THE EFFECT OF TELLING SHORT STORIES ON LEARNING GRAMMAR AMONG EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IRAN

The role of storytelling in the acquisition of grammatical rules and structures has not clearly been discovered, but it is claimed that it is one of the most effective techniques for conveying information in a compelling and memorable way. There are many reasons to tell stories in our classes as they can give relief from the routine and stimulate the mind, they are a great motivator for teachers as well as for students, they can also foster understanding and acceptance of the foreign language and culture. This study aims at investigating the effect of teacherʹs telling short stories on the acquisition of grammatical rules and structures of the Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The sample of the study consisted of 30 female intermediate students who were randomly chosen from one of the public high schools in Isfahan and assigned into experimental and control groups, 15 in each. Grammatical point that was related to conditional sentence (type III) was taught traditionally in the control group; however, in the experimental group, it was taught by telling short story. Data of the study were collected via a pre-posttest design for equivalent groups. The tests were identical and consisted of 15multiple choice items. The analysis of the collected data through applying t-test revealed that telling story has a positive effect on learning grammar structures but the experimental group didn’t outperform the control group significantly on the measure. In other words, there wasn’t a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the acquisition of grammatical rules and structures.