Digital storytelling: A multimodal narrative writing genre
Abstract
This study explored the impact of a digital storytelling (DS)-integrated methodology on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ (narrative) writing skills. This current study was conducted at School of Foreign Languages, Cumhuriyet University with the participation of 43 EFL English-major-students. Because it was an experimental research study, two groups (one experimental and one control) were chosen for this study randomly; the former was exposed to DS-integrated (narrative) writing instruction, the latter was taught through traditional (narrative) writing practices. The experimental phase lasted for 14 weeks. Before the experimental phase, a pre-test was given to both groups in order to determine their writing proficiency levels and at the end of this experimental phase, the same test was re-administered to both groups in order to see if there were any changes in their (narrative) writing proficiency. The results showed that both instruction types namely, DS-integrated writing instruction and traditional paper-based writing practices were effective in developing learners’ (narrative) writing skills. But the quantitative data also showed that the experimental group students scored significantly higher than the control group students at the post test as a result of the participation into the DS-integrated instruction process, suggesting the superiority of DS over traditional writing applications. Overall, the results of this study can help educators who are willing to meet today’s students’ needs and expectations in the 21st century composition classes by opening up a new channel for them to express themselves in different modalities.Â
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