Digital Storytelling in Language Education

Abstract

Digital stories are having an impact in education the world over. From stories worth telling to stories worth sharing , digital storytelling (DS) addresses the core of human communication across time and space. In language education in particular, digital storytelling advances benefits too great to ignore. To frame the issue of digital storytelling in language education, we first offer a synthesis of DS definitions to better contextualize its multifarious uses in ESL education. We then address the most pertinent outcomes of DS projects involving the macro skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing; identity work and expressing voice; intercultural communicative competence and sociopragmatic competence; and digital and multimodal literacies. Pedagogic implications for classroom practice, from employing collaborative DS projects to storyboarding design, are also included to showcase specific ways in which language educators may develop and successfully implement DS projects in their own glocal contexts.