Collective Digital Storytelling: An Activity-theoretical Analysis of Second Language Learning and Teaching | Les histoires numériques collectives : une analyse systémique de l’activité d’apprentissage-enseignement d’une langue seconde

Abstract

This paper describes the collective activity of a group of four students who created a digital story as a teaching resource that was to be used for teaching English as a foreign language. It uncovers and analyzes the actual processes underlining the activity as it unfolds from one stage to another. Four processes, viz., sociocognitive interactions, methodological processes, reflective processes and techno-semiopragmatic interactions were identified during the unfolding of the collective activity. Moreover, the results of this study highlight the role of the community in determining the activity of a lower level language group. RésuméCet article décrit l'activité collective d'un groupe restreint de quatre étudiants qui a créé une histoire numérique en tant que ressource pédagogique pour l'enseignement de l'anglais langue étrangère. Il analyse et révèle des processus de l'activité lorsqu'elle se déplie d'une phase à une autre. Quatre processus, à savoir les interactions sociocognitives, les processus méthodologiques, les processus réflexifs et les interactions techno-sémiopragmatiques ont été identifiés. Les résultats de cette étude soulignent également le rôle de la communauté pour déterminer l'activité d'un groupe restreint ayant un niveau linguistique inférieur par rapport aux autres groupes.

SLA Doctoral Students' Collaborative Digital Storytelling Experiences and Perceptions

“…They were satisfied with groupmates' collaborative efforts and contributions. While most of the digital storytelling studies I discussed in the literature review involved individual projects, the findings of the present study and other studies involving group projects (Albano & Iacono, 2019;Alcantud Diaz, 2016;Kalyaniwala-Thapliyal, 2016;Røkenes, 2016) suggest that collaborative digital storytelling projects can be positive experiences. Pre-service EFL teachers in Røkenes (2016), for example, found group work to be "helpful and efficient" (p. 322).…”

“…Other digital storytelling studies have involved education majors from multiple disciplines (Heo, 2011;Hodge & Wright, 2010). The majority of digital storytelling studies that I have identified focus on undergraduate students (Kalyaniwala-Thapliyal, 2016;Kocaman-Karoglu, 2016), although some involve master's degree-level students (Dell Jones, 2018;Van Galen, 2017). Few studies appear to focus on doctoral students, particularly in the field of L2 education.…”

The use of digital tools in French as a Second Language teacher education in Ontario

“…Commercial apps use decontextualized drills, thinly veiled by gamification strategies (e.g., rewards, badges) to keep learners in the "game" (see Lotherington et al, 2021, for discussion). The respondents' preferred digital activities and tools suggest a conservative bent in their digital participation and a lack of awareness or facility with innovative, agentive, and creative digital pedagogies that utilize digital tools for productive multimodal creation, such as digital storytelling (Anderson et al, 2018;Kalyaniwala-Thapliyal, 2016), cellphilms (MacEntee et al, 2016, collaborative game building, and gameplay (Reinders & Wattana, 2015;Scholz, 2017).…”