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Integrating short stories and poems in developing the reading skills for 2nd year students in haiphong university
1 Chapter I: Introduction I.1.Rationale Nowadays, in this industrial world, a person who wants to be successful needs to have a profound knowledge Thus, much time is spent on learning to widen and deepen the understanding about culture, science, technology as well as social skills It is not easy if he just stays at home and fills himself up with thousands of books as they are only theory, in order to get practical experiences he has to communicate, in other words, he has to know others and make himself known by others This can be done only if he speaks the language that they can understand The solution is he has to learn English People learn English in different ways, they try their best to master the language skills and as teachers, we try our best to help them attain their goals Many teachers have spent much time on finding the ways to improve listening skills while the others focus their research on developing students’ speaking skills, etc Being teachers of English we want to take part in the teaching method improvement process The fact in Hai Phong University is that the students have to cope with many difficulties when learning the language especially reading Most of them think that reading well means they have to know every word in the text and the exercises correctly, so they spend most of the time looking up new words and doing exercises However, it is proved that effective reading means there is an interaction between the reader and the text More specifically, the students not only have to understand the text but also response to it, thus they can get to the bottom of what they read Fortunately, we had a chance to take part in a course called “Literature in Language Teaching” delivered by Mr Brad Baurain- an English teacher and researcher He helps us a lot to realize the values of using literary texts in language teaching After the course the superficial thoughts about literature disappeared and we know that literary texts are now considered the valuable authentic material, which plays a very important part in students’ cultural enrichment, language enrichment as well as personal involvement The author, therefore, decides to carry out a study on the integration of literary text in language teaching in order to improve students’ reading comprehension skills I.2.Aims The focus of this study is on the specific use of literature in language teaching, it aims at: • Studying the values of literature in language teaching • Integrating short stories and poems in teaching reading comprehension • Introducing techniques to integrate literary texts reading comprehension class I.3.Scope Literature field is large, it covers different genres: novels; short/long stories; non fiction; poetry and drama In this minor study, we just focus on the use of short stories and narrative poems in improving the reading comprehension skills The short stories are of to page long while the narrative poems are only of to pages long, they are at upper-intermediate level with topic various according to students’ likes such as love, friendship, family etc I.4.Objects Though literature has certain positive effects on the beginners as it helps students relax while learning the language, however, due to its difficult language and style, literature will work best with students from intermediate and upper-intermediate levels up Thus, we choose the second year students who are learning at English Department of Hai Phong University as the subjects of this study I.5.Method The method applied in this study is quantitative method All data is collected from questionnaires Two questionnaires are conducted of which one investigates the students’ attitude toward different genres of literature while the other aims at collecting students’ feedbacks after learning literary text using certain techniques The former is carried out at the beginning of the study whose result is the base for the author to choose the types of literary texts to teach in class whereas the later is conducted at the end of each lesson using short stories and poems in reading class The data collected then is analyzed and based on the findings, techniques in teaching reading comprehension integrating short stories and poems would be recommended I.6.Design of the study This study is divided into five chapters: Chapter I: Introduction: briefly presents the reasons for doing the study, its aims, scope, subjects as well as the research methodology Chapter II: Literature Review: presents an overview of what is literature, its values in language teaching and how literature relates to reading Chapter III: Methodology: studies the reason for choosing research methodology and the description of the setting, subject and instrument for collecting data Chapter IV: Data analysis and Results: provides data description and analysis with findings Chapter V: Conclusion and Recommendation: suggests teaching techniques and conclusion Chapter II: Literature Review The emphasis of this chapter is mainly on exploring some of the issues relevant to the use of literature in language teaching in general and introducing the advantages of short story and poem in ESL classroom in particular The links between literature and reading are also mentioned However, as there are many different theories explain literature and the use of it in classroom, the ideas generated in this chapter will not help to pinpoint an only right or correct way to understand what literature is and its roles in improving language acquisition II.1 Literature II.1.1 Definition Defining literature is not an easy task; different people approach it in their own ways There are some definitions made by a group of teachers from all over the world These definitions are introduced by Lazar, 1993: 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 These definitions seem not scientific enough so the following is three of many definitions defined scientifically by researchers: “Literature could be said to be a sort of disciplined technique for arousing certain emotion”- Iris Murdoch, 1978 “Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree” – Ezra Pound, 1981 “Literature is a special use of language which achieves its distinctness by deviating from and distorting ‘practical language’”- Selden, 1989 As far as I understand it, literature is a mean of transferring both entertainment and lesson to the reader Literature readers can enjoy the language (read, share and response) and learn something from it at the same time as well II.1.2 Genres Generally, there are three main genres of literature, which are poetry, story and drama People define them differently and the definitions introduced here, which seem very interesting, are introduced by Baurain (2005) Poetry: “still picture”, showing a meaning Story: “moving picture”, discovering meanings in actions Drama: “living picture”, finding meanings in performance and dialogue II.1.3.What makes literature distinctive from other texts? Literature surely enough involves a special, or unusual use of language Its language has certain features that you cannot find in any other types of language Metaphor and simile: a connection made between things which are usually considered to be unlike each other Eg: I think the idea is to bring Meg in as a new broom – you know, to revitalize the department and get everything going again Assonance: repetition of vowel sound Eg: Three grey geese in a field grazing; Alliteration: repetition of consonants Eg: Grey were the geese and green was the grazing Repetition of word or phrase Eg: A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other Unusual syntactic patterns (e.g reversing the order of subject and verb) Eg: Grey were the geese and green was the grazing Double or multiple meaning of a word Eg: Just because we’re deaf, it doesn’t mean we’ve nothing between our ears Poeticism: poetic lexis Eg: His breast of chicken with tarragon and girolles goes back to the classic French … Mixing of styles/registers Eg: I had expected the usual insertion in the papers: “I, formerly known, called, addressed as…” II.1.4 Literature and language teaching II.1.4.1 Why use literature in language classroom The use of literature in language teaching had been ignored since people treated it as a mean of relaxation, they just read for fun The main goal of ESL teachers is to teach the grammar of the language, literature, due to its structural complexity and its unique use of language, does very little to contribute to this goal However, recently there was a strong reawakening of interest in literature and language teaching Literary texts are now considered the valuable authentic material, which plays a very important part in students’ cultural enrichment, language enrichment as well as personal involvement Literature – valuable authentic material Literature on the one hand provides texts of different genres like novels, short stories, poems and plays, which mainly say something about human life On the other hand, it offers culture and life styles all around the world and 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) More importantly, while the other texts seem losing their relevance with the passing of time, hardly does literature Till now, most British like Shakespeare’s plays as much as Vietnamese like Truyen Kieu by Nguyen Du though none of the authors are alive and all the events happened a long time ago Literature is not written for a specific purpose of teaching It means that, when reading literary texts the learners are not supposed to learn grammar rules but the way to response to what they read As literature is often written for the native speakers, there are many different linguistic uses as well as forms that used in their daily life, furthermore, many authentic samples of language such as cartoons, advertisements or articles from magazine, etc are included Thus, the learners, through the language of literature can be exposed to a kind of genuine language, which is the aim of any language teacher Literature- cultural and language enrichment It is said that learning a foreign language is to learn a new culture; however, the best way to deepen the knowledge about the culture of the language you are learning is to take a visit or a long stay in the country where the language is spoken It seems to be impossible for those who cannot afford it, so what is the solution for the problem? The key lies in literature reading because “literary texts can serve as open windows to the target culture” (Sage, 1987) As you read literary texts you can find out much about cultural background information like life styles, customs and beliefs as well You will know about what people think, feel, believe, fear, like… and how they behave inside doors Literature is considered as the best complimentary material that helps to increase the learners’ knowledge about the other country Besides, with rich context that makes vocabulary more memorable, literature plays an important part in the contribution to the learners’ language enrichment In literary texts there always are different ways of expressing an idea with variety of possible structures, which can improve the learners’ speaking skills Writing skills are also broadened as literary texts provide various ways of connecting ideas Many stories and poems have interesting contents, which is very useful for developing intensive reading More than that, if literature is appropriately introduced and taught it can be used to promote the students’ creativity from lower level to advanced level So, using literature in language teaching, the teacher can easily find out a new path way to language improvement and make the lessons more interesting Literature – personal involvement Personal involvement is perhaps the strongest effect that literature has on the language learners When reading a literary text, the readers are said to live with the characters they like They response to what characters says and and keep sharing their emotion from the beginning to the end Collie & Slater (1987) pointed out that at this time “what individual words or phrases may mean becomes less important than pursuing the development of the story” In other words, they are absorbed into the book and eager to find out what happens next It is true that people are really curious, thus if the students are well motivated they’ll be willing to take part in the journey of exploring the unknown language territory Obviously, this will create the very positive effects on the process of language learning II.1.4.2 Literature in the ESL classroom Due to a long period using Translation Teaching Method in language classroom, there was negative attitude toward the teaching of literature in foreign language classroom as it was considered far removed from everyday communication and it does not contribute to ESL students’ practical goal of achieving linguistic proficiency However, it is proved that the interaction of language and literature can lead to numerous advantages in language teaching and learning It helps increase all language skills, it is the link toward the culture, it gives one awareness and human insight and guides students toward their own creativity Thus, it obviously is an effective tool in learning a foreign language II.1.4.2.1 Poetry in the ESL classroom Whenever the word poetry is mentioned there appears a hesitation on the face of both teachers and learners as: The language in the poem is quite difficult (metaphoric and complex) “Beauty is harder to analyze than truth”; “the whole poem or story says something that none of its words say or can say”; “what a lyric poem ‘states’ cannot be found in any of its sentences”; “a lyric tells its story primarily in terms of a single emotional experiences” (J.Adler & Doren,1972) So in order to understand a poem fully and be able to interpret its inner meanings, students need a good knowledge of language and a fine experience of life However: “the entry into a poem, under the guidance of appropriate teaching, brings about the kind of participation that almost no other text can produce” (Hess, 2003) For her, when we read, understand and interpret a poem we learn language through the expansion of our experience with a larger human reality Poem can arouse the students’ strong feeling and provoke their positive reaction to what they read The whole poem is a picture made of words, so if the teacher exploits it appropriately he/she could involve the students into many activities such as reading, as well as active listening tasks and communicative activities intended to make learning fun and memorable According to Nilsen, 2004: “poetry can contribute so much to making any language class enjoyable, but it has even more to offer the ESL classroom in terms of poetry – centered language activities” For him, those activities are student – centered and allow students to explore the language in enjoyable ways Besides, teachers can apply them normally as they often with prose texts if he/she realizes the values poetry offers and wants to take advantage of that The learners, as a result, have a relaxed learning environment in the classroom II.1.4.2.2 Short story and its advantages in language classroom “Short stories are particularly well suited to current instructional trends in ESL classrooms” (Harper, 1993) Most traditional short stories have a plot, it involves a 10 chronological ordering of events and there is a relationship of cause and effect between these events It provides authentic samples of language use, where the focus is on meaning and not on language form According to many researchers the reading of short stories, especially the unsimplified ones, in the second language helps to develop vocabulary and cultural knowledge, as well as greater proficiency in critical reading and creative writing skills Harper (1990) noted that the “original version of a short story evoked more elaborate responses from adult ESL readers” Besides, the language in a short story is somehow different from other forms of discourse that it sometimes breaks the language norms, so through reading students will have a chance to approach the language outside the classroom, which not only increases the students’ reading skills but also helps solving the problem that a student though learns the grammar rules very well still gets confused when talking to the native speakers It is said that “short stories are an ideal vehicle for developing automaticity in processing written language through independent, sustained silent reading and for developing critical reading through individual and teacher – directed group interaction with texts” (Harper,1993) II.2 Reading comprehension II.2.1 Reading comprehension and its roles in language learning Goodman (1971) defined reading as “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” In the teaching and learning of reading it is proved that reading comprehension plays a key role as it enhances the students’ skills in extracting the required information from a written text as efficiently as possible According to Swam (1975) “a student is good at comprehension when he can read accurately and efficiently so as to get the maximum information of a text” 29 • Popularity (fame) • Open for discussion • Variety (genre) • Appropriate language level • Interesting/ relevant theme(s) • Aesthetic/ imaginative force Text evaluation is as important as text selection because it aids teachers to make a suitable lesson plan Therefore, teachers should definitely spend some time doing this activity before introducing materials in the lesson To make use of a text, the teacher can base on the quality (excellent, good, adequate or poor) of each criteria listed above V.2.2.Suggested techniques for integrating short stories and poems in the teaching of reading comprehension skills V.2.2.1 Reading poems • The potential value of poetry Despite the fact that poetry is difficult to understand, many learners enjoy it in a foreign language especially when they are encouraged and helped to respond to it imaginatively It is due to the potential value of using poetry in classroom not only to contribute to the language development but also personal involvement Normally, if students an efferent reading, what they get is information; however, reading poetry, also called aesthetic reading, can help to develop the important language skills of identifying and interpreting assumptions and implications The main objective of using poetry in language lesson is not to teach the learners to write or to read, but to find means of involving the learners in using language skills in an active and creative way When reading a poem, learners’ emotions, feelings and attitudes are all engaged Thus, they actively respond to the poem and the language activities built around it 30 Some may think that using poetry in class is time consuming and thus is not suitable with the limitation of time allowed The answer is that sometimes using poetry can contribute far more to the acquisition of language and the development of language skills than a total concentration on the presentation and practice of language items For example, instead of reading a long passage about the slaves’ miserable life, the teacher just presents the following poem: Born on a Sunday In the Kingdom of Asante Sold on a Monday Into slavery Run away on a Tuesday Cause she born free Lost a foot on Wednesday When they catch she Work all Thursday Till her head grey Dropped on Friday When they burn she Freed on Saturday In a new century (Federick, 1984 “old Mama Dot”) Furthermore, this study just focuses on the integration of poems into developing reading skills • Anticipating students’ problems All students in this study find new vocabulary and the language of the poem the most serious problems they have to face More specifically, unfamiliar words and metaphors/similes or figurative meaning are things that make them fear of reading poems So, in order to make the lesson go smoothly, teachers have to prepare the solutions in advance Following are some suggestions for helping students with the new vocabulary and the language of the poem Firstly, if the poem consists of strange words to students, the quickest way is to provide the explanation next to the sentence that the new word is in For example: “He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice,” shapes like roses 31 (From Elizabeth Bishop “The Fish”, 1946) This method really saves time and is convenient to use if the poem is long and there are too many new words whose explanation can occupy time for other activities However, if time allows and the poem is short enough, teacher should present words which are difficult but essential for uncovering the essential meaning of the poem An important teaching tip for this is the teacher should not explain a word until he/she first gets the elicitation from the students This will help the teacher avoid the long boring explanation of something that students have already known Teachers also need to make sure that the students should understand the word, be able to pronounce it, to spell it and to use it in a sentence Secondly, helping students with the language of the poem is a bit more complicated In general, poems chosen to integrate in reading class should not contain too many metaphors or unusual structures because they may change the goals of the lesson With the unusual structures, teacher may choose to pre-teach them, or put them into readable context and ask students to discuss their usage Many teachers find explaining metaphors/ similes very difficult as they often have hidden figurative meanings In this situation, teachers should gradually encourage students to draw the connection between the two objects or concepts Let’s take the following poem as an example: The gull’s flight is low flat & hard they go to sea to the edge where the day’s fire is lit they go as shift workers to the dawn (Nigel Roberts, “The Gull’s Flight” in Murray, 1986) 32 In this poem, the metaphor “day’s fire” is used to describe the sun But in order to help students to infer the meaning of the “day’s fire” teacher should guide them to find out the similar characteristics of the two objects: the fire and the sun; for example, brightness, warmth, etc • Activities using with a poem in reading class There are many activities used with a poem to develop language skills, however, with the aim of developing students’ reading skills the following activities are suggested: Pre-reading phase: In this phase, the teacher’s job is “to create the kind of mental landscape that will ease the students into the poem, and give them enough anticipatory pleasure to afford a natural glide into context” (Natalie Hess, 2003) The activities included in this phase are often presenting pictures, film strips, quotations, anecdotes, or any other device that meet the teacher’s intention and ability The teacher may ask students to: • Predict the theme of the poem from its title or a few key words or phrases in the poem • Discuss or describe pictures or photographs relevant to the theme of the poem • Listen to the teacher reading a poem in their mother tongue related to the theme While-reading phase: This phase initially helps students catch the glimpse of the poem’s literarily meaning then take the first step into interpreting it This includes pre-teaching vocabularies and structures, analyzing metaphors/similes, or answering comprehension questions about the meaning of certain words or phrases in the poem The teacher may ask students to: • Choose the best definition for words or phrases • Reorder the jumbled verses of the poem then compare it with the original one 33 • Fill in the gaps (teacher had removed words) in the poem either by themselves or choosing words provided • Read the first verse of the poem then predict what will happen next • Discuss in groups about the meaning of certain words or phrases • Underline metaphors/similes and closely analyze them Post-reading phase After much reading, it is time to interpret the poem and further follow-up activities In this phase, teacher should bear in mind that there must be clues for any interpretation; otherwise flat result is highly expected The following activities may be carried out in this phase: • Students decide whether some given statements about the meaning of the poem are true or false and explain why • Students choose the most appropriate interpretations of the poem and share their ideas in groups, then present in front of the whole class • Students translate the poem into their own language • Students rewrite the poem as another form like a short story (if it is a narrative poem) or a newspaper article, etc • Students read the poem aloud and try to mime it if possible • Students add music and change the poem into a song • Student write diary about their feeling after reading the poem In a word, integrating poem in the reading class can create the positive effects that you, the teacher, can never imagine Let’s take a poem collected by a student in the English Department of HP University as the conclusion for this: 34 All my life was a paper Once plain pure and white Till you moved with your pen Changing moods now and then Till the balance was right Then you added some music Every note was in place And everybody could see All the changes in me You decorated my life Created a world Where dreams are part of my heart You decorated my life (Le Thi Thuy Linh, class 1A_K6, HPU) V.2.2.2 Reading short stories In chapter II, we have seen the advantages of using short stories in language classroom Thus, this section just focuses on the anticipation of students’ problems and activities using with a short story in the reading class • Anticipating students’ problems One of the main difficulties learners in the study complain about when reading a story is understanding the vocabulary As the language teacher, it is advisable to take the following things into consideration before providing vocabulary to the students: • Select words that you believe are crucial for students understanding of the gist of the story • Select words that are impossible to guess very easily from context • Sect words that students are unlikely to know • Design vocabulary exercises link up with reading activities Most students in this study also reveal that they lack confidence to reach their own interpretation It is possibly because their previous learning experience has relied little on the taking 35 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 interpretations of their own For example: • At early lessons: tasks and activities focus on checking students’ comprehension Teacher asks questions of fact about the story • At later lessons: tasks and activities focus on demanding students to infer more information Teacher may ask students to choose alternative interpretations and give the reasons why or provide their own interpretation based on open-ended questions One thing the teacher should keep in mind is the activities should guide students from a global understanding to a detailed comprehension of the story 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 problem can be dealt with by asking students to provide a summary after finishing each 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 To sum up, anticipating students’ problems and prepare the solutions in advance are really necessary for any language teacher in general and literature reading in particular • Activities for use with a short story in reading class This section focuses on introducing some activities using a short story in reading class Pre-reading activities: Aims at stimulating students’ interest in the story and pre-teaching vocabulary if necessary The activities may be: 36 • Describing pictures, listening to a song,… which relate to the theme • Group discussion about what the title of the story suggests • Predicting about the story after reading the first paragraph • Matching the important words in the story with their dictionary definitions While-reading activities: Aims at helping students to understand the plot, get to know the characters and get used to the language of the story These following activities are suggested: Helping students with the plot of the story • Answering comprehension questions about the gist of the story • Providing the title for each paragraph • Reorder the jumbled sentences which summary the plot of the story • Choosing the best summary of the story Helping students to understand the characters • Giving one or more adjectives that most suitable for each character, and give the reason why • Ranking the characters according to their preference, and give the reason why Helping students with the language in the story • Choosing a section of the story and analyze its effect on reader • Dealing with any particular grammatical problem Post-reading activities: Aims at guiding students to make their own interpretation and doing the follow-up activities Teacher may ask students to: • Answering debated questions focusing on the point of the story • Choosing the alternative interpretations and discuss them • Pretending to be one character and say what they in the situation 37 • Creating another ending for the story • Role-playing or acting out a scene from the story It is important for teacher to remember that basing on the particular situation in the class to choose the appropriate activities to carry out The careless selection of activities may not lead to the expected effects, but spoilt the positive aims of the lesson V.2.2.3 Overcoming cultural problem The cultural references in most of the literary texts are believed the factor that affects the reader’s motivation This sections, thus, focuses on introducing some strategies to overcome this problem • Providing explanations Teacher provides brief cultural information in a note or gloss For example: “The little children in Ezeulu’s compound joined the rest in welcoming the moon” (from “Arrow of God” by Chinua Achebe, Heinemann 1964, p.2) A compound: an enclosure in an African village containing a collection of huts where man lives with his wives and children • Making cultural comparisons Teacher gets the students to brainstorm ideas about their own society and then compare them with those in the text For example, with the extract above, teacher may ask students to think about any particular beliefs in their country relating to the moon, take some notes and then read the rest of the extract and make the comparison 38 Name of festival Reason for holding it Where festival held Activities Your country Mid Autumn Making wishes for children All over the country Adults give gifts and best wishes to children, Africa go out welcoming the moon and held party out side the house… “The little children in Ezeulu’s compound joined the rest in welcoming the moon Obiageli’s shrill voice stood out like a small ogene among drums and flutes The Chief Priest could also make out the voice of his youngest son Nwafo The women were in the open, talking ‘Moon’ said the senior wife, Matefi, ‘may your face meeting mine bring good fortune’ ‘Where is it?’ ask Ugoye, the younger wife ‘I don’t see it Or am I blind?’ ‘Don’t you see beyond the top of the ukwa tree? Not there Follow my finger.’ ‘Oho, I see it Moon, may your face meeting me bring good fortune.’ ” (from “Arrow of God” by Chinua Achebe, Heinemann 1964, p.2) • Providing cultural background information as a reading comprehension Teacher gives students a mini-comprehension to read, which provides more information about particular cultural aspects of the text, and then get tem to apply this information to the text they have just read There still are many other strategies dealing with cultural problems; however these presented ones seem more suitable for applying in a reading class Moreover, it is not necessary to provide much cultural or historical background for students in a reading lesson Teacher should also try to select the texts which are likely to pose fewer cultural problems to students as too much cultural explanation will surely make the lesson boring and turn the reading lesson into a cultural lesson 39 V.2.3 Keys for using literary text in reading classes Reading is the most autonomous and individualizable skill because people can teach themselves to read, they can build their own skill, thus reading can equip students in independent learning The two keys for this are: • Pre-reading activities with literary texts should be topical discussion and link to students’ experience • Literary texts should be very suitable for multi-level classes due to their open-ended appeal and potential for building language skills Reading lessons in language teaching are about building skills and abilities, not knowledge, therefore: • Texts which not require much background information should be chosen • When using literary texts, a teacher should build on previously learned language skills in order to help students to go from images to ideas One key goal for using literary texts is to sensitize learners to the convention of literary tradition and language use • Teacher should have the pedagogical sensitivity to the cultural and educational contexts in which a literary text is taught • Teacher should relate literature to other aesthetic experiences such as art and music Another key goal is to develop an appropriate tolerance for uncertainty or ambiguity • Students need to be comfortable with not understanding the literal meaning of every word or sentence Instead, they should see the text as a single, coherent piece of discourse 40 In short, literature especially poems and short stories, with their unique features under appropriate guidance and suitable strategies, bring numerous advantages in teaching language skills in general and developing reading skills in particular Methodology is like a big ocean and the language teachers are like small fish whose size, color and way are never the same As a language teacher, I would like to add another color to make the methodology ocean more diversified V.3 Conclusion Literature is now and forever the land for researchers to dig deeper and deeper steps into its magical world In this study I have presented the potential values of using literary text in language development in general and how to integrate short story and poem in aiding reading comprehension in particular From the data analysis and findings (chapter IV) it can be claimed that language teachers should include more and more literary texts into their language lessons With a variety of unique features, literary texts in general, and short story and poem in particular, can bring both enjoyment and language development to learners However, the way from theory to fact is long and changeable due to learning difficulties and teaching problems Thus, solutions and techniques are introduced (chapter V) with the aim of helping teachers to deal with, if not all, some major problems that may arise in the teaching process V.4 Limitations of the study The limitation of time and also the abilities are the two factors that influence the results of the study Though referring the method of integrating literary texts in developing reading skills, the 41 study just deals with students of intermediate level, whereas lower level students should also be encouraged to use literature as a way of improving language skills Moreover, techniques suggested in the study are not actually invented Some are from reference books after successfully applied in the teaching process Some are collected during the “literature in language teaching” course and some are from the researcher’s teaching experience However, this study is carried out with the hope that it somehow brings beneficial ideas to language teachers to make a better reading teaching and learning V.5 Suggestions for further research Joanne Collie & Stephen Slater (1987) Literature in the Language Classroom Cambridge University Press Marilyn Lewis (1999) How to Study Foreign Languages Macmillan Shu Wei (1999) “Literature Teaching” English Teaching Forum 37/3, pp 25ff Sandra McKay (1982) “Literature in the ESL Classroom.” TESOL Quarterly 16/4, pp 98-105 Natalie Hess (2003) “Real Language through Poetry” ELT Journal 57/1, pp 19-25 Elisabeth B Ibsen (1990) “The Double Role of Fiction in Foreign Language Learning.” English Teaching Forum (reprint) Brian Tomlinson (1986) “Using Poetry with Mixed Ability Language Classes.” ELT Journal 40/1, pp 33-41 Paula Willoquet-Maricondi (1991-1992) “Integrating ESOL Skills through Literature” TESOL Journal 1/2, pp 11-14 Phoebe Nilsen (2004) “Poetry in the EFL/ESL Classroom” Modern English Teacher 13/2, pp 31-39 Gillian Lazar (1993) Literature and Language teaching Cambridge University Press Ruth Spack (1985) “Literature, Reading, Writing, and ESL: Bridging the Gaps.” TESOL Quaterly 19/4, pp 703-725 Judith Kay & Rosemary Gelshenen (2004) Adventures in Literature New Pathways in Reading University of Michigan Press 42 Bell $ Hymar (1984) Twentieth Century English Short Stories Cambridge University Press Brumfit, C.J (1986) Reading skills and the Study of Literature in a Foreign Language Oxford University Press Wallace, J (1998) Action Research for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press Wisker,(2001) The Postgraduate Research Handbook Palgrave Page 43 ... investigates the attitude of students toward the literary texts in general and the other aims at finding out the effects of using short stories and poems in teaching and learning reading in particular... using short stories and poems in reading class The data collected then is analyzed and based on the findings, techniques in teaching reading comprehension integrating short stories and poems would... Hai Phong University in a full term learning reading During the course, we have worked hard and find experiences in reading teaching and learning integrating with short stories and poems It proves