“Undeniably, vocabulary plays an important role in language teaching and learning without which learners will not be able to develop other skills successfully since knowledge of vocabulary is the raw material for all thoughts and feelings to be expressed and conveyed through the medium of language. Harmer argues that “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” (p. 153).He overemphasizes the importance of acquiring vocabulary and states that very little can be expressed without grammar, while without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Hence, assisting learners to acquire a wide range of vocabulary knowledge seems to be indispensable for any language teaching program. Therefore, designing a structured and effective approach to enrich learners’ knowledge of vocabulary has to be considered as the first priority.

“Most of EFL learners suffer from lack of sufficient knowledge of vocabulary and get frustrated by not knowing the meaning of key vocabulary items in a passage, consequently, they find the task of reading comprehension and other skills as tiresome, laborious and tedious job and soon give up the task. In order to help our learners not to get frustrated easily and assist them enjoy the language learning tasks we should find ways to enrich their knowledge of vocabulary, one of which is using authentic materials such as short stories that make it possible for the learners to widen their vocabulary and develop their competence and become more autonomous learners. To alleviate the problem, it seems to be of utmost importance for language educators and materials designers to provide learners with most interesting redundant materials that challenge learners and at the same time familiarize them with a wider scope of vocabulary. To do so, researchers should take the first steps to pioneer new methods and techniques to make our learners as much competent to communicate in the foreign language as other EFL learners are. Having felt this necessity, the researchers have been motivated to probe into the issue and find out if implementing short stories can help learners enhance their vocabulary learning. The results of the current study can assist teachers to move in the direction of recognizing the importance of learning vocabulary and providing them with as much knowledge of vocabulary as they need to feel confident enough to take on the task of language learning more easily. Since in modern methods and approaches a greater weight has been given to vocabulary instruction than before, this research will be of great help for teachers and learners and our language teaching materials designers to incorporate more authentic sources into language teaching curriculum.