Using Digital Storytelling to Improve Pupils’ Speaking Skills in the Age of COVID 19

Viknesh Nair and Melor Md Yunus
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Viknesh Nair: Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
Melor Md Yunus: Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-19

Abstract: Speaking in English is one of the most important skills that students must learn in school, and it is a pertinent tool for communicating in the real world. However, pupils in rural schools often faced difficulty in conversing in the English language, as they did not have adequate opportunities or an engaging environment to practice the language, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was observed though School-Based Assessment (SBA) that pupils had limited levels of fluency, accuracy, and pronunciation. Hence, this quasi-experimental study aims to investigate the use of Toontastic 3D, a digital storytelling app, to improve pupils’ speaking skills. In this study, a pre- and post-test and a questionnaire were used as methods for data collection. The findings revealed that the potential benefits of digital storytelling had a beneficial impact on pupils’ speaking skills. The findings also demonstrated that digital storytelling engaged students in the story’s content not just by encouraging motivation and curiosity but also by instilling confidence in their ability to speak in English. The results from the questionnaire indicate that digital storytelling facilitates 21st-century learning by allowing interactive and collaborative learning that encourages pupils to speak English. Moreover, pupils were more engaged, confident, and motivated to converse in English. Hence, digital storytelling, especially in the age of COVID 19, can be utilised as an effective teaching repertoire to create a dynamic learning environment that stimulates students to participate actively during speaking classes.

Keywords: digital storytelling; digital learning; speaking skills; collaborative learning; COVID 19; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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