These are the slides of the paper presentation at SITE Conference 2018

1. Digital Storytelling Enhances Students'
Speaking Skills at Zewail University of
Science and Technology in Egypt
Mohamed A. Abdelmageed
ZEWAIL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
mohamedaboulela1@gmail.com
Zeinab A. El-Naggar
Ain Shams University
zenaggar@gmail.com

2. Agenda
• Background
• Research Questions
• Method
• Treatment
• Results
• Discussion
• Wisdom of Hindsight
• Suggestions for Further Research
• Resources
• References

3. “Media production gives voice to students who are otherwise
silenced in their schools and communities. It allows students
to represent their experiences and their communities as
cultural insiders, instead of the incessant misrepresentation
of them by media producers outside their communities.”
(Tyner, 1998)

4. Background
 Importance of speaking skills in CLT
(Celce-Murcia, 2001; Richards & Renandya, 2002; Ur, 2006)
 Effectiveness of Digital Storytelling
(Gregori-Signes, 2008; Robin, 2006; Ramírez & Belmonte,
2006 & 2007; Ohler, 2008; Azizah, 2010; Pelin et al., 2011)

6. “ I know only one thing about the technologies
that await us in the future: we will find ways to tell
stories with them.”
Jason Ohler

7. The DAOW of Literacy in a Digital Storytelling Environment
(Ohler, 2013)

8. Research Questions
1. What are the appropriate speaking skills for Zewail University
students?
2. How far is digital storytelling effective in enhancing
the participants’ speaking skills?
3. To what extent are the participants satisfied with digital
storytelling?

9. Method
 One-group pre-post test design
 One intact class of eight students
 Instruments:
 A speaking proficiency test
 An interview
 Written reflections

10. Treatment
 One DS per week
 Five weeks
Record audio
narration/
background
music
Publish &
share
Choose
a topic
Story map
Find &
collect pics/
videos

12. Let’s watch a sample DS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoBFISZXCVQ&t=30s
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF8bsYVna0-
3d8AvgFAq6nYoiYTZ_Saq
www.wevideo.com

13. Results
Skill Measurement Number Mean S.D Z Value Sig. Effect
Size
Whole speaking Pre 8 12.35 2.85 2.524 0.01 0.6
LargePost 8 14.45 3.25
Fluency Pre 8 2.3 0.5 2.428 0.01 0.6
LargePost 8 2.9 0.7
Pronunciation Pre 8 2.375 0.5 2.157 0.03 0.5
MediumPost 8 3 0.88
Vocabulary Pre 8 2.437 0.4 2.33 0.02 0.5
MediumPost 8 2.875 0.6
Grammar Pre 8 2.25 0.37 2.588 0.01 0.6
LargePost 8 3 0.65
Comprehensibility Pre 8 2.625 0.4 2.46 0.01 0.6
LargePost 8 3.375 0.5
Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test Results

14. Category Students’ Responses
The Program Positive Attitude
 Enhance oral proficiency
 Make ideas organized and coherent
 Increase vocabulary
 Improve pronunciation
 Believe it is engaging
 Improve grammar
 Boost confidence
Negative Attitude  Time-consuming
 Rerecording
WeVideo
Platform
Positive Attitude
 User-friendly
 Flexible
 Easily accessed
 Large storing space
Negative Attitude  Overwhelming features (e.g., adding transitions)
 moving from timeline mode to story mode confusing
Summary of Interview Data and Written Reflections

15. Here is an example of a student’s reflection:
“The digital story helped me immensely to improve the pronunciation
of many words, enhanced my storytelling techniques and improved my
fluency significantly. Nonetheless, doing the digital story was tiresome
as I always had to record the audio several times because of background
noise. Initially, I attempted to improvise while recording the audio.
However, I kept forgetting the words and skipping crucial ideas. Hence,
I wrote a script and read it while recording which helped me immensely
and reduce the number of attempts I had to do drastically. When you
create your digital story make sure that you write a script even if you
won’t read it and try to choose a quiet place to record in.”

16. Discussion
 Story mapping, storyboarding, editing scripts, and recording multiple times,
students have had opportunities to practice pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar,
and fluency (Gregori-Signes, 2008).
 They also have become more confident (Robin, 2008; Sadik, 2008).
 speaking in the target language is much facilitated and meaningful because
learners could organize their thought more consistently around personal
narratives (Kearney & Schuck, 2005; Hull & Katz, 2006; Li, 2006; Robin, 2008;
Sadik, 2008; Xu & Ahn, 2010; Coutinho, 2010; Baghdasaryan, 2012)
 More time both to be familiar with “WeVideo” and to practice their speeches
(Robin, 2008; Coutinho, 2010).

17. Wisdom of Hindsight
 Continuous reflection logs for both teacher and students
 More time for each digital story
 Mini-lessons on copyright issues
 Cooperative digital storytelling

18. Suggestions for Further Research
 digital storytelling and EFL learners’ intercultural awareness
 digital storytelling and EFL learners’ critical thinking skills
 digital storytelling and EFL learners’ motivation and engagement
 digital storytelling and EFL learners’ project-based learning skills

19. Resources
 Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
 Story Concepts
http://storyconcepts.blogspot.com/
 Digitales
https://www.digitales.us
 Best Digital Storytelling Examples and Resources
https://brandietrent.weebly.com/uploads/8/8/2/1/
8821291/digital_storytelling_descprition_and_resources1.pdf

20. References
Azizah, C. N. (2010). Potentials of interactive digital storytelling for preschool
children in daily reading activity. (Unpublished Master’s thesis, Universiti Utara
Malaysia). Retrieved from http://etd.uum.edu.my/2390/ 1/ Cut_Nora_Azizah.pdf
Baghdasaryan, K. (2012). The impact of digital storytelling on EFL learners' speaking
skills: Reinforcing EFL learners' speaking skills by implementing technology. San
Bernardino, CA: Lambert Academic Publishing.
Baker, J., & Westrup, H. (2003). Essential speaking skills: A handbook for English
language teachers. London: VSO.
Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston,
MA: Heinle & Heinle.

21. Coutinho, C. (2010). Storytelling as a strategy for integrating technologies the curriculum: An empirical
study with post-graduate teachers. In D. Gibson & B. Dodge (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE 2010--Society
for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 379 –3802). San Diego,
CA, USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved
from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/ 33972/
Davies, G. D. (2000). CALL (computer assisted language learning). Retrieved from
https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/61
Gong, J. (2002). The employment of CALL in teaching second/ foreign language speaking skills. Post
Script, 3(1). Retrieved from https://palssresources. wikispaces.com/file/view/ Foreign+Language+
Speaking+Skills(2).pdf
Tyner, K. R. (1998). Literacy in a digital world: Teaching and learning in the age of
information. Mahwah, N.J: Erlbaum.

22. Any questions?

23. Thank You 
mohamedaboulela1@gmail.com