ACTION RESEARCH

USING THE ART OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS

OF GRADE III PUPILS IN PIKIT CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

I. Context and Rationale

For many years, technology is a massive reformation in education. It is a great

movement for better and improvement of instruction especially for the young minds. It is

also the main reason on the changes in the curriculum to integrate technology as a tool for

instruction. Furthermore, the need for these technologies was brought out by various

studies and literature highlighting its significance in increasing learning experiences and

student learning outcomes.

Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of storytelling by using computer as tool

to tell the stories and has taken many different forms, such as audio-visual (video) and

audio recording (Sadik, 2008). Some previous researchers applied Digital Storytelling in

their research to know the impact of Digital Storytelling the students’ ability. Sandaran and

Kia (2013) applied Digital Storytelling by selecting the stories from YouTube and played

during class. Each story lasts for about 10-12 minutes and selected based on level difficulty,

interest, length and assumption that the students are familiar with the fairy tales. The

students will view the eight selected stories and answer 10 multiple choice questions based

on the stories.

In teaching listening, the teacher can use many techniques to make the students

understand about the lesson easily, such as media. Using media as alternative way can

support teaching and learning process (Adawiyah, 2017). One of media that can be used in

teaching listening in order to support teaching and learning process is the Art of Digital

Storytelling. To this end, digital stories are ideal for listening comprehension as they
incorporate new technologies (Ramirez et al. in Sandaran and Kia, 2013). The proponent

thought that Digital Storytelling can be an alternative way to improve students‘ listening

ability. Therefore, the researcher was interested in doing an action research on using Digital

Storytelling in teaching listening in Grade III pupils of Pikit Central Elementary School.

II. Action Research Question

This study aims to make an action plan for the use of Digital Storytelling in listening

comprehension skills of Grade III pupils in Pikit Central Elementary School. Specifically is it

seeks to answer the following questions:

1. Is using Digital Storytelling effective to improve students’ listening comprehension

skills of the Grade III pupils in Pikit Central Elementary School?

2. Whether Grade III pupils’ have a positive attitude towards the use of digital short

stories for listening exercises?

3. How pupils in grade III improve academic performance using the Art of Digital

Storytelling?

III. Proposed Innovation, Intervention and Strategy

The following digitalized short stories were selected for the treatment; Transients in

Arcadia by O. Henry, The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane, The Fall of the House of Usher by

Edgar Allan Poe, The Devil and Tom Walker, by Washington Irving and A Horseman in the

Sky by Ambrose Bierce. Handouts and extra listening exercises were prepared for each

digital short story and administered based on Vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle. All of the

digital short stories that were used in the current research were downloaded or used from

various websites. Thus, the digital short stories were read and voice recorded by native

speakers of English. The digital short stories were retrieved from digital platforms.

Vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle (2004, 2007) was utilized in the current study. The

treatment process lasted 8 weeks. Each week, a digital short story was selected as an
authentic listening material. Suitable for Vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle pre-activities were

prepared such as mind-maps, brainstorming, vocabulary lists, visuals related with the

story, highlighting necessary key vocabulary words. These pre-listening activities were used

to activate students’ prior knowledge and encourage them before the listening phase. In the

listening phase, students were expected to complete assigned tasks such as while listening

and after listening. Pre-prepared handouts were given to students. As the last phase, the

post-listening stage took place. At this stage students’ reflection and evaluation, skills were

aimed to develop though post-listening activities such as discussion, speaking and writing

activities.

IV. Action Research Methods

a. Participants

For the participants of the study, selected Grade III pupils will be used and will be the

respondents of this research. A stratified random sampling method will be administered in

selecting respondent teachers.

b. Data Gathering Method

In this research, the proponent used Pre-experimental Research which consisted of

pre-test, treatment, and post-test. The aim was to know whether Digital Storytelling was

effective to improve students’ listening ability. The researcher knew the aim after finding out

the differences between students’ listening ability before and after applying Digital

Storytelling by comparing pre-test and post test score.

c. Data Analysis Plan

Data were obtained through pre-test and post-test and 6 written structured interview

questions to measure the perspectives towards the use of digital short stories and digital

short stories’ effects on listening skills development in a Grade III class in Pikit Central
Elementary School. The results of pre-test and post-test were analysed. A listening skills

achievement test was administered as the pre-test and post-test those were adapted from

listening practice books. A t-test was utilized to measure the difference between pre-test and

post-test. Interview responses were analysed through content analysis which is a research

method used to identify patterns in an oral or written record of communication.

V. Action Research Work Plan and Timelines

STRATEGIES PERSONS Resources Time Frame

INVOLVED (Funding/Time/
People/ Material
1. Conducting the Listening Proponent Pre-Test August 2022
1st week
Comprehension Test to Grade Participants
III pupils (pre-test)

2. Planning the Action Proponent Lesson Plan, August 2022

students 2nd week
worksheet,
instructional
materials,
teaching media
(laptop, tv,
speaker, etc.)
3. Implementing the Action Plan Proponent Lesson Plan, August 2022
2nd and 3rd
Participants students
week
worksheet,
instructional
materials, September
2022 1st and
teaching media
2nd week
(laptop, tv,
speaker, etc.)
4. Result Proponent Post-test September
 (post-test) Participants 2022 3rd
week

VI. Cost Estimate

A detailed breakdowns of items with their corresponding cost will be furnished. The

item and cost reasonably reflect the funding needs of the action research and adhere to the

guidelines of BERF guidelines. The overall plan reflects the proponent’s capacity to project

specific expenses.

STRATEGIES PERSONS Resources Time Frame Cost

INVOLVED (Funding/Tim Estimated
e/ People/
Material
1. Conducting the Listening Proponent Pre-Test August 2022
1st week
Comprehension Test to Grade Participants
III pupils (pre-test)

2. Planning the Action Proponent Lesson Plan, August 2022

students 2nd week ₱ 1000.00
worksheet,
instructional
materials,
teaching
media (laptop,
tv, speaker,
etc.)
3. Implementing the Action Plan Proponent Lesson Plan, August 2022
2nd and 3rd
Participants students
week
worksheet, ₱500.00
instructional
materials, September
2022 1st and
teaching
2nd week
media (laptop,
 tv, speaker,
etc.)
4. Result Proponent Post-test September
(post-test) Participants 2022 3rd
week

Total ₱1,500.00

VII. Plans for Dissemination and Utilization

The purpose of this study was to find out student teachers’ perceptions towards

digital short stories’ implementation into language classrooms. Specifically, the present

research aimed to investigate whether digital short stories were useful to develop students’

listening skills in English. The current research was designed in the form of an action

research and one pre-test and post-test design were utilized. The pre-test was administered

before the treatment phase which lasted 8 weeks and then post-test was administered.

Additionally, the study used a written structured interview to collect qualitative data.

Additionally, participants’ listening proficiency levels were supposed to be nearly the same

that was concluded through their listening proficiency tests administered at the beginning

of the quarter.
VIII. References

Adawiyah, A. 2017. The Effectiveness of Popular Songs in Improving Students’

Listening Skill (Bachelor‘s thesis, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta).

Ramirez, D. & Alonso, I. 2007. Using Digital Stories to Improve Listening

Comprehension with Spanish Young Learners of English. Language Learning &
Technology, (Online), Vol. 11 No. 1, p.87–101, (Retrieved:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6389/bc79cde0985930176bc0b4257892ec6
9176a.pdf, Accessed on May 22nd, 2018).

Sandaran, S. C., & Kia, L. C. 2013. The Use of Digital Stories for Listening
Comprehension among Primary Chinese Medium School Pupils: Some
Preliminary Findings. Sains Humanika, 65(2).

Sadik, A. 2008. Digital Storytelling: A Meaningful Technology-Integrated Approach for

Engaged Student Learning. Educational Technology Research Development,
56(4), 487–506. (Online), (Accessed on April 24th, 2018)

Vandergrift, L. (2004). Listening to learn or learning to listen? In Cambridge

University
Press (Ed.). Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 3-25. Cambridge University
Press, USA.

Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent development in second language listening

comprehensionresearch. In Graeme Porte (Ed.). Language Teaching Surveys
and Studies, (pp. 210-291). Canada:Cambridge University.