Schedule: 2009-09-11 (17:30 - 18:15)
Parallel Session 6 (Room A-36)

Title: Digital storytelling for reading class
Authors: Midori Kimura
Abstract: English reading class for Japanese means to translate English context into Japanese, and many of them do not enjoy the class. The author tried to open their eyes to the joy of reading by introducing digital storytelling in class. Students practiced oral interpretation, which is essential for digital storytelling, and improved their oral language skills consequently.
Digital storytelling (DS) is combining the art of telling stories with various multimedia tools, such as text, still images, audio, and video. Ohler (2007) defines DS as new a media pathway to literacy, learning, and creativity. Brian Ellis (2009) is an advocate of storytelling who believes that it is the key to great teaching and dynamic learning, adding that it improves reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Ellis lists many advantages to trying storytelling; however, the author will focus on the oral language skill development.
An experiment was conducted in a reading class of thirty-five nursing major students. We used Photostory 3 to make the digital stories, a free soft-wear available from Microsoft. This application was selected because it made it very easy to handle the recording and revising of the narration, as well as the adding music. Before the experiment, students first silently read essays about nurses working in America, took a quiz to check comprehension, and then recorded their narration. Then, the author talked about voice inflection and emphasized the importance of grabbing attention of the audience through the narration, and they started working on digital story in group. Students had heated discussions with group members about how the patients and nurses felt in some particular scenes in the story, or how to draw pictures of medical kits that were written about in the story. They were eager to listen to their narration repeatedly, and tried hard to match the visual images with the context. They did not mind spending a significant amount of time to prepare for presenting the best digital stories.
The results showed a dramatic change in their oral reading before and after the experiment, and many of them said that they could visualize a story when they read it for digital story. Feedback from the students is summarized below:
1. DS was fun.
2. DS gave them the opportunity to read the story in depth in order to visualize (draw pictures) of the story content.
3. DS gave them a surprise, as they found that stories can sound differently if they pay attention to the voice inflection.

Making digital stories enabled students to learn to read deeply to visualize the story, resulting in improved comprehension, as evidenced by the retelling and interpreting of the story. They gained first-hand experience in the performing arts and an opportunity to create stories with various multimedia tools. Essentially, it enhanced their autonomy and self-esteem, and they were able to enjoy the process of oral language development.
Keywords: Digital storytelling, oral language skill development, motivation, self-esteem, autonomy

Main topic: CALL supported Content Integrated Language Learning (CLIL)

Biodata: Associate professor in the School of Nursing at Tokyo Women's Medical University. She received MA degree from Teachers College at Columbia University (TESOL) and Ph.D. from International Christian University, Japan (TESOL). Her research interests include learning strategies, learning style and computer assisted language learning (CALL).
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Reflective Practice

Target educational sector Higher education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-11 (17:30 - 18:15) Parallel Session 6 (Room A-36)
Title:	Digital storytelling for reading class
Authors:	Midori Kimura
Abstract:	English reading class for Japanese means to translate English context into Japanese, and many of them do not enjoy the class. The author tried to open their eyes to the joy of reading by introducing digital storytelling in class. Students practiced oral interpretation, which is essential for digital storytelling, and improved their oral language skills consequently. Digital storytelling (DS) is combining the art of telling stories with various multimedia tools, such as text, still images, audio, and video. Ohler (2007) defines DS as new a media pathway to literacy, learning, and creativity. Brian Ellis (2009) is an advocate of storytelling who believes that it is the key to great teaching and dynamic learning, adding that it improves reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Ellis lists many advantages to trying storytelling; however, the author will focus on the oral language skill development. An experiment was conducted in a reading class of thirty-five nursing major students. We used Photostory 3 to make the digital stories, a free soft-wear available from Microsoft. This application was selected because it made it very easy to handle the recording and revising of the narration, as well as the adding music. Before the experiment, students first silently read essays about nurses working in America, took a quiz to check comprehension, and then recorded their narration. Then, the author talked about voice inflection and emphasized the importance of grabbing attention of the audience through the narration, and they started working on digital story in group. Students had heated discussions with group members about how the patients and nurses felt in some particular scenes in the story, or how to draw pictures of medical kits that were written about in the story. They were eager to listen to their narration repeatedly, and tried hard to match the visual images with the context. They did not mind spending a significant amount of time to prepare for presenting the best digital stories. The results showed a dramatic change in their oral reading before and after the experiment, and many of them said that they could visualize a story when they read it for digital story. Feedback from the students is summarized below: 1. DS was fun. 2. DS gave them the opportunity to read the story in depth in order to visualize (draw pictures) of the story content. 3. DS gave them a surprise, as they found that stories can sound differently if they pay attention to the voice inflection. Making digital stories enabled students to learn to read deeply to visualize the story, resulting in improved comprehension, as evidenced by the retelling and interpreting of the story. They gained first-hand experience in the performing arts and an opportunity to create stories with various multimedia tools. Essentially, it enhanced their autonomy and self-esteem, and they were able to enjoy the process of oral language development.
Keywords:	Digital storytelling, oral language skill development, motivation, self-esteem, autonomy
Main topic:	CALL supported Content Integrated Language Learning (CLIL)
Biodata:	Associate professor in the School of Nursing at Tokyo Women's Medical University. She received MA degree from Teachers College at Columbia University (TESOL) and Ph.D. from International Christian University, Japan (TESOL). Her research interests include learning strategies, learning style and computer assisted language learning (CALL).
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Reflective Practice
Target educational sector	Higher education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No