The Use of Digital Storytelling in Teaching Plot in Narrative Writing for Year 4 Pupils in a Primary School

Abstract

Narrative writing in ESL classrooms is usually seen as a complex process. However, the need to help the pupils to produce a narrative essay is becoming crucial as it is a part of the UPSR examination (Primary School Evaluation Test), which carries a very high weight-age of marks for that particular session. Therefore, Digital Storytelling used as a tool to help pupils to produce better narratives. This study reports quasiexperimental research on the use of Digital Storytelling in teaching plot development in narrative writing for year-4 pupils in an urban primary school. 30 pupils were chosen using purposive sampling in a school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A pre-test of narrative writing was administered to evaluate the participants’ writing skills. The quasi-experimental research design was used to conduct this study. The participants were separated into two different groups: one experimental group and one control group. The participants of the experimental group used Digital Storytelling, focusing on plot development to produce a narrative text while the control group received a conventional method of teaching narrative writing. Finally, all the participants answered a post-test of producing narrative writing. Besides pre-test and post-test, the data was qualitatively gathered using Feedback Form, Semi-structured Interview of 4 participants, and Document Analysis of the narrative text produced. This effective, innovative strategy can be used to develop pupils’ narrative writing skills on many levels besides year-4 pupils.