Readers emotional involvement in reading L2 short stories

Reading short stories evokes emotions on readers and the readers respond to shortstories with their emotions. These emotional responses get the readers to beemotionally involved in reading. Emotional involvement in reading makes the readingprocess more enjoyable and beneficial for the L2 learners. Thus, this study aims tosearch into the process of the readers? emotional involvement in reading L2 shortstories. Fifty-one (51) student-teachers at Çukurova University, ELT Department,were administered a literary response questionnaire (LRQ) in order to investigate theiremotional responses to short stories in general and their emotional involvement in theprocess of reading L2 short stories. Moreover, three female (3 F) and three male (3 M)student-teachers, out of these fifty-one (51) participants, were administered emotiondiaries, another questionnaire about the stories they read in the study and interviewsfor a thorough analysis of the process of emotional involvement. In the light of thedata gathered, the present research suggests that EFL/ESL teachers should select thereading materials that will promote emotional involvement and design appropriateactivities.Key Words: Emotional response, emotional involvement, empathy, identification,short story