The Effects of Using the STAD Method in Teaching the Short Story, Flipping Fantastic on Form One Students Subadrah Madhawa Nair 1 and Chee Peck Kim 2 1 Universiti Utara Malaysia (subadrah@uum.edu.my) 2 Khir Johari Secondary School, Kedah (peckimchee@yahoo.com) Abstract. Since the year 2000 literature components have been introduced in the English language syllabus of the secondary schools in Malaysia. However until today not all teachers are aware of the possible best ways of teaching literature components effectively. This study discusses the Student Teams Achievements Divisions (STAD) method and the effect of using the method in the teaching of a short story on Form One students. The researchers used a quasi experimental design to investigate the effects of using the STAD method on the achievement of students in comprehending the short story, and their interest in learning the short story. The experimental group was taught using the STAD method and the control group was taught using the conventional method. Independent sample T-test was used to analyze the data obtained from the pre-test, post-test and the questionnaires. The findings indicate that the utilization of the STAD method significantly enhanced students’ achievement in answering questions related to setting, plot, characterization, theme and moral values compared with the control group (using the conventional method). The interest of the experimental group in reading short story was also significantly enhanced. Keywords: The STAD method, reading comprehension, short stories, students’ interest. 1. Introduction The literature component was introduced into the English language syllabus in the year 2000. Through the introduction of this component, students “would find the base for an appreciation of literature in English with its concerns with humanity, values, beliefs and customs as well as its great tradition and heights of imagination and creativity” ( Ministry of Education, Malaysia , 2003, p.5). The second round of the literature component implementation started in the year 2010, “….the main objectives of this component are to promote the love for books and encourage the reading habits among pupils between the ages of 13 and 17 in secondary schools” ( Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2010). Based on several studies conducted by researchers, the teaching and learning of literature is effective and beneficial to students only if students are given the opportunity to participate actively using authentic materials in literature. Chacko (2007) stressed that there is a need to research the learner-centred approaches in the learning of literature in Malaysian ESL classes because the learners in Malaysian schools come from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. 1.1. Problem statement The literature component has now been part of the English language curriculum in Malaysian secondary schools for more than thirteen years. However, the true scenarios in most rural schools show that the students are still vague about what they have studied in literature component. They do not know how to appreciate the culture in the poem or the short story. They are also weak in interpreting the social, political, literary and historical perspectives of a specific text. For most of them literature is just an ordinary reading text. Therefore, the majority of students are not interested in reading. Hence to them literature is burdening.  Corresponding author. E-mail address: subadrah@uum.edu.my. 156 2014 4th International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation IPEDR vol.81 (2014) © (2014) IACSIT Press, Singapore DOI: 10.7763/IPEDR.2014.V81.24