Abstract for teaching detective stories to ESL students
The purpose of the research is to examine the impact of including detective stories in teaching ESL students. Detective stories are part of literature that is imaginative and creative. It has been put into writing by acknowledging previous articles already developed in the intelligence and security departments across the globe.
Detective stories are put into diverse languages and cultures with respect to the sources of information used in compiling. Many scholars have put their views regarding the introduction of the literature in the ESL teaching curriculum, bringing a controversy of its significance to the learners.
The research has been done qualitatively in gathering support to support the argument. It is argued that Detective stories help a learner develop inter- personal skills that positively impacts the future of the ESL discipline. In the research is a literature review, methodology applied and analysis section.
Literature review
This section focuses on factual evidences that are there in support of the argument. It can be shown that language use in most disciplines helps to develop the understanding capabilities of learners. According to researches done, interactive methods of learning can enhance conceptualization skills of learners in reading of texts.
In this context, ESL students have the benefit of understanding the information contained in their curriculum sources. Literature used in the teaching of English provides authentic materials to the ESL students, enhances cultural knowledge, improves the mode of language use, and develops personal association of the learner with other people highly.
From literal texts, it has been shown that an upper intermediate student can work comfortably with international scholarly-written texts. Such texts include drama and novels which are used widely in teaching literature. Through learning development stories, an ESL student improves the vocabulary enabling student’s ability of grasping ideas.
The research has also shown that detective stories act as a second language which is a critic opposed highly by a section of scholars. It has also been shown that most of other curriculums in the ESL syllabus apply complex language for the learners.
In this case, detective stories serve the purpose of simplifying this language by making the learners interpret the information as per the intended reason. Literature is a language that links ideas to concepts and understanding in a learner’s mind.
However, it is important to acknowledge that some of the topics in the literature are controversial. Therefore, they should be taught with high caution having in mind the different backgrounds of learners. Detective stories focus majorly on specific crimes but can also include social, political, and economic concepts to some extent.
Consequently, the research has shown that detective stories have simpler language, and the grammatical structures applied are easier to understand as an ESL student. It has also outlined the socio-political impact made by the literature studies to intermediate level ESL students as it pertains to the political, economic, and social aspects.
Research methodology
The research is conducted with a basic objective of assessing whether detective stories are beneficial to the ESL learners or not. The study populations used are students in an ESL class, who are given a questionnaire to fill.
The questions used are based on the parameters for testing student’s abilities in comprehensions understanding, distinction between facts and opinions, identifying main ideas communicated, determination of sequence of the proses, evaluation of the content in the texts, and making of conclusions and inferences from the quiz given.
A total of seven questions were formulated in a comprehensive model touching on the understanding of reading texts issued alongside a demographic question for determining the race of the participants.
Research design
The research deployed the use of detective stories and its effectiveness in enhancing English language skills for the 20th and 21st century ESL students. In addition, the research used knowledge gained from TESOL training program in developing a concrete structure.
A total of four groups participated in the reading exercise of four comprehensions and assessment regarding the understanding for each done in a period of a month. The reading project comprised of a long and short detective stories each handled by two separate groups, and questions later sent to the participants via email where they would answer them in a relaxed atmosphere.
Results analysis
The groups of four students submitted duly filled questionnaires that were used for analysis. Given the stories by either Conan Doyle or O’ Henry, a comparison for the two groups was carried out respectively by each group. This exercise showed that the two groups had no difficulties in understanding the story. In the research, the participants found the stories interesting.
Therefore, this aspect provided an attracting reason to read more income. From the exercise, it is shown clearly that detective stories are interesting to most people as they are easy and interesting. Moreover, mind capturing stories break boredom of reading.
Conclusion
It was, therefore, concluded that detective stories should be included in a curriculum of ESL classes particularly the intermediate level for the purpose of improving learners’ abilities of understanding concepts and ideas.