Using Short Stories to Motivate EFL Learners in Essay Write

The study aims to investigate using short stories to motivate intermediate EFL learners in essay writing at Vietnam Centre Point. More specifically it attempts to fulfill the two guiding research questions: (1) What are the learners’ attitudes towards using English short stories in enhancing writing essays? (2) How can short stories motivate EFL learners in essay writing? This study concerned 45 intermediate learners who were studying at Vietnam Centre Point the researcher’s workplace. This study adopted a sequential mixed-method approach to data collection and analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings expressed that the attitudes of the learners (containing affective behavioral and cognitive components) and factors motivating them (consisting of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) in their essay writing through using short stories mostly had positive outcomes.