Teaching Short Stories to Students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at Tertiary Level

Abstract

Tertiary English Language teachers often tend to focus on teaching vocational English skills, improving students’ grammatical structure, vocabulary and other standard forms of linguistic expression. Unabridged and authentic literary texts are seldom introduced to the language classroom, either because most teachers see literature as difficult or inappropriate for teaching English (Savvidou, 2004), or that foreign students at the tertiary level are not interested in pure academic and literary discussion of English literature, which they feel no direct relation to their everyday experience (Williams, 1983). Yet, the mastery of English language skills means much more than just linguistic accuracy. EFL learners should be given opportunities to develop cultural sensitivity and reading strategies towards various text types, including literary texts. In light of this, the aim of this paper is to suggest ways in which English teachers could integrate literature into a language class. In this paper, I will use “The Snow Child”, a two-page fractured fairytale from Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (1979), as an example to demonstrate how short stories can be taught in an EFL class. I will outline my teaching treatment for the short story, which has been tried out in EFL classes with positive results. The paper will illustrate how Angela Carter’s fractured fairy tale can be taught and explored through a reader-centred approach. Follow up writing activities for consolidation will be provided as well.