Narratives and digital storytelling in TEFL

Réka Lugossy, Ph.D., Habil. Institute of English Studies, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

Mónika Fodor, Ph.D., Habil. Institute of English Studies, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

Course Type: Humanities-focused

Keywords: digital literacy, multimodal storytelling, teacher education, foreign language development

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
University of Pécs Institute of English Studies Undergrad 4 14 In-person

Course Objectives ​

  • Build multimodal literacy skills and refine teacher trainees’ skills involved in producing and responding to digital stories.
  • Create innovative digital stories that show students’ understanding of narratives and demonstrate their voice.
  • Develop students’ interest and expertise in using digital stories in teaching and learning EFL.
  • Achieve a theoretically embedded understanding of why narratives matter in education.
  • Refine participants’ storytelling skills while producing digital stories and responding to them.
  • Develop students’ skills to reflect and give feedback on each other’s stories. 

Weekly Outline

  1. How do stories support personality development? The therapeutic function of stories.
  2. How do stories support cognitive development?
  3. How do stories support learners’ linguistic development? 
  4. Story-telling session: Tell a story about something that happened to you, e.g. an experience that changed your life. Tell the story in small groups and give feedback based on previously agreed-upon criteria.  
  5. Integrating literature: design story-based tasks for TEFL
  6. Discussing the novel Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
  7. Teaching culture through stories: design tasks and materials to integrate language and culture for chosen age-groups and proficiency levels  
  8. Authentic narratives in TEFL: Teachers’ beliefs
  9. Digital narratives: Techniques, apps, and platforms
  10. Using Storyboard for creating a digital narrative
  11. Recording and production of your digital stories
  12. Movie session 1
  13. Movie session 2
  14. Reflecting on each other’s stories and on the digital story-telling experience

Readings

  • Bergner, V., Drago, S. Fazzi, F., Fodor, M., Lugossy, R., Haring, N., Maierhofer R., Menegale, M., Schuch, A., Szeverics, L. & Zordan, M. DigLit Digital Guide. https://diglit.eu 
  • Digital Storytelling Tools. University of Miami information Technology Academic Technologies. https://academictechnologies.it.miami.edu 
  • Kesler, T., Gibson, L. Jr. & Turansky, C. (2016). Bringing the Book to Life: Responding to Historical Fiction Using Digital Storytelling. Journal of Literacy Research, 48(1), 39-79. 
  • Koenitz, H. (2010). Towards a Theoretical Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative. ResearchGate. 
  • Rossiter, M. & Garcia, P. A. (2010) Digital Storytelling: A New Player on the Narrative Field. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 126, 37-48. 
  • Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P. (1995). Knowledge and memory: The real story. In R. S. Jr. Wyer (Ed.), Advances in social cognition. Volume VIII (pp. 1-85). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Gharib, M. (2019). I Was Their American Dream. A Graphic Memoir. Clarkson Potter. 
  • Owens, D. (2018). Where the Crawdads Sing. Putnam Sons

Viewings

  • What is Digital Storytelling? (YouTube)
  • As the Clock Strikes Midnight (uniTUBE | Universität Graz)
  • Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling (YouTube)
  • The Story Center: Storytelling Techniques | Joe Lambert (YouTube)
  • Digital Narratives (https://diglit.eu)
  • How video games turn players into storytellers | David Cage (TED Talk)

IDN Artifacts

  • Emily is Away (free at Steam)
  • The Temple of No by Crow Crow Crow (Twine)
  • Life is Strange (PC, IOS, Android)

IDE and IDN Authoring Tools

  • Adobe Free Video Maker (IDE)

Major Assignments (being assignments whose value is of 25% or more)

Crawdad Project

  • Platform: Platform independent assignment
  • Purpose: Students demonstrate their critical thinking and expression of ideas related to the novel in the form of digital storytelling. They evaluate and reflect on each other’s stories
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 3-5 minutes
    • Project Size: 3-5 scenes
    • Project Aesthetics: Use at least four images, either royalty-free stock photos or your own artwork/recording.
    • Coding Proficiency: Record story using your own voice as voice-over narration. Add subtitles where necessary. 
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: The digital story presents questions either in the form of subtitles or within the narration. These questions drive engagement by connecting the storyworld with the audience and can be related to in the reflection. The story is open-ended and prompts further possible endings. 
    • Story and narrative: The project successfully employs the seven elements of digital storytelling: has a clear point of view, poses the dramatic question, displays exciting content, it has a recording of the student’s own voice, it is characterized by the economy of resources and elements, has a specific rhythm and soundtrack. 
    • Production values: The work is of high quality and is smooth within the chosen platform. This includes the harmony of graphics (adapted or created imagery), the audio, and language used (grammar, spelling). The digital story is coherent, creative and demonstrates the student’s devotion to go beyond the basics. 

Malaka’s Microaggressions Bingo

  • Platform: (Recommended) Adobe Free Video Maker/Adobe Online Video Editor
  • Purpose: To demonstrate students’ understanding and skills of using narratives to reflect on their own lives. Digital stories should be developed on one of the microaggressions bingo situations in Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoir and at the same time use students’ own experience. 
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 2-3 minutes
    • Project Size: 3 passages
    • Project Aesthetics: Use your own recording of a chosen location and scenery. 
    • Coding Proficiency: Record story using your own voice as voice-over narration. Add music and subtitles where necessary 
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: The digital story presents questions related to the concept of “microaggressions” either in the form of subtitles or within the narration. These questions drive engagement by connecting the storyworld with the audience and can be related to in the reflection. The story is open-ended and prompts further possible endings.
    • Story and narrative: The project successfully employs the seven elements of digital storytelling: has a clear point of view, poses the dramatic question, displays exciting content, it has a recording of the student’s own voice, it is characterized by the economy of resources and elements, has a specific rhythm and soundtrack.
    • Production values: The work is of high quality and is smooth within the given platform. This includes the harmony of graphics (recorded imagery), the audio, and language used (grammar, spelling). The digital story is coherent, creative and demonstrates the student’s devotion to go beyond the basics. 

Course Best Practices

  • The course was run in 90-minute seminars once a week. The first part of the seminars (approx. 25 minutes) was used to inform students about the theoretical background of using narratives in teaching and the benefits of digital storytelling. 
  • Three seminars were allocated to the general introduction of narrative theory and understanding digital storytelling within the field of narrative studies. Four seminars were allocated to the reading and discussion of two long narratives, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and I Was Their American Girl by Malaka Gharib. Students read these works prior to class and reflected on pre-selected excerpts and questions on cultural issues. One seminar was allocated to practicing and reflecting on storytelling in class.
  • Available short lectures by Joe Lambert, David Cage were assigned to students for offline studying.
  • Tutors regularly shared stories to model the use of stories in the EFL classroom context. 
  • Students studied the main questions of telling their own story with multimodal tools and used these in their assignments. 
  • Students could opt to have their works published as part of an ERASMUS+ project on DigLit.eu under data protection. They are also asked to view each other’s digital stories and write a review on two selected works.