1 EFFECT OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING ON TEACHING NARRATIVE Eka Dyah Puspita Sari* Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia eka.dyah@unsoed.ac.id Mia Fitria Agustina Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia mia.agustina@unsoed.ac.id *Correspondence: eka.dyah@unsoed.ac.id A b s t r a c t s A r t i c l e I n f o Narrative as one of English text genres functions to entertain readers. Some students do not achieve the purpose of narrative when they make it. It may happen because they do not understand the main purpose of narrative and lack of information on what should be and not should be put in the text. To overcome the problem, narrative was taught in different way by utilizing the digital form, and it is known as digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is expected to help students write narrative better so they can achieve the main purpose of the text. The main concern of this research is to find out the effect of digital storytelling in teaching narrative. It applied case study method with qualitative approach in the analysis. The data was gathered from 45 students who worked as the subject of the research. The result showed that 40 students (88,89%) felt digital storytelling help them to understand narrative better. This result implies that digital storytelling is proven to be beneficial in teaching narrative. Article History: Received 05 Agustus 2021 Revised 28 September 2021 Accepted 27 Oktober 2021 Available online 15 November 2021 ____________________ Keyword: Digital Storytelling; Effect of Digital Storytelling; Narratives; Teaching. Introduction Learning English requires good practice of four important skills. The four skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Writing is regarded the most difficult skill to learn for some Indonesian students. It may happen because some students are not used to writing in their first language, i.e., Indonesian. Besides that, there are many text genres in writing English. One of them is narrative. Narrative text is a text which functions to entertain readers. Some students consider narrative text as fairy tales. Indeed, narrative text is not only found in fairy tales. Myth and legends also belong to examples of narrative text. Hyland (2004: 29) describes the social purpose of narrative text as “to entertain and instruct via reflection on experience.” It can be inferred that in making a narrative text, a writer can write using his own experience. A writer can retell a story of his activity or action. Yet, some students still do not achieve the purpose of narrative text when they are asked to make it. It may happen because they do not understand the main purpose of narrative. Some students assume that writing narrative text is a difficult Religio Education Journal homepage: https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/religio/index e-mail: religio.education_journal@upi.edu Religio Education, Volume 1 (2) (2021) 125-134 E R mailto:eka.dyah@unsoed.ac.id mailto:mia.agustina@unsoed.ac.id mailto:eka.dyah@unsoed.ac.id https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/religio/index Sari, Agustina, Effect of Digital … | 126 ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 thing to do. They sometimes write famous fairy tales when they are asked to write a narrative text. It does not show good practice. Some students are also lack of information on what should be and what should not be put in the text. They sometimes write a narrative text in simple present tense. Indeed, narrative text should be written in simple past tense. The problems mentioned before are regarded as bad practice in writing a narrative text. One of the ways to make students feel easier to write narrative text is by utilizing digital media. Along with the massive use of digital media in daily life, education field can utilize the media in practice (Parhan et al., 2021). In doing so, lecturers teach the text with the help of digital media. It is called digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is like writing narrative text in a digital form. The Digital Storytelling Association (2011) defines digital storytelling as “a modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling.” Normann (2011: 125) adds the definition of digital storytelling as “a short story, only 2-3 minutes long, where the storyteller uses his own voice to tell his own story. The personal element is emphasized, and can be linked to other people, a place, an interest, or to anything that will give the story a personal touch.” It can be inferred that digital storytelling puts emphasis in the use of multimedia tools, including graphics, audio, video, and animation to tell a story. Students can combine their creativity, imagination, and multimedia tools to improve the quality of their digital storytelling. Regarding easiness digital storytelling offers, it is expected to help students write narrative text better so they can achieve the main purpose of narrative text. It can also put out more of students’ creativity and imagination to make their narrative text more personal. When students write narrative text better, lecturers feel successful in teaching. Hence, this research is written to answer a problem, i.e. “What is the effect of digital storytelling in teaching narrative?” From the question proposed, the main concern of this research is to find out the effect of digital storytelling in teaching narrative. This concern does not only help lecturers in teaching narrative, but it can also help students understand and write narrative text better. It also puts out students’ creativity and imagination in positive way, so it is expected to create good learning experience for the students. Regarding the background above, this research is entitled “Effect of Digital Storytelling on Teaching Narrative.” Method This research was a case study by using qualitative approach in analysis. Qualitative approach was used to describe students’ comprehension in digital storytelling. In describing the data, self-assessment table proposed by Ferdiansyah (2019) was used as the instrument of the research. The table consisted of 10 statements that described students’ comprehension in digital storytelling. The self-assessment table was shown in table below. Table 1. Self-assessment No Description 1 2 3 4 5 1. I have understood what digital storytelling is 2. I have understood what elements made up the digital storytelling 3. I have learned how to create digital storytelling 4. I have understood types of narrative used in digital storytelling 5. I have learned how story is written in staged process 6. I have understood the role of visuals in digital storytelling 7. I have learned how to create story in written or oral English language 127 | Religio Education, November 2021, Volume 1, Issue 2, 125-134. ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 The result of the table was used as the data in this research. The data were gathered from 45 students who worked as the subject of the research. The students are in the first semester of Environmental Pollution Control Engineering study program. They were chosen as the subject of the research by using random sampling. Sugiyono (2009: 82) defines random sampling as “samples of the population are random without regarding to level that exists in the population.” In this research, purposive random sampling was used because the students were homogeneous and were regarded in the same level of competence and knowledge. The students have finished 12 years of English subject at schools, so they had same chance to be chosen as the subject. The procedure in data collection used self-assessment. Self-assessment table functioned to measure students’ comprehension of digital storytelling while teaching narrative. It covered range of students’ comprehension in digital storytelling, starting from the definition to student’s attitude during group discussion. The data analysis applied the result of students’ self-assessment table into descriptive sentences. Results and Discussion The data were tabulated according to the respondents’ answers on the self-assessment. Self-assessment table covered range of students’ comprehension in digital storytelling and consisted of 10 statements. The statements are 1) I have understood what digital storytelling is; 2) I have understood what elements made up the digital storytelling; 3) I have learned how to create digital storytelling; 4) I have understood types of narrative used in digital storytelling; 5) I have learned how story is written in staged process; 6) I have understood the role of visuals in digital storytelling; 7) I have learned how to create story in written or oral English language; 8) I have participated in group discussion; 9) I have shared my expertise in the group discussion; and 10) I respect my friend’s ideas during discussion. The 10 statements were calculated to make a conclusion of students-own-assessment, which ranged from <20 as the lowest score to 50 as the highest score. The detailed answer on the self-assessment was shown in the table below. Table 2. Result of Self-Assessment 8. I have participated in group discussion 9. I have shared my expertise in the group discussion 10. I respect my friend’s ideas during discussion No Description 1 2 3 4 5 1. I have understood what digital storytelling is 0 0 6 30 9 2. I have understood what elements made up the digital storytelling 0 0 14 24 7 3. I have learned how to create digital storytelling 0 1 9 26 9 4. I have understood types of narrative used in digital storytelling 0 2 15 20 8 5. I have learned how story is written in staged process 0 0 9 28 8 6. I have understood the role of visuals in digital storytelling 0 2 9 25 9 7. I have learned how to create story in written or oral English language 0 3 24 17 1 8. I have participated in group discussion 0 0 3 11 31 9. I have shared my expertise in the group discussion 0 0 5 14 26 10. I respect my friend’s ideas during discussion 0 0 3 12 30 Sari, Agustina, Effect of Digital … | 128 ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 Figure 1. Result of Self-Assessment On the table above, the respondents’ answers on the self-assessment could be described as follows: 1. The statement “I have understood what digital storytelling is” was dominated by 30 students (66,67%) who rated 4 out of 5. It showed that most of the students have well understood what digital storytelling is, i.e., the intersection between the age-old art of storytelling and access to powerful technology that is easy to learn and use with the maximum use of digital media in telling a story. Figure 2. Result of Self-Assessment No. 1 2. The statement “I have understood what elements made up the digital storytelling” was dominated by 24 students (53,33%) who rated 4 out of 5. It indicated that the students have understood detailed of elements made up the digital storytelling, i.e., plots, visuals, effects, and duration. 129 | Religio Education, November 2021, Volume 1, Issue 2, 125-134. ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 Figure 3. Result of Self-Assessment No. 2 3. The statement “I have learned how to create digital storytelling” was dominated by 26 students (57,78%) who rated 4 out of 5. It showed that more than 50 percent of the students have learned how to create digital storytelling. Figure 4. Result of Self-Assessment No. 3 4. The statement “I have understood types of narrative used in digital storytelling” was dominated by 20 students (44,44%) who rated 4 out of 5. It indicated that almost half of the students have understood the types of narrative in digital storytelling, such as personal narrative. Figure 5. Result of Self-Assessment No. 4 Sari, Agustina, Effect of Digital … | 130 ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 5. The statement “I have learned how story is written in staged process” was dominated by 28 students (62,22%) who rated 4 out of 5. It indicated that most of the students have understood the stages in writing narrative, starting from orientation, complication, climax, and resolution. Figure 6. Result of Self-Assessment No. 5 6. The statement “I have understood the role of visuals in digital storytelling” was dominated by 25 students (55,56%) who rated 4 out of 5. It implied that most of the students have understood the role of each visual in the story, i.e., to make the audience blend in the story. Figure 7. Result of Self-Assessment No. 6 7. The statement “I have learned how to create story in written or oral English language” was dominated by 24 students (53,33%) who rated 3 out of 5. This score indicated that the students have understood the way to create a story in written or oral language, but needed some improvement to make the story better. 131 | Religio Education, November 2021, Volume 1, Issue 2, 125-134. ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 Figure 8. Result of Self-Assessment No. 7 8. The statement “I have participated in group discussion” was dominated by 31 students (68,89%) who rated 5 out of 5. It showed great result that most of the students can discuss with their partners well. In other words, students’ communication skill also improved with the digital storytelling media. Figure 9. Result of Self-Assessment No. 8 9. The statement “I have shared my expertise in the group discussion” was dominated by 26 students (57,78%) who rated 5 out of 5. It indicated that students have learned to exchange information of their own and share it to their friends. It also showed that they could listen and understand what their friends’ opinion well. Figure 10. Result of Self-Assessment No. 9 Sari, Agustina, Effect of Digital … | 132 ISSN e. 2776-3285 p. 2776-3366 10. The statement “I respect my friend’s ideas during discussion” was dominated by 30 students (66,67%) who rated 5 out of 5. This result concluded that the maximum use of digital storytelling not only improved one’s communication skill, but also one’s listening and comprehending abilities. Figure 11. Result of Self-Assessment No. 10 Regarding the result of the self-assessment, the lowest score was 28 and the highest score was 48. The gap of the score in the analysis showed that the students already did a great job in creating a narrative story, but they still needed help to improve their skill and to make their story better. The average score of all respondents was 40,56. This score indicated that most of the students already did a great job in creating a narrative story in digital format. The result of the self-assessment was 40 students (88,89%) who did a great job, 5 students (11,11%) showed that they did a good job but tried to improve it, and none of the students (0%) needed to improve their learning. It showed good result of the application of digital storytelling in teaching narrative. In other words, digital storytelling in teaching narrative was proven to be beneficial, not only for the teachers, but also for the students. Conclusion From the discussion, it can be concluded the average score of all respondents was 40,56 out of 50. This score indicates that most of the students have done a great job in creating a digital narrative story. The self-assessment also showed that most of the students rated 4 of all statements given. Range 4 in the self-assessment indicates that students feel happy, ease, and enjoy the process of making the story. It does not only improve students’ writing skill, but also improves their communication skill. 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