Using Digital Storytelling on Scratch to Support Primary School EFL/ESL Students’ Writing: A Self-regulated Learning Approach

Abstract

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is proved to be an effective learning strategy both in a real classroom and in online environments while digital storytelling (DST) is an emerging strategy for teachers to guide their students to learn a language by integrating multimodal artefacts to develop language and communication skills. However, little research has been conducted to investigate their integration, namely, self-regulated digital storytelling (SRDST) for language learning. This proposed study aims to probe the impact of SRDST supported by Scratch, as a new pedagogy and a learning strategy, on learning outcomes and motivation of primary students who learn English as a foreign /second language (EFL/ESL). The study will be guided by the following research questions: 1) How effective is SRDST on Scratch in supporting students in English learning? 2) In what ways and how do primary EFL/ESL students learn English writing through SRDST? 3) What are students’ perceptions of the overall SRDST in the English language classroom? 4) What are teachers’ perceptions of using SRDST to teach English? In this study, a pre-and post-test quasi-experiment research design will be employed involving about 120 primary grade 4 students. The control group will be instructed based on student textbooks, paper-formed worksheets, and presentation slides. The experimental group will be instructed based on the SRDST approach on Scratch supplemented by paper-formed worksheets and presentation slides. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected to yield research findings and answer the research questions.