A study on the effects of digital stories on students listening comprehension at elementary level

Due to the restricted schedule, the researcher could only pilot eight Digital stories in listening lessons for the experimental students, and the same two to teach students in the contro

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN MAI LIÊN

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF DIGITAL STORIES ON

STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng các câu chuyện kỹ thuật số đối với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: Theory and methodology in teaching English Code: 11045226

HANOI - 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN MAI LIÊN

A STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF DIGITAL STORIES ON

STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng các câu chuyện kỹ thuật số đối với khả năng nghe hiểu của sinh viên ở trình độ sơ cấp

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Major: Theory and methodology in teaching English Code: 11045226

Supervisor: Nguyen Thu Hanh, Ph.D

HANOI - 2018

Acknowledgements

This M.A thesis could not have been accomplished without the invaluable help, encouragement and support form a number of people who I would like to

show my sincerest gratitude and appreciation

To begin with, I would like to express my greatest and deepest thankfulness

to Mrs.Nguyễn Thu Hạnh, my supervisor, for her enthusiastic and precious guideline and advice throughout the duration of my thesis Without her instruction

and supervision, this thesis could not have reached the fulfillment

Moreover, my honest thanks also come to studentsat Military University of Culture and Arts, especially students in experimental and control group who

participated in my quasi-experimental research

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my familyand relatives who have always supported me and supplied the best conditions for me to complete this

thesis

Abstract

Among the four skills of the English language, listening has been claimed to

be the most difficult English language skill to a majority of Vietnamese students Particularly, many students have trouble catching main ideas or dealing with listening comprehension tasks in their exams, especiallylistening A2 level is a really challenging test for university students This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of Digital stories on helping students summarizing events and recognizing main ideas in doing listening tasks On the basics of a quasi-experimental research, two groups of first-year students at Military University of Culture and Arts, who were learning English as a non-major subject, participated in this research in the role of the experimental group and control group Student‟s diary, semi-structured interview and listening tests were employed to collect data for the research Before the treatment, no significant difference was founded between both groups in their descriptive writing ability Due to the restricted schedule, the researcher could only pilot eight Digital stories in listening lessons for the experimental students, and the same two to teach students in the control group using traditional method Interestingly, the post-test results indicated that experimental students who are taught with Digital stories attained higher in scores when doing listening tasks in terms of summarizing events and recognizing main ideas Besides, via results gathered from diary and semi-structured interview, it revealed that although participants encountered with various problems related to their attitudes and engagement, the higher levels they had, the more they were

interested in the innovation

Table of contents

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of tables vi

List of graphs vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Significance of the study 2

3 Aims and objectives of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Research questions 3

6 Research method 3

7 Structure of the study 3

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension 5

1.1.1 Definition of Listening 5

1.1.2 Definition of Listening comprehension 6

1.1.3 Teaching Listening Comprehension 9

1.2 Theoretical background of Digital stories 10

1.2.1 Definition of Digital stories 10

1.2.2 Types of Digital Stories 12

1.3 Digital Stories in Teaching Listening Comprehension 13

1.4 How to make a digital story 18

1.5 Summary 20

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 21

2.1 Population and sample 21

2.2 Research method 21

2.3 Data collection instruments 23

2.3.1 Semi-structured interview 23

2.3.2 Students‟ diaries 24

2.3.3 Listening comprehension Test 26

2.4 Data collection procedure 27

2.5 Data analysis procedures 28

2.6 Summary 28

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

3.1 Data collected from diaries and semi-structured interview 29

3.2 Data collected from listening tests 35

3.2.1 Pre-listening test 35

3.2.2 Post-listening test 39

3.3 Summary 45

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 46

4.1 A summary of the major findings 46

4.2 Limitations of the study 47

4.3 Suggestions for further study 47

REFERENCES 49 APPENDIXES I

List of tables

Table 3.1 Test of normality of data of the pre-test 36

Table 3.2 Group statistics of pre-test 37

Table 3.3 Independent samples test of pre-test 37

Table 3.4 Pre-test cross tabulation 38

Table 3.5 Test of normality of data of the post-listening test 39

Table 3.6 Group Statistics of the post-listening test 40

Table 3.7 Independent samples t-test of the post-listening test 40

Table 3.8 Post-test cross tabulation 41

Table 3.9 Effect size value 44

List of graphs

Graph 3.1 Mark frequency in the pre-test of both groups 38Graph 3.2 Mark frequency in the post-test of both groups 41Graph 3.3 Students‟ mean score in the pre-test and post-test 43

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Listening is considered as a key role in communication In fact, listening skills are acquired and developed naturally at pre-school An effective mother tongue education at school makes it possible to raise students who can comprehend, synthesize and evaluate what they listen to Despite its critical role in language acquisition and effective communication, listening in educational environments does not get enough emphasis and is generally neglected Wacker and Hawkins (1995) stated that listening skill is the most commonly used skill at a rate of 45% in daily life Listening is the only comprehension skill used by individuals during their preschool period, and also in school, before they learn to read and write

However, the teaching of listening comprehension seems to be neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL programs (Mendelsohn, 1994) EFL learners have serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact that universities pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary Moreover, the progress made in English training and learning in Vietnam is behind the shift in ideology Obstacles such as overcrowded classes and the ongoing overuse of traditional grammar-translation methods prohibit the country‟s language education from achieving its goal

In recent years, with the development of media and computer technology, educators have begun to make use of multimedia and technology to improve their teaching and consequently students‟ language learning as Chang (1991) put it the vast majority of the published research on the effectiveness of media and technology in language instruction is encouraging With the increase of more sophisticated multimedia technology, there is renewed interest in the complementary relationship of visual and auditory channels in listening comprehension (Brett, 1995; Felix, 1995) According to Brett (1995), digital storytelling for foreign language learning can provide a more realistic picture of the

new language and culture in the classroom, including not only linguistic but also paralinguistic features such as body language, gestures, prosody, etc., which help to convey meaning to the learners It is believed that digital stories, if appropriately selected, can prove to be very useful in developing learners' listening skills They tend to be visual, interactive and reiterative Usually, learners have to listen to and understand a simple order in order to proceed with the story by clicking on parts of the screen or the picture The interactivity of Internet-based stories, we assume, may facilitate learning since children are actively involved in decoding and understanding the story (Donato, 1994) Students are allowed to proceed at their own pace which also affords a high level of individual control The reiterative nature of the kind of stories used here could also help children progressively learn the foreign language Finally, gains in listening skills and understanding seem to bring benefits to improve children's reading comprehension

Inspired by the above mentioned theoretical views and noticing the lack of such a study in Vietnamese EFL learning context, the researcher set out to conduct a

research entitled “A study onthe effects of Digital Stories on students' listening

comprehension at elementary level” at a Military university in Hanoi

2 Significance of the study

The study of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons is the application of technology in English language teaching The result of this study can support teachers in finding an effective tool to develop their students‟ listening skills This project is also expected to increase elementary students‟ motivation in the engagement of listening activities

3 Aims and objectives of the study

3.1 Aims of the study

This study attempts to examine the effects that Digital Stories have on developing the understanding of spoken English by elementary students at a university in Vietnam Hence, concentrating on the application of Digital Stories in teaching listening comprehension is expected to bring certain positive results

3.2 Objectives of the study

The study is designed:

 firstly, to investigate students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons;

 secondly, to find out to what extent Digital Stories can develop students‟ listening comprehension at elementary level

4 Scope of the study

Within the scope of a minor thesis, the study only concentrates on the effects

of Digital Stories on the teaching and learning 8 listening lessons Added to that, due to the time limit and restricted scope of the paper, the author could only focus

on two classes of freshmen at a Military university in Hanoi to carry out a

quasi-experimental research as well as interviews

5 Research questions

The research seeks the answers for the following research questions:

1 What are students‟ opinions of using Digital Stories in listening comprehension?

2 To what extent is there a significant difference between the experimental and control group in their listening comprehension test results?

6 Research method

This study employs both qualitative and quantitative approach, with a experimental design The practical access includes: conducting pre-test and post-test before and after the treatment respectively, studying students‟ diaries and carrying out semi-structured interviews with students in the experimental group

quasi-7 Structure of the study

The thesis consists of the followings:

theoretical constructs concerning to Digital Stories and listening comprehension along with review on previous related studies

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a methodological framework for collecting and analyzing data

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with the illustration of tables and charts

Chapter 4: CONCLUSION

Summary of the major findings and suggestions for further research are presented in this part

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of listening and listening comprehension

1.1.1 Definition of Listening

Listening has been defined by many researchers Byrne (1986) defined listening as an active process and he added that when one listens to his mother tongue, understanding normally seems effortless because the experience of the spoken language is enormous He mentioned that going back to the time when one was born, s/he was exposed to quantities of language and different speakers, and variety of topics Because of that experience the listeners can easily identify the message, phonological and grammatical patterns, as well lexical items Secondly, the experience of language caused the awareness of all factors that help to predicate what is likely to come next Thirdly, there are a number of contextual clues to help the interacters in listening comprehension to know about the participants, the setting, the topic and the purpose Not all listening situations are easy, especially when one cannot see the speaker(s) particularly facial expression, for example, as

on the telephone it required more than concentration to understand the topic He added that the length of time of listening without participating may cause memory problems To avoid this problem, the writer suggested two ways of responding: firstly, interacting by which the listener participates as a speaker in a conversation

or discussion; secondly, reacting that is the listener does or says something as a result of what s/he has heard

On the other hand, Van Duzer (1997) believed that Listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of adult second language learners, whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community Through the normal course of a day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times as much as reading and writing

Thompson and Rubin (1996) defined listening process as an active process through which the listeners select and interpret information that comes from

auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express Listening is viewed to be an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of 'aural input', construct meaning from passages and relate what they hear to existing knowledge

Fang (2008) stated that Listening is the “Cinderella skill” in second language learning It became fashionable again in the 1980s when Krashen‟s (1987) ideas about comprehensible input gained prominence Richards (1987) stated that the idea about the comprehensible input gained prominence that requires negotiation of meaning and which contains linguistic features a little beyond the learner‟s current level of competence

As Rost (1994) pointed out that of the four language skills, namely speaking, listening, reading and writing, listening is the most critical for language learning at the beginning stages Large amounts of listening practice before speaking or reading may prepare the learner to acquire a second language with a greater efficiency than

if s/he was taught all the skills simultaneously In fact, listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life Actually, people in general listen twice as much as they speak four times as much as we read, and five times as much

as we write Listening is a highly integrative skill Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in foreign language classrooms

To conclude, listening skills should be discussed under two related headings Firstly, it is the processing sound by which the listener can recognize word utterance, sentences recognize significance of language-related features such as: intonation, pitch and tone Secondly, it is the processing meaning, by which the listener can organize the heard speech into meaningful sections, to identify the language data to understand what speakers are going to say, and to store information in memory and know how to get them back later, by organizing meaning and details

1.1.2 Definition of Listening comprehension

The term “listening comprehension” has been defined by different authors Listening is a basic input to communicate and interact It plays an important role in

building communication skill According to Brown and Yule (1983), listening comprehension means that a person understands what he/she has heard If he/she learns the text through hearing it, he/she will understand it Dirven and Oakeshott-Taylor (1984) defined listening comprehension as the product of teaching methodology and is matched by terms such as speech understanding, spoken language understanding, speech recognition, and speech perception Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013) claimed listening comprehensioninteractive processes in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning Listeners comprehend the oral input through sound discrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or non-linguistic clues According to Nadig (2013), listening comprehension is the various processes of understanding and making sense of spoken language These involve knowing speech sounds, comprehending the meaning

of individual words, and understanding the syntax of sentences

To sum up, it is widely admitted that listening comprehension is not merely the process of a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols, but an interactive process (Brown, 2001) In the eight processes of comprehension (Clark & Clark, 1980; Brown, 2001) the hearer, after receiving the information, assigns a literal meaning to the utterance first and then assigns an intended meaning to the utterance

According to the author, listening comprehension should be considered as an interactive process in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning In the research, this process consisting sound discrimination, previous knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation as well as other linguistic or non-linguistic clues needs to be investigated

Hughes (1991) pointed out that there are two skills involved in listening comprehension, they are:

 Macro skill

In macro skill, to understand what someone says a listener has to involve with listening for specific information, obtaining a gist of what is being heard or the listener should get the general idea of the information, following instruction or directions etc The explanation of macro skill will be elaborated as follows:

Identifying the main idea

Identifying the main idea of a text is one of the prominent skills in listening comprehension The main idea tells the topic of the paragraph which tells what all and most the paragraphs are about Main idea helps students remember important information because it is the key concept of the whole paragraph

Identifying specific information

Specific information includes the details of the paragraph and develops the main idea or the topic sentence It consists of information such as how, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many in the paragraph

Identifying inference

Inference is a knowledgeable prediction about something which is based on the information and facts In order to get the inference of the text, students have to draw conclusions refers to information that is implied or not stated Using the clues

of information to give a deeper understanding and go beyond the surface details to see other meanings that the details suggest and imply

Identifying reference

Reference is a relation between words or utterances which provides the information necessary to interpret the other It is the connection between words in which one word as a signal or acts as a link to other words in the text

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar and known

to the person who uses it Vocabulary is essential for communication purposes and acquiring knowledge

 Micro skill

In micro skill, to understand what someone says a listener has to interpret intonation pattern (e.g recognize stress and rhythm), recognition of function of structures (interrogative as request, imperative e.g sit down!; cohesive devices e.g such as and which, detect sentence constituents, e.g subject, verb, object, preposition), recognizing discourse markers (e.g well; oh, another thing is; now, finally)

Each skill has its usefulness in gaining information and objectives For example, the macro skill is the skill that will be mostly used in this research because

it deals with the information that the learner or students will be retained

In this research, both macro and micro skills will be involved because students have to use their prior knowledge to understand the general meaning of the message that they will listen in the video and audio tape They also have to be able

to interpret intonation and recognize the vocabularies along with the structure of the message Students will listen for obtaining specific information and encouraging gist of what is being heard They have to grasp the general idea of the information, following instruction or directions that they will heard and watch in the video and audio tape

1.1.3 Teaching Listening Comprehension

Listening plays an important role in language learning Therefore, teacher has to be able to lead the students in improving and sharpening their listening skills

in the class Cross (1998) stated that without listening skill, no communication can

be achieved Meanwhile, teacher should lead the students in mastering their listening skills so that they are able to communicate and respond to the message that the speaker intends to

Byrne (1978) statedteachers need to follow the three essential steps in teaching listening comprehension, in forward; the students are expected to be able to:

a) Hear the sound: The students hear the information from the speaker in verbal communication

b) Identify the sound: The students make sense out of the information by using their background knowledge Moreover, if they consider it new, they will keep it in their mind

c) Produce the respond: After the students identifying the information, they will interpret the data and respond to the speaker as the reflection that they receive the information by using the means of language

Through listening comprehension, the students are more than just hearing what the spoken word said but also able to understand the meaning of the word and relate it with what they already know The listener also has to be able to respond and exchange the message of what they already heard from the speaker Without understanding input appropriately, listening simply cannot get any improvement Therefore, in teaching listening activity, both students and teachers should actively involve in the teaching and learning process Teaching listening is a process which required an active interaction between students and the teacher as the teacher leads them to master the listening skills so that they are able to comprehend the overall message and respond on the speaker‟s intention

There are some techniques in listening comprehension based on the communicative approach The selection of appropriate technique and media in teaching learning process is required for the teacher In this case, the writer chooses video and audio tape in teaching listening comprehension By implementing the video and audio tape, the writer assumed that it will overcome the students‟ boredom during teaching listening comprehension It is reasonable because young learners usually like to listen to audio tape alongside watch video which is an audio visual aid that involved sound and moving pictures so that students will be interested in the learning process

When the purpose of teaching listening comprehension is achieved then students‟ achievement in listening comprehension will be improved as well Hence, teacher is required to apply suitable materials in teaching listening process because

it is a process which required an active interaction between students and the teacher

as the teacher leads them to master the listening skills so that they are able to comprehend the overall message and respond on the speaker‟s intention

1.2 Theoretical background of Digital stories

1.2.1 Definition of Digital stories

Firstly, a story is defined as a narrative account of a real or imagined event(s), it is a structure of narrative with a specific style and a set of characters

Additionally, in the “storytelling” technique learners may share experience and learn from others‟ wisdom, beliefs, and values Besides, stories build blocks of knowledge and it is the foundation of memory and learning, lastly, stories connect people to the past, present and the future (Barzaq, 2009)

Maynard (2005) defined stories as the way people communicate their experience, the way they understand the experience of others, the way they liberate their imaginations, the way they make sense of the world and their own position within it He also stated that stories are important to people, politics, and education Stories are how people make sense of themselves and their worlds

In young children‟s spontaneous stories that they act out as they play, one can see how they believe people relate to one another, who they hope to become, and how they will behave As adults,the true and imaginary stories wish to tell, believe and suggest what the most important value in this world In a real sense, stories make people For this reason, stories are political because they address the ways in which people identities, their beliefs, attitudes, and values, are created and maintained “Storytelling is a task shared by storyteller and story listeners, it is the interaction of the two that makes a story come to life” (Baker and Greene, 1985)

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling It represents its power by existing images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and wonderful color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights Telling stories through digital media has become easier with a variety media tools, and it is an effective way for students to share cultural information Rule (2008), in his study, indicated some educational uses of digital storytelling:

- It combines text and images with narration in the student‟s own voice to form a short digital move

- Digital Storyteller is a web-based tool that offers teachers and students' frictionless access to digital images and materials that enable them to construct compelling personal narratives

- Digital storytelling tools are easy for students to use, so the focus of the activities can be on the storytelling and sharing others' experiences

- Furthermore, digital storytelling empowers students to share cultural information and stories

- Digital storytelling gives the students the ability to reach more stories than ever before in history

Digital storytelling takes many forms There are stories that are audio only and rely on words, sound effects, field recordings, and music Web-based media facilitate not only stories with words, but also movies, stills, sounds, and graphics People have a fundamental desire to tell each other stories Human communication seems to revolve around remembering and sharing experiences

Stories are valuable in that they serve as a means for passing on knowledge ranging from the little things in life to those big issues which give human experience form and definition People can define digital storytelling as the process

by which people of all ages and experience share with others' stories from their lives

or creative imagination This new form of storytelling has emerged with accessible media production techniques using computers, digital cameras, recorders and software This new technology allows individuals to share their stories over the Internet Furthermore, they can think of digital storytelling as the modern extension of the ancient art of storytelling but now woven together with images and sound “Digital storytelling facilitates the use technology to inform and entertain” (Porter, 2005)

1.2.2 Types of Digital Stories

There are many different types of digital stories, but it is possible to categorize the major types into the following three major groups:1) personal narratives - stories that contain accounts of significant incidents in one‟s life; 2) historical documentaries – stories that examine dramatic events that help us understand the past, and 3) stories designed to inform or instruct the viewer on a

particular concept or practice (Robin, 2008)

Personal Narratives

One of the most popular reasons for producing digital stories is to create a personal narrative This type of story has multiple benefits in an educational setting First, other students who view the story learn about people from diverse backgrounds other than their own and they can gain an appreciation of the types of hardships faced by fellow classmates whose families have come from another country A story such as this one can be used to facilitate discussions about current issues such as race, multiculturalism and the globalization In addition, a student who creates such a story can benefit from sharing that story with others and thereby use information as a way of eliminating some of the distance that foreign born students feel between themselves and their peers A personal narrative like this one can also be a positive means for dealing with the some of the emotional family

issues that were described in the story

Historical Documentaries

Although many personal narratives can include historical information to add context to the story, a different kind of digital story can be created from historical

materials that students might explore in a classroom

Stories that Inform or Instruct

While it can be argued that all digital stories inform (and perhaps instruct), the distinction here is that there is room to create a separate category for stories that reflect instructional materials in content areas such as maths, science, health

education and instructional technology

1.3 Digital Stories in Teaching Listening Comprehension

Despite the potential benefits of digital stories, there are few studies on the use of digital stories in language skill areas, especially on listening

According to Aiex (1988), storytelling is a creative art form that has entertained and informed across centuries and cultures and its instructional potential continues to serve teachers Storytelling, or oral literature, has many of its roots in the attempt to explain life or the mysteries of the world and the universe that to try

to make sense out of things In stories, the characters and themes have become cultural and often cross-cultural of historic and continuing importance He also investigated the effects of three mediums for presenting literature to children and discovered that storytelling and dramatization were significantly more effective in facilitating recall of prose content These findings indicated that storytelling is a valuable method for stimulating children's imaginations, ultimately leading to a higher cognitive level in student responses Besides, he discussed ways to use mythic literature to teach children about themselves and to help them write their own stories and legends For very young children, the sequencing of events or the shaping of stories may be difficult, as children tend to ramble However, sharing stories can give young children more of a "sense of story"- an awareness that can help them in both reading and writing In reading, for example, a sense of story can help children to predict and know what to expect, and to read with more awareness

of cause and effect, sequence, and other story factors related to comprehension In writing, children learn to apply such structures while telling their own stories and giving shape to their experiences Perhaps storytelling‟s greatest value for a teacher

is its effectiveness in fostering a relaxed and intimate atmosphere in the classroom

He also explained how this practical and general objective can relate to the other benefits from using storytelling He asserted that it can 1) introduce children

to a range of story experiences; 2) provide young students with models of story patterns, themes, characters, and incidents to help them in their own writing, oral language, and thinking; 3) nurture and encourage a sense of humour in children; 4) help put children's own words in perspective; 5) increase knowledge and understanding of other places, races, and beliefs; 6) introduce new ideas and be used

to question established concepts without threat to the individual; 7) lead to discussions that are far ranging and often more satisfying than those arising from formal lessons; and 8) serve as the most painless way of teaching children to listen,

to concentrate, and to follow the thread and logic of an argument

Asserted the same topic, Boje (1991) stated that storytelling is much more than an effective method to teach students to use management concepts and to make sense of real life experiences Practice in storytelling builds students‟ “performance” and “learning” skills In addition, story skills training may enhance management performance The article includes practical advice on teaching storytelling skills, as well as on story writing and story interpretation skills With practice, students do improve their performance as storytellers and enhance their chances for scripting a healthier, happier, and more terrific story for their work lives

Realized the benefits of storytelling in language learning, Tsou et al (2004) developed a multimedia storytelling website to study how web-based technology can assist English as a foreign language teaching and learning process through storytelling and story recalls In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of this website in significantly facilitating English as a foreign language teaching and learning process It was implemented in one elementary school The storytelling website was used for both the English as a foreign language instructor to compose stories for telling in the experimental group and for English as a foreign language learner in the experimental group to compose story recalls This Website served as a storytelling environment for teaching and learning English as a foreign language by allowing users to: (1) compose online multimedia stories in an easy, intuitive, and quick manner, even for young students, (2) re-play and share the stories composed

by others in schools or at home, (3) demonstrate or learn how storytelling can be integrated into classes, and (4) access the website anytime and anywhere However,

in the control group, the teacher applied only regular storytelling process without any assistance from the storytelling website The students in the control group wrote their story recalls after each storytelling The results of the study supported the significance and the education value of the multimedia storytelling website on English as foreign language teaching and learning If such a website can be applied within elementary English as a foreign language classroom, the quality of teaching and learning can be improved and students‟ enjoyment and success in English as a foreign language learning may increase

Specifically, digital storytelling was introduced in the study by Collen (2006) Students in one group listened and watched two digital stories in class, and students in another group listened to the two stories read aloud by the researcher Listening activities in both classrooms were video recorded, and during the activities students were required to ask questions about what they listened to, and the researcher also asked questions concerning comprehension Students who watched and listened to digital stories concentrated better and gave more attention during listening They also gave a higher number of correct answers to questions on the stories In 2007, Verdugo and Belmonte carried out another research with the same concern Their paper examined the effects that digital stories may have on understanding spoken English by a group of 6-year-old Spanish learners To accomplish this aim, a quasi- experimental research study was launched in six state schools in Madrid A pre-post-test design was used to investigate whether internet-based technology could improve listening comprehension in English as a foreign language Findings indicate that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the final test administered These results raise interesting issues related to the use of technology in the context of foreign language learning Future research which includes other age groups and digital materials and which explores other linguistic areas could further substantiate the link between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) rich environment and improved language learning

Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi, Souriyavongsa, Da and Ong (2011) investigated the effects of digital stories on the listening comprehension skills of pre-school students in a foreign language learning context In their study, the experimental group watched digital stories and a post-test showed a significant gain over the control group Moreover, Sandaran and Lim (2013) conducted a study of the effects

of digital stories on listening comprehension skills with 9- year old third grade students in a Malaysian primary school which used instruction in Chinese Students listened and watched eight fairy tales designed as digital stories Preliminary

findings obtained from observations showed that the students‟ interest, concentration and motivation increased substantially, and their listening comprehension skills developed during the listening activities However, they stated that in order to develop listening comprehension skills, there should be vocabulary teaching activities before the students listened to and watched digital stories

Last but not least, Ciğerci and Gultekin (2017) conducted a significant research in order to determine the effect of digital stories on developing the listening skills of fourth grade primary school students in a Turkish course The study used a mixed methods and was conducted in two fourth grade classrooms (ages 9-10 years) in a primary school in Eskisehir city, Turkey, during the 2014-

2015 spring semester During the 8-week application process, Turkish lessons were conducted using digital stories and activities were designed depending on the digital stories While the lesson plans were put into action by the classroom teacher, the researcher observed the process Research data were obtained also from a listening comprehension test, and teacher and student interviews Quantitative data from the listening comprehension test was analyzed using t-tests, and the qualitative data was subjected to descriptive analysis A significant difference was found between the post-test listening comprehension scores for the experimental and control groups The qualitative data from student and teacher interviews, and from classroom observations, showed that digital stories, listening activities based on the stories, and the creation of a more engaging and motivating classroom environment had positive effects on listening comprehension skills in the experimental group

In short, both traditional storytelling and digital storytelling are important in teaching and learning However, researches show that that it is digital stories that is more effective in improving listening comprehension when compared to the traditional method of storytelling

After taking the previous studies into account, the findings of those studies shed light on both the plus points and shortcomings of the digital storytelling techniques Although the history of this innovation began about twenty years ago,

digital storytelling is still not prevalent in Vietnam Hence, as a teacher in this background, the researcher will need to give much consideration towards the usefulness as well as the limitations of its to make it more appropriate to her students in her own teaching context It is clear that storytelling technique is a powerful tool that enhances learning in all fields Moreover, it is an influential technique that helps developing language skills The conclusions of all the studies introduced in this paper have total agreement on the beneficial role, storytelling plays in developing reading and speaking fluency in addition to listening Although not many studies were conducted to reveal the impact of storytelling technique on developing listening comprehension sub-skills, the current researcher points out that listening sub-skills are similar to reading sub-skills such as predicting the events, recognizing the main idea, recognizing characters, and so on This belief urges her

to investigate the impact of storytelling technique in enhancing listening comprehension skills of the Vietnamese students

1.4 How to make a digital story

There are several steps to create a digital story For a start, the author identifies key points in the listening transcript so that the digital story can support student to understand and summarize the main content of the audio After that, appropitate images illustrating those key points would be chosen Next, an application called “photostory for windows” is employed to import those selected images

The author must arrange the images according to the order of the listening tape Then, the application allows the user to type text on each image so that it can

be easier to understand The text can be at the top, in the middle or at the bottom of the image In the next step, the author just inserts the audio file from their computer and adjusts the audio in order that it well matches with the content demonstrated in those images

Finally, the author just clicks on “finish” and exports the digital stories to the available format so that it will be saved in the computer

1.5 Summary

In a nutshell, after reviewing previous studies, the researcher considers digital storytelling as a teaching method in her own educational context Moreover, researcher learns from other linguists that digital stories might be essential as well

as effective in improving learners‟ listening comprehension That‟s the reason urging her to carry out a study to investigate the relationship between Digital Stories and students‟ listening comprehension skills at the Military University of Culture

and Arts where she is working for

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology adopted for the purpose of the present study As a result, information on the research participants, data collection

instruments and procedure of the study are represented in this chapter

2.1 Population and sample

According to Fraenkel, Wallen and Hyun (2012), sample in the research refers to any groups on which information is attained while population is the group

to which the results of the study are intended to apply The sample is usually smaller than the population which the researcher would like to generalize the findings of the study Commonly, the researcher merely uses the sample since it is

difficult to get access to all member of the population

In this study, the population is the freshmen at Military University of Culture and Arts enrolled in the academic year of 2017- 2018 All these classes are using New English File (elementary level) as their course book Since the sample of the research is smaller than the population, the researcher selects only two classes as the sample They are assigned to be the experimental and control group randomly Each class includes 30 students and one third of them are female; thus, the total numbers

of the students of the study are 60 students In addition, the placement test results in English listening skills of the students of these two classes are equivalent, which will ensure a more precise control between them after the treatment to see the effects of Digital Stories Therefore, the results of the study will be more valid Furthermore, 30 students in the experimental groups are coded from 1 to 30 according to their names so that the random selection of five students to participate

in a semi- structure interview becomes more objective

2.2 Research method

A mix method, using both qualitative and quantitative method, with a experimental design is employed in this research

quasi-On the basics, a quasi-experimental study is relatively similar to an experimental research While in the experimental research, participants are randomly assigned to one of the groups, in the quasi-experimental research, they do not(Mackey&Gass, 2015) Since the population in this study does not consist of individuals but groups of individuals or classes, students are not randomly selected and assigned to the groups

It is undeniable that mixed methods help researchers to emphasize the research problem and broaden their perspective with both quantitative and qualitative data While quantitative data provides listening test results in order to present numerical representation, qualitative data, in contrast, seems to be more subjective It ensures that participants‟ “voice” in their diaries and semi-structured interview will be listened to and collected for interpretation In general, mixed methods bring us a variety of advantages First, mixed methods could offset the weaknesses of both: the shortage of context and setting in quantitative research and the biases in qualitative one Besides, with this kind of method, researchers have opportunity to use all available tools to reach the most comprehensive data For example, Hur&Suh (2012) used 7 data collection tools in their research aiming at achieving a throughout understanding of the overall issue Moreover, the findings are validated because they are concluded from not only observations but also statistical analyses They also appeal to audiences with convincing evidence (words and numbers) Especially, with mixed method strategies, researches challenge themselves to produce and combine inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning, wisely

However, mixed methods also have some limitations First of all, it is consuming to collect quantitative and qualitative data Besides, in order to collect enough data, you need to find more resources In fact, it really takes time to apply many data collection tools in one research However, this can be foreseen by many researchers (including the researcher) Assistants, in these cases, are necessary Another weakness of mixed method design is the researchers‟ ability Specifically,

time-researcher needs to master multiple methods and make sure how to mix them effectively How to interpret conflicting results and analyzing quantitative data qualitatively still need to be considered

2.3 Data collection instruments

To gather data for this study, three data collection instruments will be

employed: semi-structure interview, diaries, and listening comprehension tests

2.3.1 Semi-structured interview

The interview appears to be one of the most used research methods, especially when it comes to the methods of data collections used in qualitative research There are a number of ways to classify interviews Considering the amount of structure deemed appropriate, the interviews can be divided into three main types, the structured, semi - structured and unstructured According to Denscombe (2007) the semi - structured interview can be placed somewhere between the two opposing ends - structured (closed questions) and unstructured (closer to observation) interviews

2.3.1.1 Justification of the use of semi-structured interview

Teijlingen (2014) believes semi-structured interviews are particularly well - suited when exploring sensitive areas such as attitudes, values, beliefs and motives and since non - verbal indicators are present, it can assist in evaluating validity and urgency Hence, this instrument really meets the researcher‟s need since one of the most crucial purposes of this study is to investigate students‟ opinions towards the use of Digital Stories in listening comprehension lessons as well as obstacles that they encounter during their lessons The fact that the interviewer can create and avoid questions in order to adjust to the topic, makes the semi - structured interview more flexible and adaptive This also leads to more effective data collection More importantly, the researcher prefers to use semi - structured interviews because the questions can be prepared in advance so that well-structured answers can be received from participants in order to construct research narratives

2.3.1.2 Description of semi-structured interview

This study follows Athur and Nazroo (2003) as they suggest a frame for planning the topic guide before the interview Therefore, in this study the semi-structured interview includes four parts: The introduction, opening questions, core in-depth questions and closure (see Appendix 1)

The first step in this interview is to introduce the research to the interviewees

in order to ensure that the participants are aware of the purpose of the research and has given informed consent After that, several early questions are given to make the participants feel confident and gather background facts about students‟ listening skills to contextualize the rest of the interview During the interview, the researcher focuses on asking participants about their opinions and attitudes towards experimental listening lessons applying Digital Stories along with any difficulties they encounter Finally, the researcher signals the end of the interview with gratitude and informs participants what will happen next with their answers.Furthermore, this study was carried out with both group and individual interviews in parallel in order to bring insights into students‟ real experiences based

on a variety of circumstantial sources such as facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice and so on After having conducted directly facing interviews in groups to discover students‟ experiences from their own perspectives, individual interviews were held then aimed at achieving more specific responses that might be hidden among a group of respondents For instance, because of being afraid of losing face, some participants might not or were not willing to admit that they got into troubles with the method during the process The data then became unreliable,

as a result

2.3.2 Students’ diaries

Krishnan and Lee (2002) define diaries as first person observations of experiences that are recorded over a period of time While many researchers refer to such records as diaries because they tends to be associated with „confessions‟ or

„baring the soul‟ “highlighting the unavoidable tension between writing a record of

personal relevance and having it read by a tutor” (Jarvis, 1992: 135) However, some other researchers prefer to call them diaries or records because it seems to relate to public consumption and they are designed to be read by others This study will use the term “diary” as it appears not only to be more widely employed but also suits for the researcher‟s purpose

2.3.2.1 Justification of the use of diaries

The purpose of this paper was to suggest digital stories as a tool for teaching students listening skills Clearly, listening to digital stories would be processed by students in experimental group during eigtht weeks of experiment As

a result, diaries were applied in here first is for managing their participation in the listening activity Besides diaries are stated as a tool to examine “personal assumptions and goals” and clarify “individual belief systems and subjectivities” by Russell & Kelly (2002) Janesick (1999) also claims that diaries writing may be an effective qualitative research technique in long-term qualitative studies With this technique students can give their reflection on new knowledge achieved, solidify their learning experience by recording their growing thought process as they progress further in the course, learn new material, and shape new conclusions Thus, this instrumentis not only adopted for showing participants‟ join, but also for investigating their difficulties while listening to Digital Stories So the data collected from the diaries could also support for the two first research questions that is believed to make the most sufficient and precise answer for these research questions along with the result from the semi-structured interview at the end of the process

2.3.2.2 Description of diaries

The diary contains three main questions The first one is to ask participants‟ opinions on the use of Digital Stories in listening lessons each week such as: which part of the Digital Stories they like most; which part of Digital Stories they feel most useful and whether the use of Digital Stories supports their listening comprehension or not With this question, the purpose of the researcher is not only

to check for their participation in the experiment, but also to investigate their motivation and attitude towards the use of Digital Stories in listening lessons