We have all done it.
It’s Friday, you’ve come to the end of a section in the dreaded textbook that your school insists you use, the students are tired and bored of endlessly trying to improve their English.
So, you bring in a short story.
And everyone loves stories, right?
Why not use one in the class?
The logic seems infallible.
Stories are relaxing.
Stories are enjoyable.
Stories are a great change from ESL exercises and worksheets.
But this mindset quietly sabotages the true power of using a short story in the class.
When stories are framed as a reward or a filler, they stop being taken seriously — by the teacher and the English learner.
Stories aren’t weak tools.
They’re just often used badly.
And when they are used well, their impact is hard to match.
The problem is rarely the learners — it’s usually how the story is framed.
In this article I want to look at some of the most common ways stories are misused in English classes — and, more importantly, how you the teacher can fix these problems without adding more unnecessary work or complexity.
Let’s get into it…
Mistake 1: Reading Once And Moving On
Many of us have done this — I certainly have.
And I know I am not alone.
Many teachers get their students to read the story only once in the class.
After that comes the usual round of comprehension questions, vocabulary work, and then the class moves on.
(I should say that using proper reading comprehension questions and vocabulary exercises is not a bad thing to do. It is essential in my opinion.)
But the message sent in only doing this is subtle but powerful:
This story is disposable.
Learners don’t invest in something they know will be abandoned forty minutes later.
From their perspective, the goal is to survive the class itself.
They get through the text, then they answer the questions and then they forget about the story completely.
They are not invested in the story at all.
No need in a class like this.
The Fix: Re-Reading Is Reinforcement, Not Repetition
In real daily English use, we encounter the same material again and again.
Phrases repeat, structures reappear in different forms, and ideas circle back until they begin to feel familiar rather than new.
But stories work best when learners return to them.
When they’re skimmed again, looked at from a different angle, and allowed to settle rather than being rushed and discarded.
So, for example, this is what I think works better:
In the first reading, the students follow the events of the story.
Then in the second reading, they notice how the characters speak, either in monologue or to each other.
Finally, in the third reading, you discuss decisions or consequences with the students about the story.
Each reading reduces the effort required, but increases their confidence.
Familiarity doesn’t create boredom — it creates security.
Now, they are engaged.
Mistake 2: Treating Stories Like Vocabulary Mines
Some lessons turn stories into vocabulary extraction exercises.
Most of us have done this at some point.
The routine is very familiar.
The teacher stops after every few lines.
The teacher gets the students to underline any ‘new or difficult’ words.
A mad scramble for the dictionary to translate them all.
And then monotonously writing out huge lists of words in a notebook…
At this point, the story becomes secondary.
Learners start reading with one anxious question:
Which words will I be tested on?
Reading turns into scanning.
Meaning disappears.
(As an aside, I do think it’s important for the students to learn new vocabulary, but let’s not use the story only for this.)
The Fix: Let Vocabulary Serve Meaning, Not Replace It
Vocabulary sticks best in the mind when it helps learners understand something that matters.
Instead of asking:
What does this word mean?
Ask:
What is happening here?
Why did he say that?
What changed after this moment?
Once learners care about what’s happening, they want the words.
At that point, vocabulary is no longer a burden — it’s a tool.
You do it this way and the students are acting like detectives trying to pursue the characters’ intentions and goals.
And every character in a story has a goal.
Mistake 3: Explaining Too Much, Too Early
Teachers often feel the great need to explain every single thing in the text.
I’ve done this myself.
Once I start talking I can’t stop blabbing about every single item of grammar, each and every word that I assume the students don’t know and, of course, let’s not forget sentence structure.
I mean, in my defence, I have tried to do this in the past with good intentions.
I didn’t want the students to feel lost or confused.
But all the constant explanation destroys the natural rhythm of the story.
So, why do it?
The narrative stops.
Curiosity melts away.
And then the lesson becomes fragmented.
The Fix: Allow Partial Understanding
Learners do not need total clarity to enjoy a story.
The teacher doesn’t need to explain every single item of vocabulary and grammar in every sentence!
All the student needs is enough understanding to follow the events of the story.
And a free pass not to know everything.
This helps much more!
If your students can understand what is happening in the story, but not EVERY SINGLE DETAIL, this is still of great benefit to them.
They are still learning.
In fact, if the text is just that teeny little bit difficult for them, where they don’t understand every single word, this is perfect for an English class.
Yes, explain some of the terms. But not everything.
Sometimes, as teachers, we need to know when to shut up and let the students get on with it.
If some of your students are confused, dig in and help them then. This is not a failure. This is you helping when it is required.
It is not teacher overkill.
All of this is part of real reading.
Mistake 4: Turning Stories Into Grammar Lessons
And then comes the grammar…
One common error teachers make is to use stories as a means of teaching grammar points.
All you are doing in this is hijacking the story to explain grammar rules.
So every couple of sentences, you might stop and labour over past perfect, reported speech or one of the dreaded conditionals.
This is really not a good way to use stories in the English class…
The text just becomes a delivery system.
Learners stop asking:
What is happening?
And start asking:
Which tense is this?
The story loses its purpose.
(A quick rule I try to follow: If you can’t explain any grammar point in less than two minutes, it’s a waste of time.)
The Fix: Stories Are About Why, Not Which Tense
Stories show language working, not language being explained.
Any grammar point can be picked up after reading. There really is no need to do it in the flow of the story.
Also, the repetition of certain grammar points, and the context within which the grammar is used in the story, is really great for students.
But when the grammar leads the reading, this is where the meaning always suffers.
If learners remember the rule but forget the story, the story has failed.
Story first. Always.
Mistake 5: Asking Dead Questions
How many times have you seen these kinds of questions in dull ESL textbooks?
Some questions just kill any sense of engagement.
Questions like:
What colour was the car?
Where did he live?
What time did she arrive?
These test memory, not understanding.
They signal:
There is one correct answer, and it’s in the text.
Once learners realise this, discussion shuts down.
(Note: These questions are really comprehension questions. They have their place. But they are not suitable for getting the students to talk.)
The Fix: Ask Questions That Invite Interpretation
What you really want are the kind of questions that make the students forget they are in an English class.
You want them to get so fired up, that all they want to do is give you their opinion of thoughts on something.
The best discussion questions have no one single correct answer.
Because there could be several different answers as you go around the class.
Discussion questions should invite judgement, opinions, ideas and thoughts.
And it is really great if the questions relate to the students’ own personal experience.
Do this, and discussion begins to take care of itself!
Good discussion questions could be:
Why do you think he did that?
Was this a mistake?
What would you have done?
These questions don’t test reading.
They use reading.
And when learners care about their response, the language follows.
The Quiet Power of Doing Less
The best story English lessons should feel a little slower, calmer and less busy.
That’s not a weakness.
Stories don’t need to be worked on constantly.
They need to be lived with briefly.
When stories are used well, something subtle begins to shift in the room.
Learners relax. The pressure to “get everything right” eases slightly, and they allow themselves to follow the narrative instead of analysing every sentence.
That small change matters more than we often realise.
Language, too, has a chance to settle.
Instead of being forced into quick understanding, it becomes familiar through exposure.
Learners start recognising phrases they saw earlier. Structures feel less intimidating.
What once looked difficult begins to feel manageable.
Confidence grows quietly in this kind of environment. Not the loud confidence of perfect answers, but the steadier kind that comes from realising, “I understood more than I expected.”
Even silence changes its character. It stops signalling confusion and starts becoming thinking time — the pause where learners process what they’ve read and consider what they want to say.
Re-reading no longer feels like repetition. It becomes reassurance — a second encounter that confirms understanding and reduces effort.
And discussion, when it emerges, feels less like a classroom task and more like a natural response.
Learners speak because they have formed an opinion, not because the teacher has demanded one.
From the outside, the lesson may look slower.
But underneath that calm surface, something far more valuable is happening: the language is beginning to stick.
Conclusion: Stories Don’t Need More Work — They Need Better Use
Most problems with story-based lessons don’t begin with the stories themselves.
More often, they come from the way we handle them — rushing through the reading, explaining too much too soon, testing every detail, and not quite trusting the process that real reading requires.
But stories were never meant to be treated as fragile teaching tools that need constant intervention.
When given a little space, they do much of the work for us. They expose learners to patterns of language, allow meaning to build naturally, and create the conditions in which understanding becomes familiar rather than forced.
Stories are not a break from learning. In many ways, they are where some of the deepest learning happens.
Provided we allow them the space to work.
When teachers step back slightly — choosing stories carefully, slowing the pace, and resisting the urge to over-direct — something encouraging tends to happen.
Learners step forward.
They read with greater attention.
They think more deeply about what they’ve encountered.
And gradually, almost without noticing, they begin to use the language with more confidence.
Not because they were pushed harder, but because they were given the chance to engage with something meaningful.
Good story lessons don’t always look busy.
They often look calm, even unremarkable from the outside.
Yet beneath that calm surface, familiarity is forming, intuition is developing, and the language is starting to belong to the learner.
And that, ultimately, is the goal.
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