The Impact of Digital Storytelling on ESL Narrative Writing Skill

Abstract

This paper presents a part of a study on the teaching of narrative writing by incorporating Digital Storytelling. Writing skill is an essential component in mastering English because it incorporates all elements in English. By integrating technology in the learning process, students would be able to improve their writing skill. In Malaysia, students’ performance in examination has declined in recent years since the marks are based mostly on students’ writing. This research aims to know the impact of Digital Storytelling towards Malaysian secondary school students by investigating its impact on content, grammar, vocabulary and overall performance. It also explores students' perception of Digital Storytelling. This quasi-experimental study involved 52 Form four students from a fully-residential school in Melaka who were chosen using convenient sampling as part of the controlled and experimental groups. Data were collected from pre-tests, post-tests and a semi-structured interview. The quantitative data were analyzed using mean analysis, Wilcoxon Signed Tank Test and Independent t-Test while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings show that there is a significant difference in the score before and after the intervention but there is no significant difference between the score of the experimental group and the controlled group. Participants stated that DS motivates them to write and improves their writing. It is hoped that this study would provide an alternative to teaching narrative writing and adds to the current pool of literature. It is suggested for future researchers to conduct purposive sampling which could yield different results.

Keywords: digital storytelling, education, ESL, narrative writing skills, technology