Speaking skills enhancement through digital storytelling among primary school students in Malaysia

Abstract

Speaking skills can be considered a key measure of success in learning a language. Learning Tamil, as an elective language in Malaysian National Primary schools, is extremely difficult for beginners compared to students in National Type Tamil Primary Schools in Malaysia. The aim of the research is to apply digital storytelling as a pedagogical approach in speaking classes in national primary schools with a view to promote Tamil speaking abilities of children. A collaborative quasi-experimental action research design was adopted to measure the efficacy of digital storytelling in enhancing students' Tamil speaking skills. Action research was conducted with thirteen 2nd standard students aged between 7 and 8 years old, in a national primary school, in Pasir Gudang district, Johor, on a pilot project. The Tamil digital storytelling modules were developed in a mobile application with pre-and post-test survey tools and the respective class teachers were trained on the module to work with children in a regular classroom setting. The results showed that significant improvements were observed in students' comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency elements of the speaking skills after their participation in the digital storytelling sessions. As a result, the study suggests that digital storytelling may be an effective pedagogical approach to enhance students' speaking abilities in the classroom and beyond to improve the students' mother-tongue as second-language learning in schools.