Behnam Behforouz, Ali Al Ghaithi

Digital storytelling: reducing anxiety and boosting speaking skills among undergraduates

Introduction

Digital storytelling: reducing anxiety and boosting speaking skills among undergraduates. Discover how digital storytelling (DST) significantly boosts English speaking skills and reduces foreign language anxiety in Omani EFL undergraduates. Group-based DST projects showed the best results.

Abstract

This study aimed to measure the effect of digital storytelling (DST) on speaking performance, foreign language anxiety, and speaking anxiety in an English-learning environment. Forty-eight (48) Omani students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) with intermediate English proficiency levels were randomly and equally assigned to one control and two experimental groups. Experimental Group A engaged in designing DST projects in groups, Experimental Group B created the DST projects individually, and the Control group performed some paper-based short story reviews. Speaking tests, a Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire adopted from Horwitz (1986), and the Second Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (SLSAS) questionnaire by Woodrow (2006) were administered as pretests and posttests. After a month, the findings revealed that the two experimental groups performed better in speaking skills than the control group; however, Experimental Group A exhibited significant overall performance improvement. In addition, the FLCAS results showed that the two experimental groups displayed less language learning anxiety in the learning process, and Experimental Group A's anxiety was markedly lower than that of the other groups. The analysis of SLSAS revealed that Experimental Group A showed lower anxiety than Group B in speaking skills. The results of the study are helpful for the teachers and students.

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