at university

INTEGRATING THE OLD AND THE NEW:

DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN THE EFL LANGUAGE
CLASSROOM1

Carmen Gregori-Signes
Universitat de València Estudi General
Carmen.Gregori@uv.es

Dr. Carmen Gregori-Signes is a full-time lecturer at the Universitat de València in the

Language and Linguistics section of the Departamento Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya.
Her research interests include discourse analysis, media studies and the use of new
technologies in the EFL classroom.

With the advent of new technologies and their consequent integration within the curriculum, teachers need to
find attractive activities to substitute and complement more traditional ones. Digital storytelling is one
possibility since it contributes to: a) the enrichment of the ePortfolio and b) the use of Web 2.0 technology
for language learning. Digital storytelling engages students in both traditional and innovative ways of telling
a story, since they learn how to combine basic multimedia tools (e.g., animations) with activities as varied as
doing research, writing and delivering presentations (cf. Robin, 2005; Barrett, 2006a, 2006b). In this article,
I pay attention to one type of digital story: Personal-Educational Digital Storytelling. I will expand on the
adequacy of educational stories as a language learning and teaching tool in EFL and indicate some ways of
using them in different subjects by sketching out some activities designed for such a purpose.

INTRODUCTION some basic multimedia tools (e.g., graphics or

animations) with activities as varied as doing
With the advent of new technologies and their research, writing, delivering presentations,
consequent integration within the curriculum, using technology, interviewing, improving
it has become a real challenge to provide both interpersonal skills, learning problem-solving
teachers and students with attractive activities techniques, and assessment expertise (cf.
to substitute, or at least complement, more
Robin, 2005; Barrett, 2006a, 2006b).
traditional ones (cf. Pennock-Speck et al. on
conditions for the use of ICT in this volume). Meadows (2003), cited in Robin (2008: 1),
As argued in Gregori-Signes (2008a), I see defines digital stories “as short personal
digital storytelling as a good candidate to do multimedia tales told from the heart [… ] the
this since it contributes to: a) the enrichment beauty of this form of digital expression is that
of the ePortfolio, which is a need that is stories can be created by people everywhere,
imposing itself and therefore should be on any subject, and shared electronically all
developed, and b) the use of Web 2.0 over the world”. The result is a 2-5 minute
technology for language learning. As argued by film that has emerged from bringing together
many authors (Robin, 2005-2008; Barrett, photographs, images, music and a narration
2004, 2006a, 2006b), digital storytelling is a usually in the author’s voice.
good way to engage students in both
traditional and innovative ways of telling a The type of digital storytelling that I have been
story, since students learn how to combine attempting to develop moves away somewhat

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from the original purpose of digital storytelling ii) Motivation.

(cf. Center for Digital Storytelling, since 1993;
Lambert 2007). I refer to this type of digital For most of our students, EDS is a brand new
story, following Robin (2005-2006), as activity, with a very attractive final product.
Personal-Educational Digital Storytelling (EDS This may help raise motivation.
from here onwards), in order to make it easier
to differentiate it from the many different iii) Creativity.
possibilities offered by the genre itself. That is, The possibilities offered by the multimedia tools
although EDS shares all the characteristics of that are used in digital storytelling certainly
digital storytelling as such, the difference is invites students to be more creative and thus
that it is created with an educational purpose may help introduce and encourage different
in mind (Robin, 2007), thus being used not ways of learning/teaching English. Additionally,
only as a tool for personal expression (cf. with regard to technology, its main advantage is
Meadows, 2003; Center for Digital that the basic multimedia tools (e.g., Photostory
Storytelling), but as a tool for teaching and 3, Windows Movie Maker, Ulead videostudio 11,
learning. Audacity, Free CD ripper, etc.) used to build
In this article, I will expand on the adequacy educational digital stories are easy to use
of digital storytelling as a language learning and (graphics, animated graphics, video, animation,
teaching tool and indicate some ways of using text, photos, synchronous/asynchronous audio
digital storytelling in different subjects by transmission; Paul and Fiebich, 2005) and are
sketching out some activities designed for such available to everyone, since a lot of the software
a purpose in the field of English Studies. used to build a digital story is freeware.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING WITHIN THE iii) Flexibility.

COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK As argued above, EDS can adapt to a great variety
As argued in Gregori-Signes (2008b: 1), in of subjects which will, accordingly, demand a
Europe, the Bologna Process is promoting different use of the genre and a different response
innovation in teaching with great emphasis on on the part of the students.
technology. Technology is forcing faculty (cf.
Pennock-Speck et al., forthcoming) to rethink iv) A new view on more traditional ways of
the curriculum in most academic disciplines in learning/teaching.
terms of content and teaching, and EDS is one In terms of both oral and written narrative, EDS
genre that seems to fit these demands, since it may demand from the student the use a wide
is a flexible and adaptable tool which may suit range of stylistic devices such as bringing into play
diverse purposes. The adequacy of EDS as an different registers (formal, informal, jargon, slang,
educational genre in line with the principles formulaic expressions, specific vocabulary),
laid out by the Common European Framework different techniques of narration and
(CEF) can be summarised as follows (cf. dramatization, and more refined or general
Gregori-Signes, 2008a): discursive structures of genres, to mention but a
few; all in a different medium with new
i) Innovating in teaching materials. possibilities that were not possible before the
EDS brings together new technologies with advent of digital media.
more traditional means of teaching and
learning, therefore fulfilling one of the
TOWARDS A CHARACTERIZATION OF
objectives proposed by the Common European
EDUCATIONAL DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Framework (CEF) for Language Learning,
AS A TOOL FOR TEACHING EFL
allowing both teachers and students to In this section, I will outline some relevant aspects
innovate in the treatment and presentation of that make EDS a useful tool for the teaching and
teaching and learning material. learning of EFL.

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Personal vs. instructional dimension of EDS and as reported by several authors (cf.
Barrett, 2006a, 2006b; Robin, 2006), there are
As mentioned above, EDS will have to include a number of skills that are brought together
the student’s personal point of view, apart from during the process of creating a digital story.
the instructional content. That is, in creating These include research and writing skills,
educational stories, we do not expect the student organization skills, technology skills,
to merely reproduce a summary report, and turn presentation skills, interpersonal skills, or
the EDS into a mere recollection of facts problem-solving skills, which, in turn, develop
previously written by other authors, but to digital literacy, global literacy, technology
include their own personal dimension. The final literacy, visual literacy, or information literacy.
product will necessarily have to reflect, in one
way or another, the student’s way of perceiving, Although they are all important, one of the
interpreting and transmitting the knowledge s/he novelties and challenges for our students –
has acquired or is still acquiring, thus bringing presumably this will become less of a challenge
to light the idiosyncrasy of a student or a group as the tendency in education is to mix and
of students (the activity can be designed as a promote the development of different skills in all
group or individual activity). subjects – is that EDS demands from the
language student a synchronization between
This is what differentiates EDS from other sounds, words and images, a combination that
similar genres that have been with us for a long had hardly ever – if ever – before been
time, such as objects of learning or mere demanded from them. That is, they are forced to
PowerPoint presentations. In this sense, Porter design information rather than just write it. In
(2004: 13) refers to digital storytelling as the art the words of Davidson and Porter (2005: 12):
of designing information, which he defines as
follows: “Designing information means going Each digital story is no more than 3-5 minutes
beyond the facts. What point are you making, based on a script that is no more than one (1)
what perspective do you want to present that page or five hundred (500) words. The art of
hasn’t been thought of before?”. Consequently, shortening a story lies in preserving the
by creating educational digital stories, students essence of the tale—using the fewest words and
are given the chance not only of expressing images to make your point. By holding clarity
different points of view about how to teach or about the essence of the story, the additional
learn about one particular topic or language narrative can be pared down.
feature (e.g., how do we express orders in
English, what is the degree of imposition we That is, as has often been argued, in terms of
want to express and how do we do so?), or how writing skills, it is sometimes (depending on
difficult a phonological feature may be for the purpose of the activity) more demanding
students of different mother tongues (e.g., stress to ask them to be concise than prolific.
on function words, or how young people Moreover, the fact that EDS allows you to use
nowadays interpret Shakespeare’s ideas); but, a lot of decorative artifacts does not, by any
most importantly, they are given the chance of means, make the task easier. As argued by
making themselves heard. Before the coming of Porter (2004):
the Internet and digital storytelling, a lot of ideas A story should be remembered for its soul, not
worth considering and new points of view the bells and whistles. If you don’t have a
ended up dead and buried after a hot classroom good or powerful story, script, and storyboard,
discussion. This can be solved by publishing the then there will never be enough decorating
best digital stories on the web, since this only that technology can do to cover it up. On the
requires asking the student’s permission. other hand, demonstrating exemplar
Skills development craftsmanship with mixing the technical
elements in artful ways to unfold your story
When introducing a new activity, one has to creates compelling, insightful, original and
look at the rationale for doing so. In the case memorable pieces of communication. The

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richness of a good story can be diluted when on the same topic; with no borders regarding,
technical elements are overused, distracting, or distance, time, or accessibility. On the other
just plain annoying. hand, EDS is a tool that can be used to help
students overcome the shock of getting to know
GOOD GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGE other cultures. For example, in the project I
USAGE initiated with the UVEG (Gregori-Signes, 2006),
In describing what elements are important for one of the sections is Erasmus. In this section, I
EDS, Robin (2006) adapted the seven-element hope to upload more digital stories that will
list provided by the Center for Storytelling and share experiences of Erasmus international
expanded it to ten elements, i.e., the overall exchange students. The idea is to include digital
purpose of the story, the narrator’s point of stories from both incoming and outgoing
view, a dramatic question (or questions), a students. These will serve as a reference to get to
choice of content, the clarity of voice, the pacing know more about the people they may find in
of the narrative, a meaningful soundtrack, quality the University of Valencia and in Spain, in
of the images, economy of the story detail and general, and also to talk about how some of
good grammar and language usage. them felt when going abroad. Figure 1 shows the
layout of the webpage at the moment.
The last one is particularly relevant in the field
of EFL, since one of the main purposes in
making students create an EDS is to provide
them with the means to improve their command
of English, and to do so, if possible, with a
variety of activities that help them improve other
skills apart from merely linguistic ones.
Moreover, and due to the nature of the activity,
EDS allows practice in written and spoken
language (the students will have to write a script,
previous to narrating the story), with one
additional complication: when writing the script,
they will have to bear in mind that they are
writing a text to be read out loud. This can be
taken as a good opportunity to demand from
students a thorough review of spoken vs. written
discourse features that may be useful to include
in storytelling or, for the same purposes, of
academic/instructional spoken vs. written
discourse.

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
AMONG PEERS
One of the purposes of the Common European
Framework of Reference for languages (2001) is
to facilitate co-operation and communication Fig. 1. UVEG. Digital Storytelling / Relato Digital.
between cultures. EDS, due to its easy Valencia 2006
production and the possibility of immediate web
publishing, implies a fast exchange of
information and access to the final products, As can be seen in Figure 1 above, the web page
thus facilitating in a way not previously possible provides access to the different categories:
a user-friendly tool that may serve the purpose personal narratives, educational stories,
of exchanging students’ ideas and points of view Erasmus, digital stories in Spanish. The last one

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has been included as a prompt for visitors to change quite radically the possibilities that a
start creating examples of digital stories in written report has offered up to now.
Spanish, especially in the field of education and Notwithstanding, there are also limitations (but
language teaching, since the genre is hardly those may also be changed if both teacher and
being exploited yet in Spain. Each category student agree to do so), such as trying to keep
provides, in turn, access to the individual the story within the limits of 500 words, the
stories, which can be viewed on any computer duration in time of the digital critical essay (4-5
using Windows Media Player, Real Player, or minutes), the impossibility of including copyright
Media Player Classic, among others. The stories material, etc. These limitations may not exist in
have been uploaded to the University server, the written version that the students have been
which converts them to flv format previous to providing up to now.
publication on the Internet.
EXAMPLES OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS
Content-based vs. English-usage subjects
IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
In the Spanish university system, English Studies I will now outline some of the projects that are
is organized so that there is a division between being (or will be) put into practice in different
subjects devoted to the teaching of more general subjects in the Universitat de València (cf. Gregori-
aspects of English usage (English language I, II, Signes, 2008a for more examples). The projects
III) and subjects that pay attention to concepts could be gathered under the following headings:
as such (Phonology, Stylistics, History of the
English Language, Pragmatics, Discourse Peer to Peer Database
Analysis, and literature-based subjects).
The purpose of this macro-project is to develop
As is the case with other activities, different types a series of personal-educational stories in
of digital stories may suit different subjects. In different subjects, which will help students to
principle, the types of digital stories could be understand some of the more complex or
said to correspond with any of the traditional difficult aspects related to the English language.
genres that have been long in use in the language Examples may include: 1. Phonology: difficulties
classroom (personal stories, historical events, encountered when learning about English
narratives, persuasive discourse, etc. – cf. Robin, pronunciation (segmental and suprasegmental
2006 for a detailed description of the different features); 2. Second Language Acquisition: e.g.,
types of digital stories). On the other hand, how do I face a first encounter with secondary
however, the (traditional) genre itself will have to school students? 3. Discourse analysis: how can
adapt to the characteristics of the digital medium I make my friend understand the use of linking,
(cf. Rodríguez Ruiz, 2007), which will support or discourse markers in spoken discourse?
the final version of the narrative, a fact that may
cause an alteration of some of the generic Personal Development
conventions. Let me illustrate this with an
In subjects such as English Language, the
example. A student is faced with the task of
student will be asked to do self-presentations,
making a digital story on a critical analysis of the
self-development, opinions about one particular
content of a poem. What tools does digital
topic, guides for job interviews, etc.
storytelling offer? The student will find that, in
addition to words, she can express her ideas Intercultural values
with images; that those images, can, in turn, be
accompanied with her choice of music – music Digital stories may help incoming students
that is helping to transmit the impact that the integrate into the Valencian and Spanish way of
poem had on her –; and on top of that she will life in general, both at academic and socio-
also have to include her own voice and cultural levels. This type of stories could be
manipulate it according to what she wants to developed as part of subjects such as History
express (anger, happiness, disagreement). All and Culture of English-speaking countries,
these new elements certainly enhance or at least Pragmatics, and Sociolinguistics.

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Discourse organization and structure the students in the production of mini-

examples of several genres. This is the case
Digital stories may also help in grasping genre
with Stylistics, where students are producing
and subgenre conventions (e.g., poetry, theatre,
digital versions of detective stories (cf. Alcantud
novel, persuasive discourse, advertisements,
Díaz, 2008).
academic papers, etc.). They will try to
synthesize and extrapolate the characteristics of CONCLUSION
different genres so that they can be used as a
starting point of reference for a more in-depth The purpose of this article was to illustrate some
study (reception and interpretation) of literary of the advantages of introducing educational
works or other types of discourse (e.g., digital stories within the EFL classroom, as a
advertising, sitcoms, newspaper articles). Once multi-purpose tool that can help students to
produced, they will also be useful for assisting enjoy the learning process.

Notes
1 This article is the result of the research carried out for the Programa d’Incorporació i Potenciació de les Noves
Tecnologies de la Informació i de la Comunicació (NTIC) en la Docència, funded by the Universitat de València.

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