-play is one of the extending activities that can get students more involved in the story Teachers can ask students to play the role of several characters For example, with the story “The wisdom of Solomon”, teachers can ask students to do the following tasks:

METHODOLOGY

Sampling

The study was conducted in Vietnam Australia School, Hanoi (VAS) where the author is doing the teaching job The school has totally 350 students including 120 senior high school students According to their English level and their grade in other subjects in Vietnamese, these students are catergorized and assigned into classes from A1 to A3 or V1 to V3

This study was carried out with the participation of 10 teachers and 100 senior high school students in VAS The students were chosen randomly from the alphabetical list of names.They accounted for five-sixths of the whole students in year 10 and year 11 of VAS (the school has not had any students in year 12 yet) Moreover, the students participating in the study came from different classes taught by different teachers with various teaching methods and techniques Therefore the data collected can be believed to be representative.

There are totally twenty teachers of English in VAS but only ten teachers (five Vietnamese ans five Australian ones), who were in charge of English classes in senior high school, were chosen to take part in the survey questionnaire Due to the shortage of time, four teachers were interviewed after the survey.

Data collection instruments

To achieve the research objectives, a combined data collection process using both survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was employed

In order to obtain sufficient data, the survey questionnaire was chosen as a main instrument

First of all, the structuring of questions was intentional corresponding to the research questions to obtain factual, behavioral and attitudinal information from the participants (the situation of using short stories in teaching English in VAS, the perception of teachers and students and its benefits in teaching and learning in English classes)

Secondly, using questionnaires is particularly “efficient in terms of researcher time, effort, and financial resources” (Hoang and Nguyen, 2006, p.10) By administrating the questionnaire, a huge amount of information can be collected from a large number of people within a short period of time, and the personal investment required is a mere fraction of other instruments such as observation Furthermore, the questionnaire construction is made convenient for the data to be processed Specifically, the Likert scale is adopted to reveal the participants‟ attitudes and behaviors Likert scale is believed not only to save space and time but also to enable the respondents to give more specific answers which increases the accuracy of the interpretation of data

However, there are some weaknesses of questionnaires such as the “simplicity and superficiality generated in questionnaires” (Dornyei 2003, p.210) and the “fatigue effect” or tiredness and boredom that influence responses towards the end of the questionnaire In order to minimize these drawbacks of questionnaire, the researcher has attempted to make the questionnaire items clear and brief Besides, interviews have been conducted to get more detailed information

The survey questionnaire for teachers consists of 8 questions organized into five parts which correspond to the five research questions Part 2 with 3 questions focusses on the exploitation of short stories in teaching English including the purpose and the frequency of the use of short stories and the techniques applied to exploit a short story Part 3 studies the satisfaction with the use of short stories in teaching English Part 4 investigates the obstacles in using short stories in teaching English In part 5, respondents can make any recommendations to ensure the better use of short stories in teaching English.The teachers who have already applied short stories in teaching English have to answer all the questions in the five parts whereas those who have not used short stories in teaching English skip part 2 and 3 and answer the questions in part 1, part 4 and part 5 Part 1 aims to elicit the teachers‟ perceptions of using short stories in teaching English in VAS

The student survey questionnaire is designed similarly but shorter (2 pages in length) and simple It is translated into Vietnamese so that the students can understand the questions clearly to give correct answers The questionnaire for students is organized into three parts with five questions It concerns the perceptions of the use of short stories in learning English, the obstacles in using short stories in English class as supplementary materials and their expectations

Together with the survey questionnaire, the interview was exploited as a valuable research instrument to examine the research problem

In light of research methodology, “interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant‟s experiences The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further investigate their responses” (Hoang and Nguyen, 2006, p.47) In this study, the interviews were conducted after the collection of the survey questionnaires, and its content mostly focuses on interesting or controversial aspects noted from the questionnaires

Semi-structured interviews were adopted with the participation of four teachers The researcher entered the interview with a general idea of the areas to focus on rather than a fixed list of questions As this research tool allows the interviewer a certain degree of both control and flexibility while it still leaves the interviewee some power over the course of the interview (Hoang and Nguyen, 2006, p.45), it could elicit rich information from the respondents and help address the research questions effectively Its purpose is to triangulate the data collected from the survey and obtain in-depth information, so clarifications and further explanations are frequently provided to the respondents.

Procedure of data collection

The procedure of data collection consists of three main phases as follows:

During this period, the survey questionnaire and interview schedule were designed based on the conceptual framework established in the Literature Review Each research question was further divided into sub-questions In any of these instruments, personal information of participants was kept confidential and anonymous for ethical reasons These forms were then sent to the supervisor of the researcher for feedback Besides, the survey forms and interview schedules were piloted on five voluntary students Thanks to this step, the layout of the whole questionnaire and the wording of several questions had been considerably improved to avoid possible ambiguity and misunderstandings of respondents Also, the pilot survey highlighted the need to establish strict supervision and consistent understanding of terms to participants to ensure the reliability of data collected

The second phase was to conduct the survey questionnaire Due to difficulties in making direct contact and time constraints, questionnaires for teachers were mostly delivered via email so that the participants could complete it at their convenience

As for the students, it took the researcher an enormous amount of time to arrange appropriate time and place to carry out the survey The introduction about the study, instructions and definitions of key terms were given clearly and the researcher was ready to answer any questions that arose in order to guarantee the quality of the information All the questionnaires delivered were returned

In the third stage, some teachers were invited to join an interview This was to triangulate the data collected through questionnaires and, at the same time, gather further information about their thoughts and expectations The interview was conducted in the teacher‟s room during after class Permission was asked for in advance to record the interview

Besides, the researcher was ready to take note of any special non-verbal behaviors of the interviewees

In this final stage of the data collection procedure, all the interviews were transcribed

Since data from the interviews came in large amount, the transcripts were then summarized according to the research questions The detailed notes regarding interviewee‟s background, and the setting of the interview were added To avoid potential rigid summary without context and enable reference when necessary, the page number of the quotations in the transcripts was added.

Procedure of data analysis

After the data collection process, the information obtained from both the survey questionnaires and interviews was classified according to the research questions Since previously the researcher had intentionally arranged the questions in the questionnaires and interviews corresponding to the research questions, the task became less complicated

Consequently, for each research question, participants‟ responses were calculated and transferred into numerical form, for example the percentage of participants who shared similar ideas or their average rating The data were then tabulated and charted for clearer presentation and easier comparison and synthesis Qualitative data like participants‟ answers to the open- ended questions in the questionnaire or during the interviews were summarized and presented in the form of quotations when necessary to provide more insights into the issue

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Reseach question 1: How do teachers percieve the use of short stories in teaching

From the beginning, the respondents had to answer the questions “Have you ever used short stories besides those in the textbook in your English teaching process?” Nine out of ten respondents said they had used short stories in their teaching process Only one teacher had never applied short stories in teaching

Figure 4 1: The presense of short stories in the teaching practice of the teachers

From the data collected, one fact was drawn out that the teachers not only fulfilled the syllabus but also had great enthusiasm in teaching They took great effort to find supplementary teaching sources besides the textbook Among many sources, short stories were taken into consideration

The teacher‟s perceptions of using short stories in teaching English in terms of necessity was studied Almost everyone can realize the necessity of using short stories in teaching English, but how necessary it is depends on individual evaluation None of the teachers (0%) in VAS disapproved of its necessity and also none of them agreed with the fact that using short stories in teaching English was compulsory Only one teacher said that it was not very necessary to use short stories in teaching English Four teachers accepted it was necessary and the rest (five teachers) agreed that it was very necessary It can be concluded from the data that all teachers realized the necessity of using short stories, which led them to use short stories in their teaching.

Research question 2: How do students percieve short stories as a source of language

As can be seen from the chart below, most of the students (75%) were intersted in the teacher‟s use of short stories 20% of them were only interested sometimes However, there was a small number of students who didn‟t care much about it

Figure 4 2: Students’ perception of short stories in terms of interest

Referring to the personal information in the questionnaire, those who didn‟t care much about the teachers‟ use of short stories mostly came from A3 classes which were regarded as lower level They might be a bit lazy or have some difficulty in learning English with short stories, which will be looked into later on Anyway, three quarters of the students felt very interested in short stories, which means that they themslves had motivation and wiould try their best to overcome any challenges to reach their goals of learning Being interesed in learning English with short stories, the students themselves realized its benefit very clearly It can be revealed

Table 4 1: Students’ practice with short stories

Items Mean Median Mode a I can practice listening and speaking skills more 3.4 4 4 b I can practice reading and writing skills more 3.3 3,5 4 c I can learn more new words and expressions in context 3.4 4 4 d I can enrich my background knowledge about people, cultures, countries and the world

3.24 3 4 e I have more chances to discuss with my friends and express my ideas

3.88 4 4 f I feel relaxed and interested in short stories 3.8 4,5 5 g I find myself more imaginative and creative 3.2 4,3 3 h My critical thinking gets better 2.8 2,3 3

The mean scores were all over 3, and nearly 4 (3.88 and 3.8) for items “e” and “f”

Also most of mode scores were 4, especially maximum 5 for item “f” Most of them felt relaxed and intersted to express their ideas and discuss with their friends However, among these investigated items, items “g” and “h” got lower scores (mean around 3 and mode=3)

They did not think much about the improvement and development in imagination, creativeness and critical thinking Perhaps, it was fairly hard for students themseleves and even for teachers to realize the improvement and development in imagination, creativeness and critical thinking

More importantly, the teachers themselves might not consider these their main aims when using short stories

4 3 Research question 3: How do teachers exploit short stories in teaching English in terms of purpose, strategy and frequency?

For this research question, nine teachers who have used short stories in their teaching were under investigation The teachers‟ exploitation of short stories in teaching English were examined in terms of frequency, purpose and strategy

4.3.1 The frequency of using short stories in teaching English

Although all of them said they had used short stories besides the textbook in their teaching process, only three teachers (33%) used short stories in their teaching practice almost every week Six out of nine teachers (67%) used short stories just from time to time, about several times in a semester

Figure 2.3:The frequency of using short stories in teaching English

4.3.2 The purposes of using short stories in teaching English

As reviewed in chapter two, short stories have many benefits such as reinforcing language skills, motivating students, introducing literary elements, teaching culture, and higer –order thinking The purposes of using short stories in teaching English of the teachers in VAS have been investigated The question “how often is your use of short stories motivated by the following purposes?” has been raised and the details for the items are as follows

Table 4.2: Teachers’ purposes of using short stories in teaching English

Items Mean Median Mode a To develop the four basic language skills, especially reading and writing

4.44 4 4 b To develop the four basic language skills, especially speaking and listening

3.55 4 4 c To develop students‟ language components such as vocabulary and grammar 3.66 4 4 d To raise students‟ cultural awareness 2 2 2 e To improve students‟ creative expressions in the target language

4.55 4 4 f To improve students‟ interest in learning and involve them in class activities

5 5 5 g To develop their critical thinking 2.22 2 2

As can be seen, the items for this question received a wide range of mean, mode and median, from 2 to 5 Item “d” and “g” got the lowest scores (mean=2 and 2.22 and mode the rest items got very high scores with mean higher than 3.5, mode and median equal to 4 It means that for all teachers, the purpose of using short stories in teaching English was to improve students‟ interest in learning and involve them in class activities Frequently, their aims of using short stories were to improve students‟ creative expressions in the target language, to develop the four language skills, especially reading and writing skills with the mean of 4, and to develop students‟ language components such as vocabulary and grammar

However, the use of short stories in English classes in VAS occasionally aimed at raising students‟ cultural awareness and developing their critical thinking This result was quite consistent with the students‟perception of their teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching mentioned in the previous analysis of research question 2

In short, though the teachers had various aims when using short stories in their teaching practice, all of them had the same long-term goal, that is to form an instrinsic motivation in their students so that they will learn for their excellence, autonomy, and self- actualization, which enhances their master of the language

4.3.3 The strategies to exploit short stories in teaching English

The exploitation of short stories in teaching English was examined basing on the techniques applied in pre-teaching, while-teaching and post-teaching

Items Mean Median Mode a Read aloud the stories 2.55 3 3 b Underline or highlight all the unknown words and phrases in the story 4 4 4 c Guess the meaning of the unknown words and phrases and explain their use in context

3.66 4 4 d Call out the names of the characters in the story 2.33 2 2, 3 e Do drilling tasks to get more details of the stories 4.55 4 5 f Ask and answer questions about the story 4.44 5 5 g Summarize or retell the story 2.77 3 3 h Translate the story into the target language 1.44 1 1 i Discuss and express opinions and attitudes toward the story and its characters, etc 3.33 3 3, 4 j Role-play the story 2 2 2 k Continue the story by imagining what would happen next

2 2 2 l Retell the story with a new ending 2 2 2

In pre-teaching, students need to get familiar with the story by understanding the setting of the story or some new words and phrases in the story A variety of techniques are applied in different situations Here, only four techniques were looked into Item “b” and “c” received high mean scores of 4 and 3.66 and the median and mode scores of 4 It means that the teachers frequently asked their students to “underline or highlight all the unknown words and phrases in the story and guess the meaning of the unknown words and phrases and explain their use in context” In other words, in pre-teaching the unknown words were mainly focused on because they are considered to be the most challenging barrier for the majority of students when learning English At times, stories were read aloud in class (with mean=2.55 and median=mode=3) The names of the characters in the story were generally assumed to be easy to remember, therefore, only occasionly students were asked to call out the names of the characters in the story except for a little more difficult ones with a number of characters

In while-teaching, almost all the respondents exploited a short story in the same way

Normally, after explaining the unknown words, phrases and expressions, a range of tasks were used to make students understand more about the story With very high mean scores (=4.55, and 4.44), median (=4 and 5) and maximum mode (=5), items “e” and “f” show the tendency of exploiting a short story in while-teaching by the teachers in VAS They usually used a set of excercises or comprehension questions to check their students‟understanding of the story

Research question 4: To what extent do teachers feel satisfied with their use of short

About 67% (six out of nine) of the respondents said that they were satisfied with their use of short stories in teaching because they had achieved their teaching purposes and most of their students liked their use of short stories in class However, it is rather surprising that no teachers felt completely satisfied The rest about 33 % were not very satisfied because their students sometimes got bored or too lazy to take part in any extra activities

The table below shows how the teachers rate the achievements of their purposes when using short stories

Table 4 4: Teachers’ satisfaction with the use of short stories in teaching English

Items Mean Median Mode a My students‟ language skills, especially reading and writing skills are improved 3.33 4 4 b The students‟ language skills, especially speaking and listening are improved

3.44 4 4 c My students‟ language competence is enhanced 3.66 4 4 d My students‟ background knowledge about cultures, countries, ect is enriched

3.11 3 3 e My students‟ creativeness in expression is bettered 3.55 4 4 f My students are really motivated by short stories 4 4 4 g The critical thinking ability of my students is developed 3.11 3 3

As can be seen form the table, the results collected are comparatively high Especially, item “f” (my students are really motivated by short stories) got mean, median, and mode of 4

It means that all the teachers agreed that short stories could motivate students in learning

Besides, most of them agreed on the benefits of short stories in improving students‟ language components, language skills and creativity Nevertherless, there was suspicion of the fact that short stories could develop the critical thinking ability and enrich students background knowledge of cultures and countries because many responded “undecided” In fact, students‟ interest in learning can be realized very clearly through their attitude and participation in the class activities Students‟ progress and improvement in their language competence can be accessed very regularly However, their critical thinking ability and background knowledge may be more difficult to realized or accessed in a short period of time and teachers need to be more sensitive to decide whether they have achieved these purposes or not In conclusion, the achievements of the seven purposes were rated very high In other words, most goals have been gained in either a short term or a long-term.

Research question 5: What are the obstacles that have limited teachers’ use of short

Though, as said above, the majority of the teachers were satisfied and rated their achivements of the purposed relatively high, there are still some obstacles that have limited their use of short stories in teaching English such as oversized classes with mixed levels, the lack of time, materials and official management, guides or strategies, the inconsistency in cirriculum and evaluation among the teaching staff and so on Below are the findings from the data collected

Table 4 5: The obstacles in using short stories in teaching English

Items Mean Median Mode a The time is limited 2.77 2 2 b The class is too big with mixed levels 2 2 2 c Looking for suitable short stories for students takes too much time and effort 4 4 4 d There are no official management, guides or strategies from the department for the use of short stories in teaching English

3.77 4 4 e Designing tasks for students are challenging and time-consuming 4.55 5 5 f It is not easy to evaluate students‟ performance on the given tasks

Unlike the circumstances in many high school in Vietnam, where the biggest difficulty is normally oversized classes with multi levels of students, in VAS it doesn‟t cause much profiency, it is thought to be an ideal learning environment Therefore, all the respondents disagreed with the fact that the class is too big with mixed levels In constrast, most of them claimed that in small classes of equal levels of students, it was convenient and not very time consuming to exploit a story thoroughly and organize various interactive activities What‟s more, in VAS, there is much time available, which is twice as much as in other schools, so it is also not a challenge for the teachers

While most of them felt content with the time in VAS, they did not express their ideas about the evaluating students‟performace on the given tasks They explained that with certain tasks like multiple choice questions, it was easy to mark the students‟ performance However, sometimes, some types of tasks such as role-playing, discussing, or inventing a story, ect it was hard to assess quantitively or equally among the students Students worked in pairs or groups and helped one another in learning Mark was usually given for the whole group

Besides, weaker students needed to be encouraged and awarded in time to enthusiatically take part in class activities So qualitive assessment was not the most important factor, but the students‟ real interest, motivation and participation were their main goals

The main obstacles that have limited teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching English are looking for suitable short stories for students, designing tasks for students and lacking official management, guides or strategies from the department for the use of short stories in teaching English The mean scores calculated for the three items a very high in comparison with items “a” and “b” The mean scores ranged from 3.77 to 4.55 Certainly, there is a wide selection of short stories on the Internet and in the library, but looking for suitable short stories takes time and effort In addition, normally, short stories do not enclose tasks so teachers need to design a set of suitable tasks for their students To do so, they need to consider many factors such as sudents‟ preference and linguistic competence, time allowance, and so on.

Research question 6: What are the obstacles that challenge students in learning

It is worth finding out the obstacles that challenge students in learning English with short stories because it is the basis for the teachers to adjust their teaching methods and techniques The findings are summarized in the table below

Table 4 6: Obstacles challenging the students in learning with short stories

Items Mean Median Mode a My class is so big and noisy that I cannot concentrate on the lesson 2.6 2 2 b There isn‟t enough time for me to understand the stories thoroughly 2.82 3 2 c Short stories are too challenging with many unknown words, phrases and expressions in literary styles 3.32 4 4 d I don‟t understand what to do with the given tasks 2 3 1,3 e Some tasks such as re-telling, summarizing, rewriting the story…are too difficult for me 3.3 4 4 f Others:

Like the teachers, the students did not much difficulty with big or noisy classes or the time available for learning The biggest trouble was that there were many unknown words, phrases and expressions in literary styles in short stories with mean=3.32; mode and median=4 They claimed that a short story contained too many unfamiliar words with difficult literary styles and structures, which made them afraid and took them too much effort to understand the meaning of the story Therefore, they lost their interest They really needed support from the teachers to cope with this problem

The second problem came from the teachers‟tasks The mode score (=1, 3) for item “d” indicates that many students found it not very difficult to understand what to do with the tasks assigned by the teachers and the same number didn‟t know what to do with the given tasks from time to time Hence, before asking students to do any tasks, the teachers should spend more time explaining carefully what and how to do Besides, the students supposed that some follow-up acitivites such as re-telling, summarizing and rewriting the story were too hard for them They said that these activities were only for some good students in class, not for the whole and they did not eagerly take part in There should be some suggestions from the teacher first and pairwork or groupwork should be conducted so that even shy students can be

4.7 Research quesetion 7: What are the recomendations and expectations for using short stories in teaching English given by students and teachers?

From the experiences in teaching English with short stories, some recommendations were given with the view to ease the pain and better the use of short stories Referring to the data collected, the mode score of 2 for item “b” indicates that very few teachers agreed with the fact “class size should be reduced with equal level of the students” On the other hand, most of the teachers strongly agreed on one point that regular use of short stories should be encouraged and included in the curriculum of VAS Therefore, there should be a wide selection of short stories in the library and there should be official management and guides or strategies from the department for the use of short stories in teaching English.

Items Mean Median Mode a There should be a wide selection of short stories in the library 4.55 5 5 b Class size should be narrowed down with equal levels 2.77 2 2 c Regular use of short stories should be encouraged and included in the curriculum of VAS 5 5 5 d There should be official management and guides or strategies from the department for the use of short stories in teaching English

4.7.2 Students’ expectations 4.7.2.1 Students’ expectations in terms of length, level of difficulty and theme of a short story

Table 4 8: Students’ expectations in terms of length, level of difficulty and theme of a short story

Items Mean Median Mode a I like authentic short stories 2.9 2 2, 4 b I like simplified short stories 2.84 2 2, 4 c I like easier and shorter stories, just within one page 2.8 2 2, 4 d I like longer and more challenging stories 2.8 2 2, 4 e I like short stories with familiar topics like family life, friendship, love, etc

3.7 4 4 f I like short stories about social issues or detective stories 3.6 4 4

The data shown in the table above indicate the students‟ preference of short stories used in English class in terms of the length and the level of difficulty and theme The four items from “a” to “d” received nearly the same scores, mean=2.8; mode=2,4; median=2 The number of the students who liked authentic, longer, and more challenging stories was nearly the same as the number of those who liked simplified, easier and shorter short stories within one page It is quite a predictable result which reveals the right situation in the context of VAS Here, the students are grouped from A1 to A3 according to their levels of English and there seem to be two extremes between class A1 and class A3 It can be concluded that weaker students in classes A3 like short stories which are simplified, short and easy to underestand and better one in classes like authentic, and more challenging ones About the themes of short stories, the data in the table above shows that the students both like short stories with familiar topics like family life, friendship or love and the ones about social issues or detective stories

The study about the students‟ preference above helps the teachers have the right selection of short stories which can attract their attention and interest for further learning Two things ought to be taken into account First of all, for those at lower level, simplified, shorter and easier stories should be chosen whereas for the students at higher level, authentic and more challenging ones are preferable Second, the topics of the stories should be changed from time to time so that they can bring about an ebullient atmosphere in class

4.7.2.2 Students’ expectations for the activities in class

Students expectations for activites that the teachers often apply during English lessons with short stories were investigated The results are summarized in the table below

Table 4 9: Students’ expectations for the activities in class

Items Mean Median Mode a Underline or write down all the new words and get to know their meanings

4.2 4 4 b Listen/read and translate the stories into Vietnamese 3.2 3 3 c Do the skill-drilling tasks 2.9 3 4 d Just listen to the teacher‟s explanation and take note 3.2 4 2, 4 e Role- play the story 2.7 2.5 4 f Summarize the story 2.1 2 1 g Discuss and give comments on the story or the characters of the story

3.1 3.5 4 h Re-tell the story 2.5 3 3 i Based on the story, invent a new one with a new ending 3 3 4 Comparing the scores of all the items, it can be concluded that the activity the students usually wanted to do is to get to know the meanings of the unknown words that prevent them from thorough comprehension of the story Items “b”, c”, “d”, “g”, and “i” received nearly the same scores The mean around 3 means that these activities were expected at times The students sometimes would like to do the skill-drilling tasks; sometimes wanted to just read/listen to and translate the stories into Vietnamese; sometimes just to listen to the teacher‟s explanation and take note; sometimes to discuss and give comments on the story or the characters of the story or invent a new story with a new ending basing on the old one In other words, the students did not want to do the same set of activities all the time but various ones in different classes One thing that needs to be mentioned here is the contradicton between the teachers‟ strategies to exploit a short story and the students‟ expectation On searching for the teachers‟ strategies in research question 3, it was found out that all the teachers who had ever used short stories in teaching English never translated the stories into Vietnamese However, the students sometimes wanted the stories to be translated into Vietnamese

Items “e” and “h” got slightly lower mean scores, means of 2.7 and 2.5, which means the two activities “role-play the story” and “re-tell the story” were not favored as much as the ones mentioned in items “b”, c”, “d”, “g”, and “i The least preferable activity was summarizing the story It seems too boring and hard so very few students want to do it though most teachers considered it an effective way to check their students‟ comprehension after reading or listening The key is how to make it less boring and challenging so that the students are willing to take part in it.

Summary of the findings from the interview

As the results from the questionnaires were roughly calculated, four teachers were interviewed Two of them used short stories in teaching English quite often, almost every week One teacher only used short stories now and then and one never made use of short stories in teaching practice Below is the profile of the interviewees:

Table 4.10: Profile of the interviewees

Participants Qualifications Years of teaching

Frequency of using short stories in teaching in VAS

Roger Boum B.A on education 14 years Usually

Bevan Marshall Honored Master on education /TESOL certificate

Le Thi Hoi M.A on English teaching methodology

Nguyen Thi Minh Giang B.A on English teaching methodology

Bevan Marshall and Roger Boum had the frequent use of short stories in teaching

Both of them were very fond of and quite satisfied with the use of short stories in teaching

They used short stories very often, about once a week Le Thi Hoi made use of short stories less often than the two above teachers, just several times a semester However, all of them found short stories a good choice to create relaxing, motivating, communicative and changable atmosphere in class Even Nguyen Thi Minh Giang, who never used short stories in her teaching practice, agreed so She thought she would learn to make useful use of short stories some day

According to Boum, using interesting stories to teach English is very effective indeed, especially for students of lower intermediate level and above, where they can already communicate in simple English but still need a lot of practice to build up their communicative

“Interesting stories may come from the teachers and the students in his class First, the teacher may prepare and tell the students an unforgettable event in their own life, for example The story can contain only about 300 words, but the teacher can use vocal abilities and also body movements to make the story-telling more thrilling Then the teacher may show the script of the story on a transparency later and discuss a few words to make sure that the students understand the story quite well This also functions as a sample for students to write down their stories later on Next, assign the students to write down their own stories”

Marshall realised that short stories had many benefits in raising students‟ interest and improving students‟language skills but she specially emphasized on reading and writing skills:

“Being an English language teacher I give different tasks to my students and reading stories is one of them I make them read stories, then make them comprhend those stories This method improves the writing styles and they can learn new expression.”

Also, Bevan Marshall made some very good point, especially about drammatising the story and making it memorable in the telling He said very eagerly:

“ It doesn‟t have to be a personal story A piece of short literature would also be brilliant given the right treatment Also, it might not always be appropriate for the student contribution in written form?

Why not an oral contribution? Why not worked out in pairs or groups? A little play?”

Le Thi Hoi had the less frequent use than Bevan Marshall and Roger Boum but she had a very good way to exploit a short story Accroding to her, it‟s a good exercise as students learn to comprehend and pick up a lot of phrases and idoms She asked students to read a story silently, then she asked them to read the first paragraph and ask question on it Students learned to comprehend, and learned to listen and understand what was expected of them, then she also urged them to answer question in their own words and tell them a lot of synonyms

All the three teachers interviewed agreed on one point that their students were interested in their use of short stories very much In classes with short stories, they were very eager and motivated to participate in most of the activities given and practice a lot all the four language skills in the target language However, when being asked about the students‟ improvement in cultural awareness and critical thinking, they all claimed that these things were not their main teaching aims and they did not pay enough attention to realize their students‟ progress Boum explained the development in cultural awareness and critical thinking was a long journey which demanded a lot of time and efforts from both the teachers and the students themselves Within the allowed class time, it was impossible to cover all the aims at the same time

About the obstacles, the teachers all had difficulty in looking for suitable short stories and designing tasks and activities for students It took time and effort Thus, they needed official management, guidance or strategies from the department for the use of short stories in teaching English They thought if so, all the teachers could share the materials and help one another and the job would become less demanding

In conclusion, the data collected from the survey questionnaires and from the interviews were consistent The interviews provided more information and explanation of the participants‟ perceiption, thoughts and expectations It really helped to reach the final findings of the study.

CONCLUSION

Major findings of the study

On seeking the answers to the seven research questions, the study has yielded a picture of the use of short stories in teaching English in VAS, including the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the benefits of using short stories in teaching English, their exploitation of short stories in teaching in terms of purpose, frequency, and strategy, the obstacles that have limited their use of short stories and their recommendations

Most of the teachers found it very necessary and beneficial to use short stories in teaching English to enhance students‟ language proficiency and creative expressions in the target language Also, nearly all of the students felt really motivated and interested in their teachers‟ use of short stories in English class They themselves recognized their progress in learning However, individual and intelectual development didn‟t pay enough attention to

In general, short stories have not been included in the teaching cirriculum and they have been used as supplemenary materials by most teachers in VAS However, there were not any official guides from the department, therefore, the exploitation of short stories in terms of purposes, frequency and stratergies were not the same among the teachers The Autralian staff had a more frequent use of short stories than Vietnamese teachers The most common techniques used by all the teachers were underlining or highlighting all the unknown words and phrases in the story; guessing the meaning of the unknown words and phrases and explaining their use in context; discussing and expressing opinions and attitudes toward the story and its characters, etc; and doing drilling tasks to get more details of the stories, asking and answering questions about the story The good thing is that all of these activities lived up to the students‟ expectations and were eagerly taken part in by most of them Story translation was only one thing that was out of the students‟ expectation If possible, translation should be applied by the Vietnamese teachers for some difficult stories or some incomprehensible parts of a story

Though both the teachers and the students felt satisfied with the use of short stories in English classes and the teaching aims have been reached in most cases, there were still some obstacles First, for the teachers, the hardest thing was to select suitable short stories and design suitable tasks and class activities for their students There are many sources of short stories available in the school library and on the Internet, but it takes time and effort to make the right selection Moreover, choosing supplementary teaching materials still seems to be the teachers‟ business only They had to do all the things on their own without very little help or guidance from the English department Therefore, they really need some guidelines to move forward Second, the major troubles for the students are facing too many unfamiliar words, phrases and expressions in literary style and sometimes dealing with rather challenging tasks with unintelligible instructions To help them to overcome these difficulties and absorb in learning, the teachers do need to invest more time choosing the short stories which suit their taste and language levels in terms of themes, length and level of language difficulty.

Recommendations

The analysis of results and findings presented in chapter 4 shows that both the teachers and the students in VAS have been aware of the benefits of using short stories in teaching and learning English Short stories have already been exploited in VAS by most of the teachers but not very often and systematically And there exist many obstacles that have limited the teachers‟use of short stories such as looking for suitable short stories for students, designing tasks followed short stories for students‟ comprehension and lacking of official management, guides or strategies from the department Following are necessary recommendations in the two main fields: a Selecting and evaluating short stories b Suggested techniques for integrating short stories in English teaching

These recommendations are based on the author‟s learning, researching and teaching experience It is hoped to provide some suggestions for those who are interested in the use of short stories in teaching English

5.2.1 Selecting and evaluating short stories

Selecting a suitable short story is really important because it plays a decisive part in the success of a lesson Teachers should take into consideration the three main factors: the teaching purposes, students‟ language proficiency and preference and the language factors connected with the story

Firstly, a teacher should ask himself/herself what the aim of his use of a short story for every lesson, whether to develop reading, listening comprehension skills or speaking or writing skills; or to enhance students‟ mastery of certain grammar structures; or to enrich their background knowledge of life, ect For example, to enhance their mastery of conditional sentences type 3, it is advisable to choose the story with an open ending so that students can give thoughts of its ending by making sentence beginning with “If it hadn‟t happened, ”

Also, this question helps teachers design proper class activities

Secondly, the choice of a short story to be used in a lesson is dependent on students‟ language proficiency and preference Usually, the students in VAS are of the pre-intermediate level linguistically but cognitively they are sosphisticated in emotion and intellectual understanding Thus, short stories which are rather linguistically simple but a bit challenging in other ways or contain a moral lesson like the ones in “chicken soup for the souls” should be selected

Besides, students‟ interest must be paid attention to in choosing a short story If the story is out of students‟ interest, it seems to assist teachers very little in promoting students‟ motivation When selecting a short story, teachers should also try to select the one which are likely to pose fewer cultural problems to students as too much cultural explanation will surely make the lesson boring and rather demanding and turn an English lesson into a cultural lesson

Last but not least, factors connected with the text like availability, length and exploitability are also necessary to be considered for the success of a lesson

5.2.2 Suggested techniques for integrating short stories in English teaching

Some obstacles limiting the teachers‟ use of short stories in teaching and students‟ learning were studied Understanding about students‟ problems and preparing the solutions in advance are really necessary for any language teacher The emphasis will be placed on the problems solving to better the use of short stories in teaching and learning English

One of the main difficulties learners in the study complain about is getting to know the unknown words, phares and expressions Thus, it is advisable to select words and phrases that are crucial for students understanding of the gist of the story, select words and phrases that are impossible to guess easily in context, select words and phrases that students are unlikely to know, and design vocabulary exercises link up other activities

Second, most students in this study reveal that they lack of confidence to reach their own interpretation It is possibly because their learning experience has relied little on taking of personal responsibility In this situation, the teacher should not throw students in at the deep end by immediately demanding personal interpretation from them, but gradually introduce tasks and activities which slowly encourage students to become more self-reliant in producing interprtations of their own For example: a At early lessons: tasks and activities focus on checking students‟ comprehension The teacher asks questions about facts of the story One thing the teacher should keep in mind is that the activities should guide students from a global understanding to a detailed comprehension of the story b At later lessons: tasks and activities focus on demanding students to infer more information The teacher may ask students to choose alternative interpretations and give the reasons why or provide their own interpretation based on open-ended questions

Students‟ bad reading habit also creates problems to the effectiveness of the lesson

The fact is that students tend to focus on every word rather than the general meaning This paragraph of the story or put a title for each paragraph This is also very good for students to slow down and take the first step into interpreting the story

5.2.2.2 Activities for using a short story in class

Pre-teaching activities: This stage aims at stimulating students‟ interest in the story and pre- teaching vocabulary Some activities may be suggested as followed:

It is always a good idea to exploit pictures to help students understand and visualise the story

The stories have illustrations which can be used to introduce the story, elicit vocabulary they know, introduce difficult words in that story, and generally excite the interest of the students for the story

Many of the stories are related to a topic It can be a good idea to familiarise learners with the topic before reading, by trying activities related to the topic on the site, by setting a task to find out about the topic, or by discussion

Many stories assume a knowledge of cultural norms, for example, the daily school routine Students are usually interested in finding out the differences between their own culture and the lives of children in different countries Some stories have more overt cultural background

While-teaching activities: This stage aims at helping students to understand the plot, get to know the characters and get used to the language of the story Some activities are suggested:

 To help students understand the plot of the story, the teacher can ask them to answer comprehension questions about the gist of the story; to provide the title for each paragraph; to reorder the jumpled sentences which summary the plot of the story

Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

Despite the researcher‟s effort in choosing the research methods of the study and collecting as well as analyzing the data with careful consideration, there still exist some shortcomings due to the limited resources, namely the researcher‟s time and expertise

Firstly, the researcher has chosen to focus on the things that are easy to describe, such as perceptions of the use of short stories in terms of importance and necessity; the obstacles in using short stories in teaching and learning English More complicated issues relating the exploitation of short stories could not be dealt with In fact, the researcher has attempted to observe and explore some techniques of using short stories in teaching, however, they are unconnected and do not cover the thorough procedures

Another limitation can be found in the population under investigation Due to time constraint, only four of the ten teachers were selected to participate in the interviews and the study was not be able to be conducted in both junior and senior high school students

Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to the whole context in VAS

There is still a considerable gap for future research related to the use of short stories in particular and literature in general in language classes Following are some suggestions for further studies: using short stories for lower level students; using short stories to overcome cultural barriers; using short stories for individual developments and so on

Though the research should have covered a more specific perspective, it is still hoped that it somehow brings about beneficial ideas to lessen the difficulty in looking for supplementary materials and to make language classes more motivating and meaningful for students

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Class Retrieved October 14, 2004 from http://www.kyrene.org/school/brisas/litpack/bloom_handout.htm

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Administration, and Processing Contributors Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum

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21 Young, A (1996) Introducing critical thinking at the college level with children’s stories College Teaching, 44(3), 90

APPENDIX 1 SOME SHORT STORIES USED IN THE STUDY

As the two women came to King Solomon to plead their case, one of them spoke first “I plead with you, Sire, to hear what I have to say!”

“Speak!’” said the King “What is your problem?”

She pointed to another woman who was standing near her with a tiny baby in her arms “Sire, this woman and I live in the same house About two weeks ago I gave birth to a son She helped me She and I were the only ones there.” As she spoke, tears came to her eyes

“Go on, my daughter,” said the King

“Three days later, my lord, this woman also had a baby And it, too, was a son I helped her give birth There were still only two of us in the house.” Tears streamed from her eyes as she continued

“A few days later, her baby died in the night because she accidentally lay on it as she slept And then she took my son from my bed while I was sleeping and put her dead child beside me.” She continued to weep as she spoke “When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I found that it was dead; but when I examined it, I discovered that it was not my child.”

“That’s not the way it was!” the other woman interrupted “That’s not the way it was at all! She’s just making up an emotional story for you, Sire, and she has produced some tears to go with it! This is my son; the dead child is hers!”

“You’re lying!” said the first woman “And you know it! The living son is mine and the other is hers!”

“Oh no it isn’t!” said the other woman, as she held the child close to her “It’s the other way around! This is my son!”

And in this way they argued back and forth in front of the King Solomon had listened and observed carefully and it seemed as though he had made up his mind However, he asked

13 the woman to lay the child down in front of him He looked intently at the child and then at each of the women as though he was trying to determine by appearance whose child it was

Then, to the great surprise of all who heard, King Solomon said, “Bring me a sword.” One of his guards came with a sword in his hands “Divide the child in two parts!” he said coldly

As the guard raised the sword to obey the King, the first woman cried out, “Don’t kill the child, my lord! Please don’t do it! Let him live and give him to her.”

The other woman, however, thought Solomon’s idea was a good one “Cut it in two!” she shouted “Then neither one of us will have it!”

Then the King raised his hand and spoke “Don’t kill the child! Give it to the first woman!” he commanded, pointing to her “She is the mother!”

APPENDIX 2 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

A Study On Using Short Stories In Teaching English In The Context Of

This survey questionnaire is designed to investigate your perceptions, opinion and practice of using short stories as supplementary materials in teaching English in Vietnam-Australia School, Hanoi Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential Your truthful answers will guarantee the success of the investigation The data will be used for the purpose of research, not for any other purposes

Thank you very much for your help!

For the following questions, please circle the options that best describe you and your situation

For the questions that require rating, please tick or circle the number that best describe your use of short stories in teaching English Your further explanation and elaboration are highly appreciated

 Have you ever used short stories besides those in the textbook in your English teaching process?

If your answer is No, please skip Part 2 and Part 3, and answer questions in Part 1, Part 4 and Part 5

If your answer is Yes, please answer all the questions in the questionnaire

Part 1: Concerning the perceptions of using short stories in teaching English

1 How necessary is the use of short stories for developing students’ English competence?

Unnecessary Not very necessary Necessary Very necessary Compulsory

Part 2: Concerning the exploitation of short stories in teaching English

2 How often do you use short stories?

3 How often is your use of short stories motivated by the following purposes?

Usually Always a To develop the four basic language skills, especially reading and writing

1 2 3 4 5 b To develop the four basic language skills, especially speaking and listening

1 2 3 4 5 c To develop students’ language components such as vocabulary and grammar 1 2 3 4 5 d To raise students’ cultural awareness 1 2 3 4 5 e To improve student’s creative expressions in the target language

1 2 3 4 5 f To draw students’ interest in learning and involve them in class activities

1 2 3 4 5 g To develop their critical thinking 1 2 3 4 5

4 How often do you use these activities in your use of short stories in teaching English?

Usually Always a Read aloud the stories 1 2 3 4 5 b Underline or highlight all the unknown words and phrases in the story

1 2 3 4 5 c Call out the names of the characters in the story 1 2 3 4 5 d Guess the meaning of the unknown words and phrases and explain their use in context