It is not unusual for teachers teaching classes at intermediate levels and above to feel restricted by coursebook materials. While commercial textbooks generally provide a coherent syllabus of grammatical points, adequate coverage of skills areas, attractive visuals and useful teacher guides, they also tend to have repetitive activities and task types that fail to offer sufficient freedom for students’ imagination and personal involvement. Thankfully, in more progressive language teaching schools and institutions, the curriculum will not be set up in a totally lock-step fashion and opportunities will exist for teachers to introduce supplementary materials, tasks and mini projects that can enhance the learning environment while still meeting the course aims.

The recent necessity to switch to more online teaching has also forced teachers to think more creatively about how to set up positive learning environments (Hasper, 2021). Meanwhile Arshavaskaya (2021) has called for creative language activities linked to literary texts to make the learning process richer and promote critical thinking. This brings to mind the imaginative ideas for exploiting literature suggested by Collie and Slater (1987) and Pope (1995). Such thinking also connects to the language-based approach for using literature, which shows how literary texts can inject more imaginative content into lessons, develop language awareness and build thinking skills (McRae 2022).

The advantages of international short stories

In this article I want to suggest that the availability of world literature short stories by well-known writers, such as those published by Foresman (1997), provides a wonderful resource for developing interesting classroom activities. Internationally recognised short stories have several advantages as texts for English language teaching. ELT reading texts are sometimes criticised for being too ‘safe’ or bland; adding one or more famous story to a course syllabus provides a stimulating reading experience for students by presenting engaging characters in dramatic situations and focusing on universal themes. International literature also introduces aspects of culture that may be new to students. Most importantly, the quality content of a suitable short story has the potential to motivate students by relating to their own imagination and experience. As a result, students will be keen to take part in creative activities which can significantly develop fluency levels.

Short stories provide an opportunity for students to read an authentic text. While this might seem challenging for intermediate level students, a story can be selected that they can read without too much difficulty, provided that some support with difficult vocabulary is given. Examining the opening extract of a story in class helps to ensure that all students get a grasp of the setting, the main characters and initial events. They can then go on to read the rest of the story outside class. Another option for assisting students is to set up a jigsaw reading activity, in which small groups of students first read different sections of the story; they then form new groups to describe the events in each part orally and work out the complete storyline. However, if the curriculum allows sufficient time, there is a lot of value in exploiting the story in a series of classes, with students being asked to read and think about particular pages of the story before different class sessions.

Several factors will influence the actual choice of a short story. It is, of course, necessary to consider the length of the story that students can manage to read. Other factors will include its relevance to students’ lives and its appropriateness in relation to local cultural values. The grammatical and stylistic complexity of the text should not be ignored either. Thankfully though, there are plenty of classic short stories to select from on internet sites like www.classicshorts.com. There are also published collections of world literature like World Literature Today, designed for use in colleges and schools, and featuring stories by internationally recognised writers such as Chinua Achebe, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Naguib Mahfouz. The wide range of classic stories available online, in libraries and in bookshops means it should be possible to find a text that suits a group of learners in terms of its theme, culture and language difficulty. Some writers like Ernest Hemmingway and H. H. Munro (Saki) are well known for their clear and concise style of writing; other writers like R. K. Narayan and Amy Tan feature plenty of direct speech and dialogue, which makes their stories more accessible for intermediate-level students. The fact that many classic short stories are published in translation might concern some teachers, but good translations are perfectly acceptable sources for ELT materials – after all, translations of classic tales by Anton Chekhov and Guy de Maupassant are found in collections of the world’s best short stories.

A less obvious advantage of introducing materials based on an international short story is the prestige that the department or institution gains by including a famous writer’s work in the course syllabus. Adding a story by a famous writer to the reading syllabus is likely to have a positive influence on students and other stakeholders, such as parents and directors, and raise the educational and cultural value of a course.

Reading a story has immense benefits in terms of reading skills development. We know that students need to read as much as possible outside class to attain higher levels of fluency. An authentic story facilitates the process by providing instances of language use in a vividly presented socio-cultural context. Students will also gain confidence in their reading skills by reading an entire story in English. In addition, reflecting on aspects of the story like the underlying themes and actions of characters will develop students’ higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Bloom, 1956). Overall fluency will be boosted by the range of activities that are introduced to foster engagement with the text. For example, students can be asked to work in groups to suggest an alternative ending for a story, or make a presentation about one of the main characters.

Recommended activities

There are a wide range of activities that can be devised to support students in both reading and understanding the text. As a way in to the story, a thematic approach is recommended. This can be implemented by eliciting the background knowledge and personal experience that relate to the events and themes in the story. For example, Chekhov’s famous story, The Lottery Ticket (available online at: www.classicshorts.com), examines the tensions that affect a married couple who think they may have won a lot of money by buying a lottery ticket. So before reading the text, students can be asked to discuss relevant topics: their personal experience of buying lottery tickets; their attitude to gambling; what they would do if they won a huge lottery prize; the problems that might face the winners of a big cash lottery prize.

Ensuring that all students understand the basic plot or storyline is crucial before introducing more imaginative or language-focused activities. Therefore, it is advisable to include questions that focus on the key events related to the main characters, and other questions that direct students to making the necessary inferences to fully understand the story. It is recommended that students read the first one or two pages with the teacher in class to ensure that all students get interested in the text. It can also help weaker students if the class is split into groups for answering the basic comprehension questions on the opening section. Questions on later sections can be assigned as homework, with the teacher checking and discussing answers in subsequent classes. Presenting students with a jumbled list of the narrative events to order in real time is an appealing way to check how well students have followed the plot. When students have completed this task, it also provides them with an accurate plot summary, which can be useful when reviewing the story later on.

After reading the whole story, students can be asked to talk in groups about their initial reactions to the situation, plot, characters and themes. Finally, they can engage in more creative, imaginative activities. The aim of these activities is to exploit the storyline, characters and context to promote learner interaction and reaction. There are a number of activity types that can be used.

Create a more contemporary or localised cultural setting

Many classic stories will be set in an earlier historical period; the setting could also be very different to students’ own cultural context. So an interesting activity is to get students to write a scene based on the short story, but in a modern socio-cultural setting that they are familiar with. This is best done as a group work task with students eventually presenting their scene to the rest of the class, who become the audience at this stage.

Shift the focus from the main character to another character

Usually a story will be directly, or indirectly, concerned with the desires and views of one main character. Students can be asked to rewrite a scene from the story to shift the focus to another character. In Chekhov’s The Lottery Ticket, the concern is very much with what the husband, Ivan, dreams about doing with the money if the married couple win the lottery. Instead, students can be asked to shift the focus to his wife and create a scene which emphasises her desires and dreams.

Insert a scene

In a short story there are often scenes which the writer mentions or refers to in the text but are not fully described or developed. Such scenes can form the basis for students’ imaginative writing. For example, in The Lottery Ticket, we learn that Ivan’s wife would like to have a foreign holiday but we have no idea of what kind of trip abroad she has in mind. Students could devise a scene that reveals her travel dreams.

Create a prelude

Withholding the ending of a story is quite a common device for setting up a discussion or writing activity that gets students to think more about the characters and events. An interesting alternative is to get students to write a scene involving the characters in the story that could have taken place before the events described in the author’s story.

Dramatise a scene in the form of a play

In most plays there are a limited number of characters, so it is feasible to get students to rewrite a section from a short story in the form of a dramatic dialogue. If there is already direct speech in the original, then this can be incorporated into the students’ creations. They should be given the freedom to go beyond the original content if they wish. Actually getting groups to present their completed dramatic dialogues to the rest of the class can be a very engaging, immersive activity, especially if the class audience are invited to give constructive feedback.

Insert entirely new scenes / situations with the same characters

This option would be suitable for students who are very imaginative and wish to be free to develop a new storyline involving the characters from the short story they have been studying.

Rewrite the ending

Many short stories have a tragic or rather unhappy ending. Students could be asked to rewrite the ending, or add an epilogue, so that it concludes on a more positive note – a kind of Hollywood movie ending!

Focusing on language features

In addition to comprehension and imaginative activities, the story can be used to raise students’ language awareness and begin to develop a critical response to a text. These aims can be achieved by looking at particular language features. In The Lottery Ticket, the husband starts imagining how their life will change after winning the lottery. To practise focusing on language features, students can be asked to read a selected paragraph (see the extract below) and locate all the pronouns in the text. They should find that ‘he’ and ‘his’ are used throughout, reflecting the husband’s selfish preoccupation. Asking students to locate all the vocabulary and phrases referring to food and pleasurable activities, will show the character’s excessive concern with his own personal comfort (e.g. ‘well-fed’, ‘felt warm’, ‘eating a summer soup’, ‘lay on his back’, ‘dozes sweetly’).

We can also ask students to identify other people mentioned in the paragraph and say what role they seem to have in Ivan’s daydream. This will naturally lead on to a discussion about which character is significantly absent (his wife). In this way, features embedded in the text can get students to see how closely the author represents the imaginings of the husband. They can then be made to reflect on how sympathetic they think the writer feels towards him.

Once they have read the whole story, post-intermediate students could be asked to analyse characters and support their views with evidence from the text; more advanced students could be asked to evaluate the relevance of the story to present day society. All students, whatever their level, can be encouraged to express and justify their personal response to the story, though the sophistication and length of their oral or written responses will naturally vary with their skills level and degree of exposure to fictional texts. After reading a number of international stories and completing teacher-directed activities, a more student-centred task could be introduced: asking groups of students to give a presentation about a well-known story from their own cultural background.

Conclusion

Exploiting a short story along the lines suggested above clearly has great benefits for fluency development. The fictional content means that students can go beyond reading activities that mostly require extracting information; instead they become imaginatively involved in the world discovered in the story. This can motivate students to engage more thoughtfully and creatively in activities based on the fictional content of the short story. In addition, as we have seen, language-based activities can be directed to key features of a literary text such as plot development, the role of characters, the cultural context and underlying themes. All these activities will naturally encourage students to react personally or critically to the text. A well-selected short story has, then, the potential for providing highly stimulating text material and inspiring an exciting range of language and thinking activities for language learners.

References

Arshavskkaya, E. (2021). ‘Creative language activities for students’. Modern English Teacher 30 1:31–32.

Bloom, B.S. (1968). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain: the Classification of Educational Goals. David McKay Company.

Chekhov, A. (1887). The Lottery Ticket. Available from
www.classicshorts.com

Collie, J. & Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Hasper, A. (2021). ‘Rethinking teaching and training in times of Covid-19’. Modern English Teacher 30 1:76–79.

Foresman, S. (1997). World Writers Today: Contemporary Literature From Around The World. Addison-Wesley.

McRae, J. (2022). Literature with a Small ‘l’: Developing Thinking Skills in Language Teaching and Learning 3rd Edition. Wayzgoose Press.

Pope, R. (1995). Textual Intervention. Routledge.