Investigating the Role of Short Stories in Enhancing First Year University StudentsWriting Skills

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the role of Short Stories in enhancing first-year University students in writing skills. The study adopted the descriptive, experimental methods. The data were collected by two tools: a questionnaire for university teachers and pre and post tests for first year students at Gezira University. The sample consists of forty (40) EFL teachers and thirty five (53) first year students of English language at Gezira University Faculty of Education Al Hasahiesa. The data were analyzed by (SPSS) program. The researcher has come up with the following results: Short stories promote students’ writing mechanism, short stories improve students writing style, short stories equip students with varying figurative speech, short stories provide students with memorable, grammatical , and vocabulary items, short stories develop students’ critical thinking and cultural Awareness and short stories provide teachers with valuable authentic material for teaching. Based on the findings, the study recommends that: EFL teachers have to pay more attention for teaching writing skill due to its crucial role in the process of teaching EFL, many teachers need to understand the importance of literary text as a tool to reinforce writing skill not only for the entertainment, teacher should use short stories continuously to stimulate students and motivate them to write more, EFL teachers should advise their student to use phrases and expressions learnt from short stories, EFL teachers should advise their students to increase their vocabulary through short stories, short stories should be considered as an essential material for teaching English language. Moreover, the study also recommends thatimproving students' writing skills is highly recommended through short stories. The study suggested carrying out other studies.