Unabridged short stories by 21st-century Spanish-speaking authors in teaching Spanish as a foreign language

Introduction. The need to include authentic works of fiction in the foreign language teaching process is obvious, but the selection of texts of the appropriate level at the elementary and intermediate stages of Spanish teaching remains a challenge. Since this phenomenon has not been sufficiently explored, the aim of this article is to present a list of unabridged short stories that correspond to the intermediate level (B1 PCIC) and the results of the study on the benefits of using these stories as a means of stimulating communication skills in the Spanish class. Materials and Methods. To study the problem, a Likert scale questionnaire, oral interviews, and a check of the final work were carried out. The study involved 54 students from three Russian universities and one school where Spanish and English are studied in depth. The collected data were processed by methods of mathematical statistics in Microsoft Office Excel. For the study, 36 short stories by contemporary Hispanic authors were selected and pre and post-reading questions were developed to introduce the topic and stimulate oral speech. Results. Based on the results of the study, it was revealed that the selected stories correspond to the B1 level of the Cervantes Instituteʼs curriculum, and the topics presented in the stories stimulate communication in the class, pushing the fear of making a mistake into the background. Many Spanish teachers introduce unabridged fiction starting at B2 level. This experiment demonstrates the successful use of short stories at an intermediate level of language proficiency. Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the study contribute to the development and improvement of the methodology of teaching Spanish with the use of authentic fiction texts. The materials of the article will be useful for practicing teachers and methodologists of the Spanish language.