Due to narrative aspect of human brain, fictional narratives have the potential to be used as instructional material for enhancing learners’ narrative competence as well as language skills. Nevertheless, the contribution of Narrative Intelligence (NI) which constructs an important part of the cognitive abilities for language learning skills has rarely been exploited to its full potential in ESL/EFL classes. This article made inquiry into the outcome of implementing a narrative-based reading instruction in search of empirical support for such a claim. To this end, this study set out to investigate the impact of two genres of narration and exposition on subjects’ reading skills, NI, and moral reasoning. Data were collected from a sample of 91 Iranian EFL learners studying at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad ,Iran. Two intact groups of 47 and 44 who took a four-unit reading course were randomly assigned to two types of treatments. The first group received fictional narratives and the second one expository texts. Both groups were taught by the researcher herself for a period of 17-week university semester during fall 2010.

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