The Role of Digital Storytelling in EFL Students’ Writing Skill and Motivation

Abstract

Digital storytelling (DST) is one of the areas which has entered the field of foreign language education and has proved to be beneficial in learning different language skills. However, it remains underexplored whether and how DST can affect learners’ writing skill and motivation to write. The present study sought to investigate the impact of DST on young EFL learners’ writing skill and motivation to write through mixing quantitative and qualitative research methods. The data were collected through pre- and post-tests of writing and interviews from 22 EFL learners. The learners were asked to create digital stories based on the pre-taught topics, vocabulary, and structures in their course book within a 10-week implementation process. In addition, structured interviews were carried out to investigate the impact of DST on the learners’ motivation. The result was a proof to the efficiency of DST in improving the learners’ writing skill. Also, the thematic analysis of the interview data indicated that employing DST had a positive impact on young EFL learners’ attitude toward writing and increased their motivation. The primary takeaway from this study is that DST can provide a more favourable and enjoyable teaching context to instruct writing to EFL learners.