LLED 7045 Digital Storytelling

Group Documentary Reflection

Group 4: Chau Nguyen, Jiong Li, Khanh Bui, Yen-chen Liu
Reflection
Guiding Question & Rationale
For this project, we want to find out if studying in the US can ensure international
students an exponential improvement in their communicative competences in English. This topic
is of great interest for us for two reasons. First, despite achieving high scores in TOEFL iBT as
well as being accepted into an American university, we, as international students, still sometimes
suffer from difficulties communicating with others. Second, although a lot of people commonly
claim that studying abroad can greatly contribute to students improvement in English, as far as
we know, a part of international students failed to develop their English language skills in terms
of either speaking or listening. For these two reasons, we are really excited to find out the true
effects of studying in the US on international students English communicative skills. Due to
limited time and space, in this mini-project, we chose to focus on Eastern Asian students only.
Methods and the Editing Process
At first, our group worked together to figured out the storyboard and identified all the
necessary information and resources to include in the final video.
In order to provide audiences with background information about the constant increase of
international students enrollment in the US universities from 2009 to 2014, we used data from
the Open Doors reports. These reports are free and highly reliable since they were published by
the Institute of International Education with the support from the U.S. Department of States
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. To lively present these data in our documentary, we

created a chart in a PowerPoint slide and screen-casted the slideshow with figures appearing one
by one.
Additionally, to support our rationale for topic choice, we also employed the results of
Ranta and Meckelborgs (2013) study. This study was published in the Canadian Modern
Language Review and raised a great concern about international students exposure to and use of
English while studying in an English-speaking country.
To gain first-hand information and true stories of experiencing for the main part of our
documentary, we interviewed and recorded three people (one from China and two from Korea)
who have been living in the U.S. for more than four years. Due to their long time studying in the
U.S., we believe that they can tell us their experiences and difficulties when using English both
inside and outside of classrooms as well as provide other international students some advice to
improve their English communicative competences. After the interviews, we watched the videos
again and chose the sections that best fit our documentary. We could take the interview with the
Korean man as an example. He shared a lot of reasons why he chose to study in the U.S., his
difficulties when using English inside and outside the classroom, his experiences related to
cultures and the advice. However, to meet the limited-time requirement, we left out some
instances in the interview when he shared information that is not closely related to our guiding
questions or when he hesitated and did not express himself clearly.
Moreover, we used screencasting technique to include some pictures and one clip in our
video. For example, when the interviewee mentioned his or her purpose for studying in the U.S.,
a picture corresponding with their purpose will appear. To ensure the quality of the documentary,
we only chose pictures that have no watermark and are larger than 640x480 dpi. Regarding the
video, we only used a small part of it which clearly depicts international students tendency to

speak in their first languages. Personally, we believe that this part of the video is interesting and
can serve as a summary of and a transition from one question to another question.
Group Work
At the beginning, our group had difficulties choosing a topic since we all have diverse
interests. As a result, we decided that each of us should do some research and get together the
following day to discuss. On the next day, we took turn to present our choices of topic with
suggested resources as well as interviewees and finally agreed on the topic of international
students improvement in communicative skills while studying in the U.S.
To complete this group assignment, we divided our group into two mini-groups. Chau
cooperated with Yen-chen to prepare the content while Khanh and Jiong were in charge of
technical work. Specifically, Chau drafted the script and edited according to others feedback.
Based on the script, Yen-chen contacted and made appointments with some prospective
interviewees. Chau and Yen-chen then recorded the interviews and shared with Khanh and Jiong
via Dropbox. Based on the script as well as the answers from three interviewees, Khanh and
Jiong searched for images, music, and videos to produce the final product. We all got together to
finalize the script and discuss which resources to use. Afterward, Chau recorded her voice for
narration, Khanh produced the video using I-movie while Jiong was assigned to prepare the
Powerpoint file for and presented the clip introduction.
We divided the reflection paper into four parts, and each of us is responsible for one part.
During the process of writing, we usually communicated to ensure that all the information in this
paper is precise. Chau got all the written parts, combined, edited, and turned in the final version
on ELC Dropbox. In general, during the whole activity, all group members are very reliable and
responsible. We cooperated well, listened to others opinions, and respected differences.

Fair Use/ Copyright

All of our interviewees were clearly informed the purposes of this project as well as the
questions that we would ask during the interviews. They all accepted and signed the consent
form. To protect our informants privacy, we did not use their real names in the video clip or
publish the documentary clip online. We only uploaded the whole video clip to Youtube as
unlisted for the purpose of sharing in groups for feedback and showing in class.
Additionally, at the end of our documentary, we include references to attribute authors the
data, studies, images, and music that we used in our clip. The data from the Open Doors reports
and the study conducted by Ranta and Meckelborg (2013) are published materials which can be
accessed online or via the library of our university. As a result, we think that we can use these
materials for educational purposes with proper attributions. Although the images and music that
we incorporated are copyrighted, we believe that our uses of these materials are protected under
Fair Use. First, we use only a small part of the Youtube video clip. Second, all the images and
music were employed to fit the guiding question of our documentary, which does not interfere
with the original purposes of these materials.
Lessons learned
Experiencing the whole process of producing this documentary, we learned a lot of
valuable lessons.
First, it is important to be flexible in interviewing informants. During the first three
interviews, we strictly followed the list of proposed interview questions, which resulted in
undesired responses. Since our interviewees interpreted the questions differently, their answers
varied and were not closely related to the main topic of our video. For these reasons, we had to
revise our questions and conduct all three interviews again. In the second attempt, we had small

talks with the interviewees about our guiding question and asked extra questions to elicit the
information that we need. Through these steps, we encouraged the interviewees to share from a
broader scope (their majors and the reason for studying in the U.S.) to narrower ones (the
difficulties of using English inside and outside of the classroom and their advice for other
prospective international students). For instance, as the interviewees had a tendency to talk only
about the academic problems that they encountered, we asked them some transition questions to
shift their focus from talking about their major to elaborating their difficulties in using English
both inside and outside of classroom.
Second, using one recording device is a must. At the beginning, we did not use the same
device to record our interviews, which resulted in three interview clips with totally different
visual and aural quality. The differences made it really hard for us to incorporate these clips in
our documentary. Therefore, we conducted a second round of interview using only one Ipad to
record. Thanks to using the same recording device, it was easier for us to keep a relatively
similar distance from the interviewees. As a result, there are not many differences in images and
sounds of three interview clips.
Third, in producing the video, it is extremely important to adjust the length of shown
images as well as screen-casted sections according to narration. As we screencasted the
PowerPoint slideshow without enough consideration for the narration, our visual and aural parts
did not match. From this mistake, we realized that it is necessary to listen carefully to the
recorded narration, note the duration of each idea, and set appropriate time for transition effect in
the PowerPoint slides.
Finally, in producing a documentary, we need to be objective and refrain ourselves from
being biased. As our topic is about the true effects of studying abroad on international students

communicative competences, inappropriate choices of interviewees may lead to unexpected bias

against a specific country or continent. It is essential to note that creating stereotypes is not
legally admitted in the U.S. As a result, we expected to look for interviewees from a variety of
countries in different continents. However, as we could only find interviewees from Eastern
Asian countries, we adjusted and limited our topic to Eastern Asian students only. We considered
this change as a unique experience to provide audiences with perspectives from three Eastern
Asian students studying in the U.S. Additionally, we are also careful about our contents, trying
not to create biases against Asian students through digital storytelling. We left out sensitive
content and made general questions without featuring any specific country in our interviews.
Overall, we believe that the lessons we learned from this project are of great value for
any teachers who desire to incorporate digital storytelling in their classrooms. From the mistakes
that we made, teachers can construct a comprehensive and detailed guideline for students so that
they do not have to waste a lot of time in producing their digital products. Additionally, we think
that international students can also benefit from the study that we quoted as well as the advice
from our interviewees.
In general, through this project, we not only have a better understanding about the
procedure to produce a documentary but also learn valuable lesson about strategies to improve
our communicative competence while studying in the U.S. As a result, we believe that the time
we dedicated for this project is really useful and beneficial.

Appendix
Links to images used in our documentary
http://www.wcu.edu/academics/departments-schools-colleges/cas/casdepts/mfl/specialopportunities-events-for-modern-foreign-languages-students/study-abroad.asp
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/all-series/where-are-students-studying-abroad/
http://teacherweb.com/FL/JohnAFergusonHighSchool/MrBerneBiology/apt5.aspx
http://www.advancetutoringschool.com.au/biology-tutor-melbourne
http://depositphotos.com/11028614/stock-illustration-illustration-of-biology-icons.html
http://bakersandartists.com/4th-of-july-american-flag-pie
http://thearticulateceo.typepad.com/my-blog/2011/08/cultural-differences-high-context-versuslow-context.html
http://www.naomedia.co/5-free-twitter-tools-to-start-using-now/
http://nursinglink.monster.com/education/articles/189-phd-in-nursing-explained
http://seoulistic.com/travel-to-korea/21-reasons-you-should-visit-seoul/attachment/success-kidspeak-english/
http://www.physicianmom.com/2011/10/dads-are-great.html
http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/clip-art-picture-of-a-lecture-6897947
http://www.worldaccordingtomaggie.com/photographyylms/kids-watching-tv-clip-art
http://www.kidspot.com.au/subsection+282+Back-to-School-difficulties.htm
http://amplifyyourvoice.org/u/upenchalise/2014/02/28/why-dont-we Interview
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224149
http://womenofhr.com/moving-out-of-your-comfort-zone/
http://kurtbubna.com/how-to-succeed-at-everything-that-matters/

References
Nevue, D. (2004). Happy together. On Sweet Dreams and Startlight. Retrieved from
http://music.douban.com/musician/100930/.
Ranta, L., & Meckelborg, A. (2013). How Much Exposure to English Do International Graduate
Students Really Get? Measuring Language Use in a Naturalistic Setting. The Canadian
Modern Language Review, (1), 1-34.
The Institute of International Education. (2014). Open doors report. Retrieved from
http://www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/News-and-Events/Press-Center/Press-Releases.