English language teaching through a short story: A technique for improving students’ vocabulary retrieving

Abstract

Vocabulary is the kernel for all language skills; it helps learners to interact with the speakers of that language. This study aims to scrutinize the effect of a short story on developing students’ vocabulary. It is an out-product of fieldwork to figure out the useful points for teaching and learning vocabulary through short stories. The test was used to identify the effect of utilising the short story on vocabulary retention. The test was distributed to forty (40) students of Jalna College. The data of the study were collected from students after teaching them the short story for one month- three hours per week. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS software package. The overall results from the test indicated that the participants were very much impressed with the short story. The students successfully recalled most of the words used in the short story context. Some recommendations were suggested for the teachers to include short stories in their lessons and curriculum.

Keywords:

• Vocabulary
• short story
• retrieving
• memorizing

1. Introduction

The literary context, in general, improves students’ talent. Almost every community has its culture, so using stories related to the students’ cultures connects them with their old culture. Thus, students find it a good chance to grasp the culturally related vocabulary and strengthen their identity by having a deeper knowledge about their own culture. The present study selects one story as an example of the effect of a short story on retrieving and memorizing vocabulary. The idea of using a short story is to improve students’ vocabulary. Reading exposes the students to more words and ideas within a context that helps students to get the meaning and obtain proper usage. Short stories expose to more words and ideas within a context that provides meaning and proper usage (Mustafa Kurdi, 2022; Saydakhmetova, 2020). At the same time, those new words help the student to know the root of similar words. The short story is one of the most fruitful methods that can be used to develop students’ talent for retrieving and memorizing new vocabulary. Utilizing a mnemonic technique can be very beneficial in this case.

The word mnemonic refers to specific memory improvement. This term is defined as a technique for improving memory. The procedures here can be in the form of association of the image or sound used in developing better ways to take in information so that it will be much easier to remember (Bahrami et al., 2019‏). So the researchers try to evaluate the story technique as a tool for mnemonic the known words within the context of the short story. The learners can remember the vocabulary, considered the most easily academic list of words mnemonic approach. The story method includes linking words to be educated. Therefore, remembering the word in the sentence is the most useful for teaching the words. It can also be used for remembering the main points of the context. In such a case, you must collect and summarise the words into a single word. It will be the keywords to remember the whole idea.

The three-Questions technique was adopted from l_Syllabus_BA (2017) as a sample in this study. It was noticed the enthusiasm and eagerness of the students. The students were more attentive when the lectures were delivered by implementing the mnemonic technique. The puzzle of the three-question story provoked students’ eagerness to know the secrets of the story. They study hard, repeat the story many times, and translate unknown words to get the whole meaning of the story.

The vocabulary of the story can be easily fossilized in the learners’ memory because they were associated with the action. If the students forget the words, they will never forget the action, which helps them to retrieve the words. The students wanted to know what the three questions were. Anjomafrouz and Tajalli (2012) mentioned that Cohen and Aphek (1980) linked the mnemonic with some elements. They said “that association is a mnemonic link to some element or elements that would help in recall of the word, including a link to meaning, sound, sound and meaning together, structure, context, mental image, letter(s) in the word, proper names, signs and so forth”(p. 102).

Atkinson (1987) and Mazak (2017) considered the verbose acts of bilingualism as teaching methods for working in schools. Their hypothesis was based on multilingualism as the overall standard and set. The example of using the monolingual and multi-lingual and its benefit to students prove the context’s understanding. They translate every word to know the question before they will know the answer to the question. It is currently used in some classes to facilitate the meaning to students. The three-question were as the follow

What was the right time for every action, who were the right people to be taught, and what was the most important thing to do? (l_Syllabus_BA, 2017)

The king wants to know the three questions to keep his kingdom safe and not harmed, so this question creates curiosity in students’ minds to know more and more about this story. They want to know how the king will solve this question and the secret beyond that. The researchers gave some questions to students after they had studied the story to know how this story improved students’ vocabulary. This questionnaire focuses on students’ retrieving and memorizing the words through three questions story. Does the short story make students retrieve the words? To assess the leverage of retrieving and memorizing vocabulary through the short story in the classroom, the researchers want to know how students acknowledge the culture and previous vocabulary to help connect new words with the old ones and gain new words. Specifically, can we apply a short story as an effective method to make students feel more enthusiastic and interested in learning vocabulary?

2. Hypothesis

Due to the variety of language acquisition, it is hypothesized that short story is an effective technique for students to retrieve and memorize’ new vocabulary for a long time. It is important to connect the vocabulary with actual acts, as in the story narration. Therefore, it fossilizes the meaning of new vocabulary.

3. Research questions

The study tries to answer the following question:

1. How significantly can a short story be used as a good technique to improve students’ retention of words?

2. What is the effectiveness of the short story method in terms of short-term and long-term retention of the vocabulary?

3. What is the relationship between the mnemonic and vocabulary retrieving and remembering?

4. Literature review

Using literature to improve vocabulary in a foreign language is a new technique to create a good English environment in the classroom. Various reasons lead to teaching literature in the classroom. The main reason, as mentioned in Collie and Slater (1987) in their book Literature in the Language Classroom) Motivating material, access to cultural background, encouraging language acquisition, increasing students’ language awareness, improving students’ interpretive abilities, and educating the whole person. So, the researchers deal with topics related to teaching the short story in classrooms as a mnemonic technique. The researchers noticed many studies conducted on memorizing and retrieving vocabulary. E.g., poems, acronyms, images, songs and through context, especially in the last few years. Whereas using context as a tool for recalling the words. The researchers focused on some of the articles related to mnemonic words through short stories related to the current study. The context became one method of the mnemonic tools. It was applied with the title Mnemonic Vocabulary instruction.

Pérez and Alvira (2017) noticed and reported the achievement investigation study that discovers the special effects of applying three vocabulary strategies: word cards, association with pictures, and association with the topic through tales in the acquisition of new vocabulary in a group of English Foreign Language low-level proficiency adolescents in a public school in Espinal, Tolima, Colombia. The contributors had never used vocabulary strategies to learn and remember words. Two questionnaires, a researcher’s journal and vocabulary tests were used to gather data. The findings showed that these strategies were operative in increasing the range of words and developing the ability to amnesia them. The study also found that these strategies involve cognitive and affective factors influencing students’ perception of vocabulary learning. The implementation highlighted the need to train teachers and learners in strategies intended to teach and learn vocabulary and to consequently contain them in the English language program in any school.

Teaching vocabulary through short stories helps the teachers create different contexts where students should use the language to communicate, exchange informationAnd express their ideas. A short story makes learning English an enjoyable and attractive process for learners. It stimulates learners’ curiosity about the target culture and language. The short story encourages language acquisition and the learners’ language awareness (Nazara, 2019. p. 159)

Hill et al. (1991) discussed the effectiveness of a story mnemonic for free-recall learning. It was assessed in 71 community-dwelling ageing adults. Applicants received 1 of 3 memory-training programs: (a) narrative story, (b) method of loci, or (c) placebo training. The motivations consisted of 26 nouns selected for being highly imageable and concrete. The recall was observed immediately after subsequent study of the words, after 1 hour, and after 3 days. At each testing interval, both mnemonic condition groups outperformed the placebo group. The findings suggest that a story mnemonic can improve word remembering on a free-recall task.

Kütük (2007) focused on storytelling techniques for mnemonic words of a second language. Kütük (2007, p. 5) stated that “Storytelling technique involves visual imagery mnemonic strategy in its nature … This strategy helps students to cope with the learning new vocabulary items meaningfully” . The researcher had accomplished the examination study to test the storytelling technique; the researcher hypothesised that storytelling is a good technique for recalling the word of learning a second/foreign language.

In recent years, many studies have focused on learning vocabulary and reported that vocabulary must be prioritised for learning a new language (Amiryousefi & Ketabi 2011; Leong et al., 2019; Wong et al., 2020). Several studies concluded that learning vocabulary via short stories is fruitful. Using storytelling as a mnemonic to retain the words positively impacts the students. Kütük (2007) investigated the effect of utilizing storytelling techniques. He found the positive impact of using storytelling as a mnemonic to retain the word. Skarpaas and Rødnes (2022) mentioned the importance of vocabulary teaching. They found that vocabulary work is strongly contemporaneous within vocational orientation (VO) instruction, across whole-class instruction, group or pair work, and individual work. Most vocabulary could be categorized as words relating to work follows and vocational content knowledge.

4.1. The main memory techniques

The mnemonic is known as the decoding process used to remember the words. So, many tools are used to decode the words to be easy to retrieve in a critical situation.

1. The loci method

The loci method is considered an old technique used to retrieve words where the students can associate the words with a particular place to be stuck in the mind if the words are forgotten. It is easy to remind the words with the place. (Eysenck, 1994; Mirhassani & Eghtesadei, 2007). In other words, the students take an imaginary walk along their familiar places and retrieve the items they have put there. As people’s experiences are diverse, students may come up with different. They all must be seen as a mental and imagined picture by the student. The short story carries many events that betray the students’ minds as pictures, so it is a tool for memorizing the words.

• (2) Image clues: it can be decoding the words by using the picture method. Photos are an easy technique to convey ideas to others memorialise. The photos carry out more than words and are easy to retrieve it. Also, it is considered a memory tool in which pictures represent ideas.

• (3) Music Mnemonics

This type of mnemonic is considered self-explanatory as the literary term. For many teachers, this type is very useful when the music accompanies the words or concepts. They teach the students new words through the music mnemonic. A simple example of using the song to learn the alphabet and new vocabulary is a modern technique used in most schools. So, the words will be simple to recall by remembering the smog. Winoto et al (2018) focused on the importance of music mnemonics for retrieving vocabulary. The study showed that music mnemonics and flashcards could increase students’ vocabulary acquisition. The mnemonic music group has the highest score due to the multimodality of the various memorisation methods that impact the chunking effect on working memory so that the new information can be more easily transferred to long-term memory.

• (4) Short story: the short story is considered a good tool to retrieve the words due to repeating them many times Storytelling strategies: these are devices that capitalize on the element that well-told stories are spontaneously memorable. Storytelling strategies permit you to associate individual image clues into long chains to memorize lists, processes, and all the points you want to make in compositions or presentations. Students can get extra memory enhancement by choosing a setting that relates to their topic matter which teachers aim to improve students’ vocabulary.

5. Methodology

This study employed a quantitative approach. The study focused on a particular vocabulary while teaching the story.

6. The participants

The particpants of the current study were from the English language as a foreign language (EFL) at Jalna college, Dr.BAMU, Aurangabad, India. They were selected randomly. The data was gathered by conducting a test. After delivering the lesson, the researchers distributed a test for the students to confirm the effect of the story on memorizing and retrieving vocabulary. The test consisted of multi-choice- the participants, should choose the correct answer and three statement questions that match the words and the correct meaning. Also, three words with meanings focus on the student’s ability to use the correct word in the correct place and three words with meanings; the last question consists of four pictures with five words. There were 123 students in the class, but the sample was 40. Then the test was analyzed by SPSS to know the reliability and consistency using Guttman half split coefficient .649. Then the researchers analyzed it using SPSS to gain the result in the following section.

7. Results

In this section, each item was discussed and analyzed individually, concerning the percentage of accuracy of answering the items.

7.1. First, select the correct meaning for the words between the brackets of the following sentences

Table

1—————A long, deep cut (ambush-Gash-The property)
		Frequency	Per cent
Valid	RIGHT	36	87.8
	WRONG	4	9.8
	Total	40	97.6
Missing	System	1	2.4
Total		41	100.0

Table 1 shows that (9.8%) failed to select the correct answer. Only eight students may not remember the meaning of the word “soothsayers. (87.8%) of the students answered the questions correctly. It indicates that almost of students acquire the short story and memorize the words. The words ‘gash’ was unknown to the students. The test reported that 87.8 percent answered correctly. It means all students got the meaning of the word gash, and they had given the correct answer. The researcher used words in the brackets to confuse students when selecting the correct word for completing the sentence. The researcher used Vocabulary Practice Test Questions (2021). This famous test intends to enhance the students” recall of words in many standardized tests. It has been used recently in multi-institute as Oxford and Cambridge universities to investigate the ability of students to recall words in the long term. Either the common words or the ambiguity of the words known as the connotation of the word.

Table

2————. Someone who makes predictions about what is going to happen in the future. (Administrator-soothsayers- magicians)
		Frequency	Percent
Valid	RIGHT	36	87.8
	WRONG	4	9.8
	Total	40	97.6
Missing	System	1	2.4
Total		41	100.0

Out of (9.8%) failed to deliver correct answers. It means that only eight students may not remember the meaning of the word ‘soothsayers. (87.8%) of the students answered the questions correctly. Despite the odd words of this question but the students were able to deliver correct answers. This shows that the use of teaching English language through short story is very fruitful. The result may indicate that the “old words”(soothsayers) may be difficult to be memorized due to rarely use in the daily life. But the short story made the memorizing of the words easy to students. Yang and Dai (2012), Al-Dersi (2013), and Dudina et al. (2016), mentioned in their studies that context make the recall of the words easy so that the almost of students recognized the word and given the correct answer.

Table

3—————A man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. (Monk- Priest- Hermit)
		Frequency	Percent
Valid	RIGHT	35	85.4
	WRONG	5	12.2
	Total	40	97.6
Missing	System	1	2.4
Total		41	100.0

Out of 40 students who participated in the study, 12.2 % had poor performance in memorizing and retrieving vocabulary, and 85.4% had average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary. It means that eight students did not remember the words the monk. It can be ascribed that students were confused with similar words that were given in the multiple-choice. Otherwise, it can be said that result shows that religious and culturally specific words may create such difficulties for the students to memorize them due to the scarcity of its use regarding to their age. They may not exposed to the religious aspect due to their age.

Table

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	1.00	32	78.0
	1.33	5	12.2
	1.67	3	7.3
	Total	40	97.6
Missing	System	1	2.4
Total		41	100.0

Out of 40 participants (10.0%) had poor performance in the assessment of retrieving and reminding vocabulary scores, and (78.0%) had average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary scores. In this case question, students may recognize the words with their meaning. It is easy then; students answered 78.0% by the correct answer. Almost all of the students answered the question correctly due to understanding the meaning of the correspondence table. It is easy to retrieve the word from the table, which contains the alternative meaning of the words.

Table

4- Each of the following sentences has two blanks. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word forms given in brackets.
… … . … … . Said that only fresh evidence would make him change his … . … . … . … .(judge)
		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Wrong	8	20.0
	Half correct	32	80.0
	Total	40	100.0

Out of 40 participants (20.0%) had a poor performance in retrieving and reminding vocabulary scores and 80(80.0%) had average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary scores. In this question, students answered well. Although the question has difficult. The word (judge) has a multi-aspect of speech acts. So, students recognize the actual place of the word due to a deep understanding of the short story. So, this word uses in ordinary life. So, students have previous knowledge of the meaning of the word in one form of the word. Templeton (1983) Nakiboglu (2008), Townsend et al. (Townsend et al., 2012), and Pourhosein Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) emphasized that outdated words help students to know and speculate the meaning of the new unknown word of a sentence during their reading of the context.

Table

Hermits are … … . … . … . men. How they acquire them … . … . … . … . No one can tell. (wise)
		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Half correct	24	60.0
	full correct	16	40.0
	Total	20	100.0

Out of 40 students in the study, 60(60.0%) had answered one part of the question, the other part they did not answer in their performance in the assessment of retrieving and reminding vocabulary score and 40(40.0%) had answered fully correct in all part of the question. Average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary score. The answer to the word (wise) of the question was a little difficult due to its use as a noun and as a verb in the sentence; also, it is used in student’s daily life. So the Rowland and Schweigert (2000) and Kannan and Tyagi (2013). The words used in daily life will be tangible and easy to recall. In this case, almost all of the students answered half correctly on one of both sides of the question. It may help students memorize one form of the word they didn’t know about using all forms of the word. The other side corrects the full answer. They know all aspects of the word.

Table

Asking for … … . … . … . … . is as noble as a willingness to … . … . … . … … . (forgive)
		Frequency	Percent
Valid	Wrong	16	40.0
	Full correct	16	40.0
	half correct	8	20.0
	Total	40	100.0

Out of 20 students in the study, 40 (40.0%) had poor performance in retrieving and reminding vocabulary scores, and 20(20.0%) had answered one part of the question correctly and the other part wrong. And 40(40.0%) had average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary scores. In these entries, students seem to identify for almost all the answers for the correct words and their places within the context they had given the meaning of the words. A very few students have given poor responses to the word as manipulation in this word. The daily use or poor knowledge leads them to answer only one part of the question.

Table

		Frequency	Percent
Valid	WRONG	8	20.0
	CORRECT	32	80.0
	Total	40	100.0

Out of 40 students in the study, 20 (20.0%) had poor performance in the assessment of retrieving and reminding vocabulary score, and 80(80.0%) had average/good performance in the assessment of memorizing and retrieving vocabulary score. The question about the match between words and pictures was interesting to students. They were answered almost correctly. The result obtained from the students showed that picture is an effective tool for mnemonic words. Many researchers assert this idea in their previous studies as Kroll and Potter (1984), Porren (1984), and Barnard et al. (2003). So that the picture made the story context very clear to students; it associated the story’s events with a picture that created a portray memorial scene in students’ minds which helped them to remember the word in the long term.

8. Findings

Using short stories in education was proved to be fruitful (Tarakçıoğlu & Tunçarslan, 2014). Regarding the test responses in the current study, it was found that the students answered almost the questions correctly. It indicates that almost all students acquire the short story and memorize the new words better.

Old (outdated) fashion words may cause such difficulty to be memorized due to their rare utilization in the students’ daily lives. But the short story made memorizing the words easy for students, so short stories can be used amazingly for teaching the English language for specific purposes courses. It can be said that result shows that religious and culturally specific words may create such difficulties for the students to memorize them due to the dearth of utilizing them due to the respondents’ age. The words used in daily life will be tangible and easy to recall. The result obtained from the students showed that picture is an effective tool for mnemonic words. These findings are consistent with previous studies’ findings, such as Kroll and Potter (1984), Porren (1984), and Barnard et al. (2003).

9. Conclusion

The present study explores the usefulness of implementing teaching the English Language through short story techniques to improve students’ vocabulary. It explained the benefits of the short story in retrieving and memorizing vocabulary. Through this technique, students demonstrate enthusiasm to acquire and memorize new vocabulary. The researchers conducted a test to investigate the scope of improving students’ vocabulary learning by teaching short story techniques.

The students positively respond to memorising and retrieving vocabulary through a short story. The researchers found that the students demonstrated a great ability to memorize and use the appropriate words correctly. The researchers noticed that in overall percentage, 80% of students were able to retrieve and memorize vocabulary by using a short story. And around 20% performed poor ability in retrieving and memorizing the words. Teaching the English language through short stories encourages students to perform better and develop their competencies in memorisation of new vocabulary. Amazingly, students were very enthusiastic about being taught through a short story. They were active throughout the lesson. Regarding the study’s hypothesis, it was approved that short stories help retrieve and memorise students’ vocabulary. It gives students clear ideas about the meaning of vocabulary.

The researchers recommend adopting this technique in the curricula of the ministry of education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Ali Ahmed Ali Mansoor

Ali Ahmed Ali Mansoor is an assistant professor at the faculty of languages at Sana’a University in Yemen. He earned MA and Ph.D. D degrees from the Department of English-Dr BAMU, India specialist of major applied Linguistics. He is highly experienced in teaching applied linguistics, grammar, and Writing. A lecturer of English Language at different levels at Sana’a University Faculty of arts, at the translation Department of both Araw University and Al Gulf University. So, the authors did the current paper to contribute to the educational field to build up students’ vocabulary using the indirect method. Also, to support students to gain many words with the help of short stories.

Othman Saleh Mahdy Mohammed

Othman Saleh Mahdy Mohammed is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Saba Region. His research areas include translation, Computer Assisted Translation, Linguistics, and ELT. He published several articles in international journals. He works as an editor and reviewer of many journals.

Hazhar Ramadhan Ahmed

Hazhar Ramadhan Ahmed is a lecturer at the University of Raparin College of Basic Education Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq. His field of interest are linguistics, English language teaching and English literature,He published several articles in Scopus journals. [email protected]

Awadh Nasser Munasser Awadh

Awadh Nasser Munasser Awadh is a PhD scholar at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedekar Marathwada University, Department of English translation field, India. He received his master’s degree from the department of the English University of science and technology, Yemen. His research area includes translation, linguistics, translation technology, and technical translation.

Hameed Mohammed Abdulfatah

Hameed Mohammed Abdulfatah holds Ph. D. in English. A lecturer of English Language for different levels at Sana’a Community College since 2004. A teacher of Communication Skills, Sana’a Community College, Yemen.

Ebrahim Yahay Sheikh

Ebrahim Yahay Sheikh is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at Al-Aharar Secondary School, Hajjah office of Education. He got his MA and PhD. Degree in English Literature from Dr B. A.M.U. Aurangabad, India. His research interests include political, social and cultural studies, war and peace in the Arab world, child crisis, women, race and gender discrimination.