Why Short Stories?
The bottom line is that literary fiction, short stories in particular, is as important for ESL learning as essays, news articles or anything else the instructor might present. The subject matter and the presentation are typically more engaging and the idea of reading a story, as opposed to an expository essay, injects an element of fun into the class. In general, fiction writers are more experimental in their prose, some even bordering on the lyrical. This provides rich examples for the students’ own writing, allowing them to experiment with sentence structure and phrasing. Literary works also offer new and interesting challenges in comprehension in an enjoyable atmosphere.
