Using Digital Storytelling and Project-based Learning with Elementary School EFL Learners

要旨

This study examines the effectiveness of a combination of teacher-centered digital storytelling for instruction and project-based learning for practice in an elementary school EFL classroom. Furthermore, it seeks to examine student preferences and whether or not these were related to increased improvement in their oral abilities. It reports the results of a subjectively-rated pre- and posttest and compares these results to a survey. We found that students overall improved significantly (<i>Z</i>=-4.94, <i>p</i><.001, <i>r</i>=.67) and that students overwhelmingly preferred playing games to any of the specific teaching methodologies. However, we also found that students did enjoy the digital storytelling and project-work to some degree. We also noted that students who enjoyed the learning reported gaining more confidence in speaking, and therefore, some game-like element should likely be retained for young learners. Finally, our results suggest that more advanced students were more likely to gain confidence and to have a wider range of interests in the target language. Therefore, as Japanese EFL learners begin to learn more English from younger ages in the near future, teachers of older children (e.g. junior high school) should note the changing ability-levels and interests of new students and try to match their teaching methodology accordingly.

主題