Teaching the Short Story to Improve L2 Reading and Writing Skills: Approaches and Strategies

Due to the potential of literature to expresses both cultural values and universal human values, its study can promote internal as well as international communication. The literary reader’s creative (or rather, ‘co-creative’) role and the imaginative involvement engendered by this role encourage a dynamic interaction between reader, text and external world. Today, with the interdisciplinary outlook in the academics, there is a renewed concentration on the use of literature in the classroom. Research into the interconnectivity of the short story teaching and the acquisition of L2 reading and writing skills supports the positive impact of the use of the short story and brief narrative texts in improving learners' reading and writing skills speaking and listening skills. The short story's distinctive features, i.e., its brevity, modernity, and variety make it appealing and interesting to language learners. When the short story is chosen based on the students' level of English proficiency, it can offer them adequate linguistic, intellectual, and emotional involvement and enrich their learning experience. Thus, this paper proposes that the short story can provide ESL learners with a suitable study resource which is both delightful and instructive to improve their linguistic proficiency and writing skills. Consequently, the researcher aims to put forward a variety of strategies to make the teaching of the short story enjoyable and an academically enriching experience. These strategies include the design and implementation of motivation building techniques which facilitate overall reading comprehension, written skills, and enrich their cultural orientation. A systematic teaching strategy for the use of the short story to improve reading an writing skills can include the following stages: