Learning English through short stories

1.1. Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to highlight the effects of a narrative text genre over a non-narrative (expository) text genre. Since reading is a meaning gathering activity, sophisticated readers do not read every word, but they comprehend the meaning of a passage as a whole. Therefore they look for the gist of what they are reading. Two main purposes are involved and the primary purpose of this study is to contribute to the development of a 'student's' perspective, that is, teaching the student to develop a particular attitude and to activate the student's knowledge through recall/review what is known about the topic. And a global way of thinking about the art of reading in particular and language in general like training the students to consider a text in its entirety, identifying the type of text or information, weaning students away from the tendency to translate the text word for word, rather to identify main idea(s), understanding titles, order or sequence of information and verify predictions. And also to check their own understanding, monitor their own reading comprehension, summarize the major ideas, distinguish relevant from irrelevant ideas, to paraphrase the text they have learnt, expand on new ideas and words, integrate new understandings and prior knowledge, "in some ways parallel to normal speaking, reading and writing" (Nagy, 1988).

1.2. Research Questions and Hypotheses

The following research questions motivate the study:
Q1: Is there any significant difference in reading comprehension of narrative text genres between freshmen and sophomore EFL students?
Q2: Is there any significant difference in reading comprehension of non-narrative (expository) text genre between freshmen and sophomore EFL students?
Q3: Is there any interaction between the freshmen and sophomore EFL students' performance for the two narrative and non-narrative (expository) text genres?