Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:40:18.904Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Digital stories: Bringing multimodal texts to the Spanish writing classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2016

Ana Oskoz  and
Idoia Elola
Ana Oskoz
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (email: aoskoz@umbc.edu)
Idoia Elola
Affiliation:
Texas Tech University (email: idoia.elola@ttu.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite the availability and growing use of digital story software for authoring and instructional purposes, little is known about learners’ perceptions on its integration in the foreign language writing class. Following both a social semiotics approach and activity theory, this study focuses on six advanced Spanish learners’ perceptions about the production of a digital story in which they integrated a variety of modes (written, oral, images, sounds) and manipulated the semiotic resources within each mode (size, color, lines in the image mode), to convey meaning. Analyzing participants’ reflections, questionnaires, and online journals, results highlight learners’ (a) interpretation of the tools and artifacts and their effect on their understanding of a final product, (b) connections between short-term goal-oriented actions and the longer-term object-oriented activity of developing a multimodal text, and (c) linguistic reorientations when creating a digital story.

Keywords

Digital storiesmultimodalityactivity theorysocial semioticsFL writing
Type
Regular papers
Information
ReCALL , Volume 28 , Special Issue 3: Multimodal Environments in CALL , September 2016 , pp. 326 - 342
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Both authors participated equally in the making of this article.

References

Alcantud Díaz, M. (ed.) (2010) Tales in two minutes: Cuentos en dos minutos: NTIC and project work. Valencia: Reproexpres ediciones.Google Scholar
Basharina, O. K. (2007) An activity theory perspective on student-report contradictions in international tellecollaboration. Language Learning and Technology, 11(2): 82–103.Google Scholar
Blin, F. and Appel, C. (2011) Computer supported collaborative writing in practice: An activity theoretical study. CALICO Journal, 28(2): 473–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castañeda, M. (2013) “I am proud that I did it and it’s a piece of me”: Digital storytelling in the foreign language classroom. CALICO Journal, 30(1): 44–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, H. and Porter, B. (2005) The art of digital storytelling, Discovery Education. http://www.digitales.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/art-of-digital-storytelling.pdf.Google Scholar
Engeström, Y. (1987) Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit Oy.Google Scholar
Engeström, Y. (1991) Developmental work research: Reconstructing expertise through expansive learning. In: Nurminen, M. I. and Weir, G. R. S. (eds.), Human jobs and computer interfaces. Amsterdam: North Holland, 265–290.Google Scholar
Engeström, Y. (1999) Innovative learning in work teams: Analyzing cycles of knowledge creation in practice. In: Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R. and Punamäki R. (eds.), Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 377–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engeström, Y. (2001) Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1): 133–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engeström, Y. (2008) From teams to knots: Activity-theoretical studies of collaboration and learning at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gakhar, S. and Thompson, A. (2007) Digital storytelling: Engaging, communicating, and collaborating. In: Carlsen, R., McFerrin, K., Price, J., Weber, R. and Willis, D.A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006. Chesapeake: AACE, 607–612.Google Scholar
Gregori-Signes, C. (2008) Integrating the old and the new: Digital storytelling in the EFL language classroom. GRETA, 16: 43–49.Google Scholar
Haffner, C. A. and Miller, L. (2011) Fostering learning autonomy in English for science: A collaborative digital video project in a technological learning environment. Language Learning & Technology, 15(3): 68–86.Google Scholar
Hampel, R. and Hauck, M. (2006) Computer-mediated language learning: Making meaning in multimodal virtual learning spaces. The JALT CALL Journal, 2(2): 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaptelinin, V., Kuutti, K. and Bannon, L. (1995) Activity theory: Basic concepts and applications. In: Blumenthal, B., Gornostaev J. and Unger, C. (eds.), Human-Computer Interaction: 5th International Conference, EWHCI ‘95, Moscow, Russia, July 3–7, 1995. Selected Papers. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 189–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kress, G. (2003) Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kress, G. (2009) What is a mode? In: Jewitt, C. (ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. Abingdon: Routledge, 54–67.Google Scholar
Kress, G. (2010) Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2006) Reading images: The grammar of visual design, (2nd edn.). London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuutti, K. (1996) Activity theory as a potential framework for human-computer interaction research. In: Nardi, B. A. (ed.), Context and consciousness: Activity theory and human-computer interaction. Cambridge: MIT Press, 17–44.Google Scholar
Lambert, J. (2002) Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community. Berkeley: Digital Diner.Google Scholar
Lemke, J. L. (2001) The long and the short of it: Comments on multiple timescale studies of human activity. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(1/2): 17–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leontiev, A. (1978) Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Lotherington, H. (2008) Digital epistemologies and classroom multiliteracies. In: Hansson, T. (ed.), Handbook of research on digital information technologies: Innovations, methods, and ethical issues. Hershey: IGI Global, 261–280.Google Scholar
McGinnis, T., Goodstein-Stolzenberg, A. and Saliani, E. C. (2007) “indnpride”: Online spaces of transnational youth as sites of creative and sophisticated literacy and identity work. Linguistics and Education, 18(3–4): 283–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriam, S. B. (2009) Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco: Wiley.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. E. (2006) Mode, meaning, and synaesthesia in multimedia L2 writing. Language Learning and Technology, 10(2): 56–76.Google Scholar
Ohler, J. (2008) Digital storytelling in the classroom: New media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.Google Scholar
Oskoz, A. and Elola, I. (2014) Integrating digital stories in the writing class: Towards a 21st century literacy. In: Guikema, J. G. and Williams, L. (eds.), Digital literacies in foreign language education: Research, perspectives, and best practices. San Marcos, TX: CALICO, 179–200.Google Scholar
Porter, B. (n.d.) Six elements of good digital storytelling. http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v04/articles/Take_Six.Google Scholar
Porto, M. D. and Alonso Belmonte, I. (2014) From local to global: Visual strategies of globalisation in digital storytelling. Language & Communication, 39: 14–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rance-Roney, J. (2008, March) Digital storytelling for language and culture learning. Essential Teacher. http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/12189/Judith_Rance-Roney_Digital_Storytelling.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d.Google Scholar
Reid, M., Parker, D. and Burn, A. (2002) Evaluation report of the BECTA digital video pilot project. Coventry: BECTA.Google Scholar
Reyes Torres, A., Pich Ponce, E. and García Pastor, M. D. (2012) Digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool within a didactic sequence in foreign language teaching. Digital Education Review, 22: 1–18.Google Scholar
Robin, B. (2006) The educational uses of digital storytelling. In: Willis, D. A., Price, J., Davis, N. E. and Weber, R. (eds.), Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006. Chesapeake: AACE, 709–716.Google Scholar
Robin, B. (2007) The convergence of digital storytelling and popular culture in graduate education. In: Carlsen, R., McFerrin, K., Price, J., Weber, R. and Willis, D. A. (eds.), Proceedings of Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference. Chesapeake: AACE, 643–650.Google Scholar
Sadik, A. (2008) Digital storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning. Education Tech Research and Development, 56: 487–506. http://classroomweb20.pbworks.com/f/digital+storytelling.pdf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuda, V. and Bygate, M. (2008) Tasks in second language learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, D. and Cimasko, T. (2008) Multimodal composition in a college ESL class: New tools, traditional norms. Computers and Composition, 25(4): 376–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorne, S. L. (2003) Artifacts and cultures-of-use in intercultural communication. Language Learning and Technology, 7(2): 38–67.Google Scholar
Vinogradova, P. (2014) Digital stories in heritage language education: Empowering heritage language learners through a pedagogy of multiliteracies. In: Wiley, T., Christian, D., Peyton, J. K., Moore, S. and Liu, N. (eds.), Handbook of heritage, community, and Native American languages in the United States: Research, educational practice, and policy. New York: Routledge, 314–323.Google Scholar
Vinogradova, P., Linville, H. L. and Bickel, B. (2011) “Listen to my story and you will know me”: Digital stories as student-centered collaborative projects. TESOL Journal, 2(2): 173–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wertsch, J. V. (1991) Voices of the mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Y. (2012) Multimodal composing in digital storytelling. Computers and Composition, 29: 221–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar