Language Learning

The journal article, starting language schema for English language learners: teacher composed digital jump stars for academic reading (Rance-roney 2010), illustrates how the digital storytelling supports the ESL learners academic literacy. Revealing a way in which digital storytelling can enhance learning as well as teaching. She describes it as a way of supporting learners. It is an interesting observation as digital storytelling is an excellent way of helping learners who face challenging materials. Digital storytelling encompasses different types of multimedia, include music, narrations, images, video clips and texts- to make a story that is interesting and appealing to a digital reader (Educause 2007).

It is an invaluable educational tool in relation to language learning, this is because it can broadly be used in numerous ways. It has the potential in influencing the participants, thereby helping them in making better meaning from the context exposed to. It captivates and engages leaners and helps develop technical, artistic and storytelling talents in students, also brings together literacy, language and technology.

However, the author argues that digital storytelling can be exhausting to guide and supervise the class development. She found out that, despite carefully checking the drafts of her students stories, many students got lost along the way (p. 11). This leads to conclusion that although digital storytelling provided meaningful, relevant and authentic learning experiences for students (p. 12) it needs to be kept simple with group work and realistic goals (p.12).

Also, there is a danger that students will be distracted by the technological side of digital storytelling, placing less emphasis on the creation of the story. Stanley and Dillingham (2011) stress that the story is always more important than the digital presentation acknowledges that no technology can replace a well-developed story with literary elements. Despite its limitations, however, digital storytelling has potential to influence and engage learners of many disciplines.

References

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2007, 7 things you should know about …digital storytelling, viewed 20 March 2013, <http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf>.

Rance-Roney J., 2010, Jump-starting language schema for English-language learners: teacher composed digital jumpstarts for academic reading, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 386-95.

Stanley, N. & Dillingham, B. 2011, Making learners click with digital storytelling, Language Magazine, viewed 3 April 2013, <http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=1684>

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