LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal lof Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 83 Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Medium in Reading Classroom Yentri Anggeraini Baturaja University E-mail: anggeraini.yentri@yahoo.com Nurul Afifah Baturaja University E-mail: Nurulafifah122@gmail.com Received: 20 July 2017. Revised: 25 August 2017. Accepted: 20 September 2017 Abstract As we know that teaching reading of short stories is to make students more understand about the material and can analyze the contents of the story including the moral value, plot, setting, and characters in the story. The objective of this study were to find out (1) what the students` initial condition on reading short stories texts before using the developed digital storytelling are, (2) how the digital storytelling developed for teaching reading of short stories students at English education study program university of Baturaja is, (3) how effective the developed digital storytelling used for teaching reading of short stories is. The result of this study was this digital storytelling was developed on the basis of questionnaire results and interview result. it was found that the media of digital storytelling should cover the need of the students which has some criteria such as after reading the short stories hopefully they can increase their vocabulary, they like to read dramatic and romantic story, the suitable medias in learning reading of short stories are online reading sources and video, kinds of digital storytelling are video words and digital storytelling video clips, digital storytelling should be easy to operate and the comfortable digital storytelling is to have more voice and sound. The students revealed this improvement after applying digital storytelling for teaching reading of short stories. The materials development brings improvement on the students` scores and it can rise their interest in reading short stories. Keywords: Digital storytelling, teaching reading, reading of short stories How to Cite: Yentri Anggeraini & Nurul Afifah. 2017. Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Medium in Reading Classroom. Language Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, 12(1), 83—89. __________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction Teaching reading of short stories to make students more understand about the material and can analyze the contents of the story including the moral value, plot, setting, and characters in the story. English education study program has reading class that consists of Reading I, Reading, II, Reading III, and advanced reading. In teaching reading of short stories, the lecturer should find more interactive activities that dealing with technology to make the classroom more meaning full and joyful. It deals with the literature class such as English drama, English Prose, and literary appreciation, etc. Those of subjects need comprehension the reading activities especially for short stories and novel before applying in action. The update technology usage and its changes come and give positive effects to us including the teaching and learning process in school practices. The use of technology in teaching enjoys, motivates, and facilitates the students in learning English. One of the mailto:anggeraini.yentri@yahoo.com mailto:Nurulafifah122@gmail.com LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 84 examples of technogoly usage in teaching is digital storytelling. Shalkhord, Gorjian, and Pazhakh (2013) found that the instruction of using digital stories did affect the learners‘ reading comprehension the most. They conclude that digital stories specifically may influence EFL learners' reading comprehension skill, the online instruction of digital stories does have more significant impact on the learners‘ reading comprehension skill than conventional or paper-based instruction, in the internet-based instruction of digital stories, the learners listen and analyze the story independently and freely and thus comprehend it better, and in digital stories instruction, pre-reading activities such as new vocabulary explanation, questioning can influence learners‘ reading comprehension ability. Mutalib, Aziz, and Shaffiei (2011) found that the digital storytelling is entertaining reading material that is able to invoke fun among the readers. Entertaining and fun are different in meaning in which entertaining refers to anything that engage people; whether it is horror, comedy, drama, sport, war, or sad. In contrast, fun is something associate with laugh, happiness, and excitement. They are both semantics of user experience. Meanwhile, Menezes, 2012 clarifies that digital stories usually contain computer based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and music. They vary in length but in education the most used last between two and ten minutes. Topics range from a wide area, covering almost everything thinkable. Abdel-hack and Helwa (2014) clarified different kinds of Digital storytelling: 1. Photo Stories: they are combinations of still images and texts. Students only need to know how to take photos and how to make a PowerPoint presentation in which the photos will be put together with the text. 2. Video Words: they are combinations of words or phrases and pictures to make a film or a short and simple presentation. The teacher can take some photos and bring them to the classes and ask students to match the pictures with the words. 3. Presentations: The most common story- making process is a PowerPoint presentation. A presentation is a combination of a text and pictures to present a certain topic. Students have to summarize the most important ideas and present them in a certain order. They are supposed to know more information than just that which is written in the text of the presentation. Students should be able to speak without notes; they should express their ideas clearly and keep the touch with audience. 4. Staging: it is a kind of presentation but the students are not focused on facts but they have to find a way how to perform their feelings, actions, incidents, sayings etc. Students should present the things which are familiar to them. 5. Video clips: The last kind of DS is a video clip. While creating a video clip, students put pictures, words, recorded conversations or narrations and music together to make a meaningful story which covers all kinds of digital stories mentioned above. A video clip talks about a certain topic which is familiar to the story-makers and which reflects his or her personal point of view. Pardede (2011) mentioned that four advantages of using short stories for language teachers. First, short stories are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in Yentri Anggeraini & Nurul Afifah. 2017. Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Medium in Reading Classroom. Language Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, 12(1), 83—89. 85 one or two class sessions. Second, short stories are not complicated for students to work with on their own. Third, short stories have a variety of choice for different interests and tastes. Finally, short stories can be used with all levels (beginner to advance), all ages (young learners to adults) and all classes (morning, afternoon, or evening classes). The research revealed that a majority of the respondents basically found short stories interesting to use both as materials for self- enjoyment and of as components language skill classes. Most of them also agreed or strongly agreed that the incorporation of short stories in language skills classes will help learners achieve better mastery of language skills. Using the digital storytelling is one of was as the implication of the technology used. Robin (2011) defined digital storytelling simply as the practice of using computer- based tools to tell stories. It includes multiple forms of media: images and/or video, music, text and narration. Based on the explanation above, the writer developed the digital storytelling for teaching reading of short stories at English education study program university of Baturaja. Methodology The writer used research and development (R &D) design developed by Borg and Gall in 1983. This writer used only sixth of those ten steps which included Research and Information Collecting, Planning, Develop Preliminary Form of Product,Preliminary field testing, Main Product Revision, Evaluating the product because the main concern of the study is to answer the two questions in the problem formulation as mentioned previously. Those sixth steps are considered enough to carry out the research as well to answer the problem formulation offered. The product revision was done once based on the evaluation‘s questionnaire. Besides, this research was conducted only to design a product as the media in teaching reading of short stories. The subjects of the study are (1) the second semester students; (2) English lecturer as English teaching experts. Data are mainly obtained by means of giving assignment to the students and asking the above respondents by using questionnaire containing the questions related to product being develop. In conducting such study, the writer did some steps: First, the writer employed ten items of the questionnaire that covers the analysis of the lesson and the classroom management. Then, the writer did observation to support the data about the student` initial condition on reading short stories. Second, the writer did interview. The lecturer and second semester need analysis results were used as the basis for developing the digital storytelling. In this process the writer was helped by the lecturer and IT expert judgment in developing this digital storytelling. The last, The writer provided pre test, post test and some exercises attached in the digital storytelling. The writer checked the students` understandings in reading short stories and wants to know whether the students can understand short stories well and they can improve their ability in reading from the analysis of the test result. Results and Discussion The Students` Initial Condition on Reading Short Stories before Using the Developed Digital Storytelling It was found that for the students‘ difficulty in reading short stories, 86% of students said that they are hard to understand the story and LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 86 the rest argued that they need much time to read. For the second question about students`common hopes after learning reading short stories, it showed that 71 % of the students argued that by reading they can increasy their vocabulary mastery. For the third question about students` motivation in reading alot, it showed that 64 % of the students argued that they read because they do assginment form the lecturer, 22 % percent of the students argued that they read because they want to pass the exam, 14 % of them argued that they read to pass the exam. For the fourth question about kinds of reading topic they like to read, 57 % of the students argued that they like to read dramatic story and 43 % of them argued that they like to read romantic stories. For the fifth question about students` purpose in reading short stories, 60 % of the students argued that their purpose in reading was to do task from the lecturer. For the sixth question about students` opinions about suitable media in learning reading of short stories, 57 % of the students argued that online reading sources was the suitable media in learning reading and the rest argued that video was suitable one. For the seventh question about suitable and interesting activities should be delivered in the reading of short stories class, 60 % of the students argued that doing reading task in group discussion was the intesting activities and the others argued that reading and answering the question was the interesting activities. For the eighth question about kinds of digital storytelling they like most, 86 % of the students argued that they liked video words and the rest they liked DS video clips. For the ninth question about their opinion about good criteria of digital storytelling instruction, 93 % of the students argued that easy to be operated was the good criteria of digital storytelling. For the last question about the comfortable digital storytelling category, 72 % of the students argued that having clear text was the comfortable DS category and the others argued that having more voice and sound was the comfortable DS category. For the interview, it was about the teaching of reading in English education study program in university of Baturaja including the preparation, materials, and the media used in teaching and learning process. The interview result showed that most of the students and the lecturer had not been familiar with digital storytelling. The had just been familiar with the storytelling. They argued that it deals with technology. For the material, the lecturer used the handbook form study program and other relevant sources. The Process of the Developed Digital Storytelling for Teaching Reading of Short Stories at English Education Study Program University of Baturaja There are some steps in creating the digital storytelling. Basically, the writer did need analysis by searching some information related to the students` interest of the short stories. It was done by going to the field directly and having some interview both with the lecturer and those students. After getting information of the teaching and learning process of reading and based on the students` need in learning reading of short stories, the writer offered digital as the teaching media. The discussion ended in an agreement to apply storytelling in teaching reading of short stories. In composing this digital storytelling, the writer discussed a lot with the lecturer and was helped by IT programmer. Here are the steps in composing this digital storytelling: Firstly, the writer browsed the short stories Yentri Anggeraini & Nurul Afifah. 2017. Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Medium in Reading Classroom. Language Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, 12(1), 83—89. 87 that are relevant to the students` interests and reading level. After taking discussion with the lecturer, the writer used eight short stories which were : 1) Never forget, 2) God sees the truth but waits, 3) The flower at the door, 4) The last leaf, 5) Story Hour, 6) Be aware of the dog, 7) The girl with no firend, and 8) Eva is inside her cat. All of the part of the stories were included in the program. These eight short stories were new for the students and are chosen on the basis of level of vocabulary similiarties that are used in the short stories. In this step, the wirter is not only searching the appropriate short stories but also the searching the music intruments to support the process of digital storytelling. Secondly, After creating the video ,the writer combined the video to SWF application and then, the writer put ―SWF‖ extension into folder data of digital storytelling. The menu can be shown in the picture below. In order to operate the program, just click the button. There are a number of buttons; they are eight short stories, question section,programmer instruction, and exit. Each button of the title of stories, you will read the stories followed by music intrument and the speaker of the short stories reading. For the expert validation results about the attractiveness, the clearness of the direction to use digital storytelling and the aese in suing the media, three experts in teaching reading in university level and one expert in IT programmer was involved in gathering the data. The result showed that two experts agreed that opening page of digital storytelling was very good in attracting visitors. The others suggested that all of the instructions were written in English. Dealing with the clearness of the directions to use media, three experts except one lecturer agreed that this media had already been very good in providing clear direction. And in the case of th ease in using digital storytelling, all experts considered the digital storytelling was as very good. It is easy to operate the digital storytelling by clicking the button. LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 88 The Effectiveness of Developed Digital Storytelling Used for Teaching Reading of Short Stories Paired Samples Test Paired Differences t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 posttest - pretest 21.429 9.288 2.482 8.633 13 .000 The paired sample test shows the comparison of pretest and posttest of experimental group displayed the difference between scores. The value of t-obtained was 8.633 and the standard deviation was 9.288. It was identified that sig. (2-tailed) or p value (0.00) was less than alpha value (0.05). There were some progress happened after the students had been taught by using digital storytelling. Conclusion This digital storytelling was developed on the basis of questionnaire results and interview result. it was found that the media of digital storytelling should cover the need of the students which has some criteria such as after reading the short stories hopefully they can increase their vocabulary, they like to read dramatic and romantic story, the suitable medias in learning reading of short stories are online reading sources and video, kinds of digital storytelling are video words and digital storytelling video clips, digital storytelling should be easy to operate and the comfortable digital storytelling is to have more voice and sound. After being taught by using developed materials through digital storytelling, the reading score of short stories increased which 64 % of students were in very good category and 36 % of the students were in good category in the posttest result. It was different with the pretest result that there were 7 % students were in very good category and 14 % students were in good category. The students revealed thsi improvement after applying digital storytelling for teaching reading of short stories. The materials development brings improvement on the students` scores and it can rise their interest in reading short stories. In line with the conclusions of this study, the suggested presented below may be proposed into a similar study as well as lecturers who are going to apply this materials development in the classrooom. : the product of this study is practical as one of groundwork in developing teaching-learning materials by using available school facilities. Generally, teachers who apply the product should try it first before conducting teaching - learning process . Specially, further writer are able to develop materials through other kinds of digital storytellingand other approaches for teaching reading of short stories for other language skills and focusing on the crtital reading of the students References LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal lof Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 89 Abdel-Hack, E.M., & Helwa, H.S.A.A. 2014. Using digital storytelling and weblogs instruction to enhance EFL narrative writing and critical thinking skills among EFL majors at faculty of education. International Research Journal, 5(1), 8-41. Borg, W.R., & Gall, M.D. 1983. Educational research: An introduction. NY: Longman Inc. Menezes, H. 2012. Using digital storytelling to improve literacy skills. IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age, 229-301. Mutalib, A.A.,Aziz, N., & Shaffiei, Z.A. (2011). Digital storytelling makes reading fun and entertaining. International Journal of Computer Applications,18(1), 20-26. Pardade, P. 2011. Using stories to teach language skills. The Journal of English Teaching,1(1), 14-27. Robin, B. 2011. The educational uses of digital storytelling website. Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu. Shalkhord, S., Gorjian, B., & Pazhakh, A.(2013). The effect of digital stories on reading comprehension: An internet-based instruction for Iranian EFL young learners. International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, 4(4), 111- 124. http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature 12(1) October 2017 90