Infusing Graphic Organizers and Short Stories in Language Teaching
Infusing Graphic Organizers and Short Stories in Language Teaching

Summary/Abstract: Within the structuralist viewpoint, the storymaking elements of the short stories can be visualized after identifying their story grammar, which has implications on language teaching. Bartlett (1932), Propp (1970), Levi-Strauss ( 1976) originally did research on narrative structure. In 1975, Rumelhart organized the information into story grammar and focused on cause and effect. In 1977, Mandler and Johnson used story grammar in the form of tree diagrams for a more in-depth diagram of relationships between the story elements. This approach was then simplified by Beck and McKoewn in 1981. In this study, the use of graphic organizers on the basis of story grammars of the short stories is demonstrated in American short stories: Thank you Ma’m by Langston Hughes, A Dait’s Wait by Ernest Hemingway and My Father Sits in the Dark by Jerome Wiedman. Such an application is believed to help students enhance their understanding and their cognitive development as better comprehension is closely associated with improved thinking and linguistic skills.

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