The Use of Digital Storytelling for ESP in a Technical English Course for Aerospace Engineers

Abstract

<p>Digital Storytelling is a powerful pedagogical tool for both students and educators, which started to be used for teaching and learning purposes a few years ago, becoming more and more popular over time. The use of digital storytelling in non-specific language learning contexts has been widely explored, as shown in the literature. However, its use in technical-scientific contexts of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has not been so widely studied. This paper explores a project of digital storytelling for ESP carried out at the Universitat Politècnica de València, in Spain. The methodology was divided into several stages: completing a pre- and a post-survey, learning about digital storytelling by doing a WebQuest, making decisions about their digital stories (topic, plot, software and media), sharing their stories with their classmates through the PoliformaT LMS, watching their classmates' digital stories, using the forum to write their comments about their digital stories and their classmates', keeping a log and preparing and presenting their “making of” in front of the class, and assessing both their peers’ digital stories and their oral presentations. The overall results were very positive, as students were highly satisfied with their progress in learning and developing different skills, these being mainly linguistic, research, writing, organisation, digital, presentation, interpersonal, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.</p>

Towards Emancipatory L2 Instruction: Exploring Significant Learning Outcomes from Collaborative Digital Storytelling

“…They appeared to care more about putting into action newly-acquired generic and technological knowledge, exploring task management skills, and critically evaluating task decisions and conditions during teamwork. Congruent with their predecessors' self-reports, the participants corroborated the following benefits of digital storytelling in collaborative groups for: i. improved language skills (Kent, 2011;Kim, 2018;Ming et al, 2014;Oskoz & Elola, 2014;Ramirez, 2013;Reyes-Torres et al, 2012;Soler-Pardo, 2014) Sepp, 2014;Genereux & Thompson, 2008;Maddin, 2012;Sevilla-Pavon et al, 2012;Yang & Wu, 2012).…”

“…They apparently liked to work on different parts (sequentially) at different times (asynchronously) in different locations (distributedly), avoided face-to-face conversations outside the classroom, and diminished their chances of consensus and control over their CDS projects; therefore, as Lowry et al (2004) pointed out, poor communication and weak relationships might have led to their poorer performance. Several previous studies on CDS activities had also documented positive overall results, attempts for complex structures, relatively fewer grammar errors, and skilful use of technology, mainly through teacher-led global evaluations (Alcantud-Diaz, 2016;Ramirez, 2013;Reyes-Torres et al, 2012;Sevilla-Pavon et al, 2012;Soler-Pardo, 2014), but Kim's (2018) CAF analysis alone showed that despite no significant development in fluency and complexity, multiple practices of peer-editing increased L2 writing accuracy, when partners worked well together towards the same end.…”

“…Among the studies cited here, only four (i.e. Alcantud-Diaz, 2016; Sepp & Bandi-Rao, 2015;Sevilla-Pavon et al, 2012;Soler-Pardo, 2014) reported teacher and student involvement in the evaluation process, although none but Soler-Pardo (2014) provided even a brief summary of overall results. We know of four other studies (i.e.…”

“…Alcantud-Diaz, 2016; Kesli-Dollar & Tekiner-Tolu, 2015) were surveyed about its feasibility across global contexts such as Malaysia, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, and the USA (e.g. Balaman, 2018;Kim, 2018;Rokenes, 2016;Sepp & Bandi-Rao, 2015;Sevilla-Pavon et al, 2012;Yang & Wu, 2012;Zakaria & Aziz, 2019), ii. pre-service EFL teachers constituted the less studied group (e.g.…”

“…Notwithstanding its obvious connection with purposeful language use, and the wide range of benefits it offers in the foreign language classroom, most researchers have focused on investigating the implementation of digital storytelling in different content-area classes such as science and language arts/literacy (Castaneda, 2013;Castaneda & Rojas-Miesse, 2016;Kim, 2018;Reyes-Torres et al, 2012;Sepp & Bandi-Rao, 2015;Sevilla-Pavon et al, 2012). However, the current study postulates that teacher candidates may become more willing to incorporate progressive teaching techniques and technologies into their future classes if they are given the chance to go through and reflect on the learning experience themselves.…”