Appraising Digital Storytelling across Educational Contexts

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AA.VV. Appraising Digital Storytelling across Educational Contexts

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Appraising Digital Storytelling across Educational Contexts

CARMEN GREGORI-SIGNES AND ANNA M. BRÍGIDO-CORACHÁN, EDS.

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The contribution by Margarita Ramírez Loya, “Digital Storytelling beyond the ESL Classroom”, considers how two separate groups of non-English speaking university students enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom at Cochise College (Arizona) and used digital storytelling to improve their digital and linguistic skills in academic and non-academic settings. Combining foreign language learning with an oral history project, the students in the module were asked to produce digital narratives based on stories shared by members from the English-speaking community around them. This activity forced them to develop communication in a foreign language within a real social environment and with a specific purpose in mind: gathering oral stories and creating historical narratives aimed at commemorating the Arizona Centennial. In addition to improving linguistic practice in a foreign language, this experience also enabled non-English speaking students to establish meaningful connections with members of the community outside their educational institution, located near the borderlands between the states of Arizona (United States) and Sonora (Mexico).

Data obtained from focus group interviews and close monitoring of the students’ performance along the process indicate that, through the use of DS and through close interactions with the neighbouring community, these ESL students became more reflective learners and skillful communicators. Moreover, in addition to strengthening their linguistic skills in a foreign language, students developed collaborative learning, critical thinking, tolerance, and a more heightened awareness of social diversity.

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