Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region X
Division of Camiguin
YUMBING NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Yumbing, Mambajao, Camiguin

ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL

by

MARK A. PALAD
Master Teacher II
 Building Vocabulary through Digital Storytelling

I. Context and Rationale

Language is the most important thing for everyone to communicate with the
others. It means that without comprehending the language, someone will get many
difficulties in her/his life. For instance, one cannot understand what he hears or reads if
he does not have any idea about the language which he hears or reads. Then, he
cannot express what he wants to say or write as well if he has no idea about the correct
or proper words to express.
Undeniably, English is a tool to communicate oral and writing. Communicating is
understanding and expressing information, thinking, feeling and growing knowledge,
technology, and culture. English is the language that must be mastered by everyone
because English is an international language.
Teaching English to young learners is very important because it will serve as the
main foundation for students to learn English at the higher level. Teaching a language
means teaching how to use that language in communication, the language has some
elements, such as; grammar and vocabulary.
One of the most important language items that should be taught to students is
vocabulary. Recognizing enough vocabulary will make the students able to
communicate and know English at least in a simple way because vocabulary is the core
of English. Learning a language deals with learning the vocabulary. It is a basic to
communicate and also important for the acquisition process (Krashen, 1981). It means
that learning a language cannot be separated from learning its vocabulary. It is
important to introduce it as a basic step to children in order to help them to understand
utterances and to prepare them to learn English in the next level.
Vocabulary mastery has significant role in achieving four language skills. Before
acquiring four language skills, it is important to understand vocabulary first. Cameron
(2001) states that building up a useful vocabulary is central to the learning a foreign
language at primary level. From this view, it is clear that vocabulary mastery is vital in
language acquisition for it supports listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Vocabulary is form of word that has its own meaning; it can be more than one.
Ha Brown (2001) states that vocabulary refers to a list or set of words that individual
speakers of language might use. From that statement, we know that it refers to word in
a language that is used by the speaker. Vocabulary is a part of language, in the small
and simple form.

However, as part of preliminary test for students who are qualified under the
special curriculum class, a vocabulary test must be given. With the result, the
researcher made an observation in Yumbing NHS and found fact that the Grade 7
Special Program in Journalism (SPJ) students faced difficulties in English vocabulary.
Since vocabulary is essential in language development, the researcher will look
for a strategy to answer the needs of the students. Thus, the researcher will utilize
digital storytelling with high hopes that vocabulary mastery be improved.
Further, the researcher wants to make the junior school students interested in
studying vocabulary through digital storytelling because it can bring much joy and give
the students opportunity to remember the words and understand the sentence easily.
So, using digital story telling in mastering English vocabulary is a new way in learning
process especially in improving vocabulary mastery as revealed by Thornbury, 2005.

II. Research Questions

This action research will seek to answer the following questions, to wit:
1. What is the vocabulary mastery level of the students before and after the 30-
day digital storytelling sessions?
2. What is the feeling of the participants after the intervention endeavor?
3. Is there a significant difference between their pre-test and post-test
performance?

III. The Intervention and Strategy

In this work, the researcher will employ digital storytelling with 10 participants in
G7 Special Program in Journalism of Yumbing National High School. As a starter, this
strategy is based on the study of Sadik (2008) which revealed that digital storytelling
can be used to enhance a student’s higher-order thinking skills and it is the key for
better learning. Similarly, Chung (2006) believed that storytelling is a natural method of
human communication and is prevalent in all aspects of human social interaction.
Integrating this would enhance the ability of the learners to understand new concepts
and ideas. These findings were verified in the study of Miller (2010) presented that
digital story telling engages and empowers students of all levels wherein students
become more invested in their writing and give more effort in their performance and it
builds community in the classroom. This claim is backed-up by Karlsson (2012) in his
study that proved viewing and listening to stories would increase students’ participation
in the discussion and help them develop their comprehension and vocabulary level.
Most recent studies pointed out that students in our classroom today need to be
motivated and engaged in ways that hold their attention. In order to strongly engage
students in classroom activities it is important to keep learning student-centered by
using digital media (Roby, 2010). Roby (2010), in his study, found out that digital
storytelling in the classroom would allow students to become engaged across discipline
by the use of many forms of media that learners are more comfortable to use with.
Furthermore, Haven (2000) showed that stories when used in classroom would have a
powerful and motivating effect that helps learners acquire new concepts and ideas, thus
improves its vocabulary level.
In the study of Abdul-Ameer (2014) revealed that digital stories facilitate
vocabulary learning and have motivated the learners to comprehension and expose
them into valuable vocabulary activities that promote positive results.

IV. Methodology
In this research, the sampling of the participants and data collection procedure
will be given much emphasis to establish trustworthiness in this undertaking.
a. The Participants of the Study
In this study, the researcher is the Journalism coordinator of the school and the
subject teacher of G7 Journalism class. With the existing low vocabulary level problem,
the researcher will embark on helping learners to improve their vocabulary mastery. The
Vocabulary Pre-test result showed that in the Special Program in Journalism G7, 28
students have low performance in vocabulary test. With the intention to have an intact
target group, the researcher will apply prioritization approach. This will lead the
researcher to focus on SPJ 7 over the other SPJ classes. This implicates that the
undertaking will cover all the students in the aforementioned class.
However, in this new normal, the researcher will apply purposive sampling to
point out the number of participants who will undergo intervention. The participants will
be chosen through the availability of the internet connection and laptop.

b. Data Collection Process

Being aware of the existing problem in the classroom, the research will conduct a
casual talk with the SPJ 7 class adviser. The researcher identifies that the English
teacher and the adviser are overloaded in doing an intervention to address the issue. In
the researcher’s capacity as the Journalism coordinator in the school, the vocabulary
issue will be given the attention considering the class with the highest number of
students with low vocabulary performance.
The researcher will talk the class adviser about the intervention to be undertaken
for the learners. Upon reaching the agreement, the researcher will write a letter to the
school head about the intent to partially address the problem. With the go signal of the
school head, the researcher will do an action plan and will present it to the school head
for acceptance and approval. After the school head will sign the proposal, the
researcher will set the schedule of the intervention. The digital storytelling will be used
during the session with the presence of the head teacher as observer of the endeavor.
During the implementation of the study, the participants undergo 30-minute
viewing of digitally made stories and discussion in a room designed for the purpose.
The moment the intervention starts, the participants will be asked to view and
understand the video. They will be required to jot down some words which are difficult to
comprehend. Unlocking of word meanings and discussion of the story will follow.
Question and answer will be made until the internalization of the story becomes evident.
Five minutes before the time will end; the researcher will ask the participants their
experiences related to the activity. The process will happen in 30-day sessions.
After the time frame of the study, the participants will be given posttest using the
materials during the diagnostic test. Besides this, the researcher will ask open-ended
questions about the participants’ feelings and reactions on the given intervention. Then,
the researcher will analyze quantitatively and qualitatively the data to answer the
questions of this work. Percentage and thematic analysis will be employed. Those
participants who will reach 75% and above are improving but those who will get 74%
and below will undergo more sessions.
c. Plan for Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the researcher will utilize different statistical tools to answer
the aforementioned problems.
The researcher will use percentage to point out the mastery level of the
participants and T-test to identify the significant difference between the pre-test and
posttest performances of the participants.
Moreover, to describe the experiences of the participants all through-out the 30-
day digital storytelling, thematic analysis will be employed.

d. Ethical Issues
As the gathering of data will start, the researcher will assure to keep all the
collected data with full confidentiality and will not be otherwise disclosed.
Moreover, the researcher will pay due respect to all participants all throughout
the conduct of this research endeavor.

c. The Work Plan of the Study

 Activity Objective Verifiable Time Resource Person Expected
s Indicators Frame s Needed Involved Outcome
Write a letter to the Ask Letter 1 day Paper, Researcher, Approval to
School head permission printer school head conduct the
from the July 1, study
SH to 2021
conduct a
study
Make a letter Meet those Letter 1 day Paper, Researcher, Conduct a
request for the class students printer school meeting telling
adviser July 1, head, the purpose of
2021 adviser activity
Write a letter request Meet the Letter 1 day Paper, Researcher, Pretest activity
for the class adviser G7 class printer class
conduct the pretest July 2, adviser,
2021 students

Checking of the Determine Test 10 Paper, Researcher, Identify the total

pretest material the questionnaire days printer students, participants
students class
with low July 3- adviser
vocabulary 12,
2021
Daily digital Read, List of stories 30 Paper, Researcher, Recognize the
storytelling activity analyze of different days printer school head words and
words, genre understand the
discussion, July content
sharing 22 –
Aug.
30,
2021
Post-test begins Conduct Result of the 1 day Paper, Researcher, Analysis and
post-test test printer school head interpretation of
Sept. the data
1,
2021
Presentation of Present Action 2 days Paper, Researcher, Approval of the
outcome the study research printer, school head study and
to the Sept. projector recommendation
school and 2-3, for Research
DepEd 2021 Presentation
personnel

d. Project Expenditures
 Name Quantity Unit Unit Price Total
Paper 1 ream 190 190
Internet 1,400 1,400
Total Amount 1,590

V. References
 Abdul-Ameer, M. (2014). Improving Vocabulary learning through Digital Stories
Brown, H. (2001). Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy
Cameroon, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners.
Haven, K.F. (2000). Super simple storytelling: a can do guide for every classroom, every
day.
Krashen, S. (1981). Theory of vocabulary acquisition
Karlsson, P.A. (2012). Storytelling as a Teaching Strategy in Language Learning
Sadik, A. (2008). Digital Storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for
engaged student learning. Educational Technology Research and Development
Miller, L.C. (2010). Make me a story: Teaching writing through digital storytelling
Roby, T. (2010). Striking CoRDS with content-related digital storytelling
Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary.