Developing University Students’ English Speaking Skills Through Literary Texts

Abstract

Literary texts offer language learners opportunities to interpret experience, negotiate meaning, and speak from perspectives other than their own. However, reading a story or answering comprehension questions does not automatically develop oral communication. This article proposes a methodology for using literary texts to develop the English speaking skills of university students, with particular relevance to intermediate learners in English as a foreign language settings. A selective narrative synthesis connects literature pedagogy with research on communicative competence, classroom interaction, drama, task repetition, and assessment. The resulting framework comprises text selection, supported interpretation, language preparation, purposeful interaction, repeated performance, and reflection with transfer. Its contribution is an explicit alignment between literary features, speaking tasks, and observable indicators of oral performance. A worked lesson based on a short story demonstrates how learners can move from supported discussion to an unscripted communicative task. Particular attention is given to affirmation, nonverbal meaning, equitable participation, and the distinction between literary dialogue and everyday speech. An analytic assessment rubric and a proposed evaluation design accompany the framework. The article presents a pedagogical proposal rather than an experimentally validated intervention. It argues that literary texts become productive resources for speaking when interpretation generates a communicative purpose and learners receive repeated opportunities to reformulate meaning for different listeners.