Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A Program Based on English Digital Stories to Develop the Writing Performance and Reflective Thinking of Preparatory School Pupils



JOURNAL REVIEW

TITTLE
:
A Program Based on English Digital Stories to Develop the Writing Performance and Reflective Thinking of Preparatory School Pupils

AUTHOR
:
Dr. Ahmed Hassan Seifeddin, Dr. Samah Zakareya Ahmed and Miss. Eman Yahia Mohammed Ebrahim

PUBLISHER
:
Faculty of Education, Suez University

The study of the use of Digital Storytelling has studied for years and it is getting better and better. The article attempt to find out the effect of a program based on English Digital Stories on performance and reflective thinking of preparatory school pupils. Two writing performance tests (pre-test and post-test) as well as a reflective thinking test were prepared by the researchers. Two 2nd year intact classes from El Sadat Prep School for Girls constituted participants of the study: one as a control group (N=32) and the other as an experimental group (N=30). All participants were pre-tested on writing performance and reflective thinking and no significant differences were found between the control group and the experimental group.  This ensured that the two groups were fairly equivalent on writing performance and reflective thinking before the treatment. The experiment lasted for three months.
During this period of study, pupils of the experimental group created their digital stories individually, presented them in front of their peers, and reflected on their experience while creating and presenting their own digital stories. On the completion of the experiment, all participants were post-tested. An independent samples t-test confirmed that a statistically significant difference existed between the mean score of the control group and that of the experimental group (t=7.738, p<0.05) in writing performance posttest while no significant difference existed between the mean score of the control group and that of the experimental group (t=1.920, p>0.05) in reflective thinking posttest.  It was concluded that digital stories had a significant effect on the writing performance, but not on the reflective thinking, of 2nd -year prep school pupils. Based on these results, it was recommended that:  (1) digital stories should be used in teaching EFL writing at the prep stage, (2) pupils should be given enough opportunities to use modern technology in their learning, (3) teachers should encourage pupils to take part in the evaluation of their writing performance, and (4) teachers should give pupils writing activities related to their interests.
From the result of the study, the author concluded that the use of Digital Storytelling in the process of teaching writing of preparatory school pupils had a significant different, compared with their writing ability before being taught by using DS. During the treatment, experimental group created their own digital stories that will be used in the evaluation of the treatment. By the use of DS, the preparatory pupils showed their interest in learning English, especially in improving their writing ability. Even their reflective thinking did not increased significantly, but the result of the post-test showed the significant improvement of the students’ performance in writing.
Based on the present study, the author in his journal has some suggestions for the next studies in the field of digital storytelling:
1.      A study of the effect of English digital stories on the oral skills of preparatory schools pupils.
2.      A study of the effect of digital stories on the technological skills of preparatory schools pupils.
3.      C. A study of the effect of English digital stories on the writing apprehension of preparatory schools pupils.
4.      A comparative study of the relative effectiveness of creating digital stories and watching digital stories in developing the creative thinking of EFL students.
5.      A study of the effect of English digital stories on EFL students’ engagement and motivation towards learning English.
6.      A study of the effect of creating English digital stories on the self-directed learning of the EFL students.
7.      A study of the effect of creating English digital stories on the critical thinking of the EFL students.

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