Digital Storytelling for Younger & Older Learners ▬ TEFL Matters

Digital Storytelling for Younger & Older Learners

TEFL Matters: 3.25.2015 by Marisa Constantinides

Digital Storytelling & Adult Learners 

Picture this:

You are talking to a colleague at work – first thing in the morning while having your coffee. There was this young man standing in the queue in front of you on the way to work and he was wearing the strangest outfit; his hair was dyed blue and he had five rings on every single finger. He was breathing hard, as if he had been running, and then he turned around, looked at you straight in the eye and said….

Instead of writing it, the pupils can record it using Voki as in the example below. They can use their own voice to record the story, or, they can choose to type the story in and let it be read by one of the avatar voices included in the site! This can be a good first step with them recording later, once they get the hang of it.

A ‘cliffhanger’ story – the students can record part of it using their own voice or the digital voice and the class can try to guess the rest of the story; the ending can be recorded by the pupils by making their  own voki (example follows) or, alternatively, this whole activity can be done using Voicethread (again an example follows in the second part of this post)

We feel compelled to tell stories.

We tell each other stories every day of our lives, stories meant to help us connect, stories that echo our friends’ stories which makes us feel closer to them, stories that amuse or stories we invent – literary would exist without this strong human need.

Stories are a major part of how we communicate and how we teach – often, they are more powerful than direct instruction. They seem to reach parts that lecturing or direct instruction often are unable to!

Narrating & Adult Communication

Whether learning English on a general purpose course or on a specialist language focus programme, narration is an important part of developing fluency.

Personal narratives or anecdotes can motivate adults to produce long turns, to sustain talk for longer than the disjointed fragments of question and answer conversations common to a language lesson.

➤ They can be rehearsed and satisfy the adult learner’s need for meaningful and motivating controlled practice

➤ They provide more concrete evidence of progress to the teacher (and the learner herself/himself)

➤ They are great for homework which can be recorded digitally in some way – adults are more likely to be motivated by this time of homework assignment.

➤ They can build the basis for great presentation skills, which seems to be a skill more and more in demand in a world of online conferences, google hangouts, product presentations and online tutorials uploaded on you tube.

➤ They can form the basis of good report writing

➤ They can help the adult user establish and maintain better personal and business relationships with other L2 users.

Stories help adults with …

… language
… cultural awareness
… social awareness
… motivation
… oral & written fluency

Stories help adults develop …

… confidence
… social relationships
… ability to sustain talk or writing
… ability to concentrate
… auditory ability
… multiple intelligences
… critical thinking
… creative thinking

READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 14

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 21-22 yrs. old

(college level)