Digital Storytelling or Traditional Storytelling to develop EFL Students’ Oral Communication?

The present study investigated the effect of storytelling versus digital storytelling on developing fifth year EFL primary school pupils’ oral communication performance. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design. Sixty pupils of Dr. Ahmed Zewail primary School were distributed into two experimental groups. One group served as the first experimental group (n=30) who was taught in digital storytelling, whereas the second experimental group (n=30) was taught in traditional storytelling. The experiment lasted for six weeks. The instruments of the study included an oral communication skills test, an oral communication checklist, a semi-structured interview and a reflective log. They were approved by a panel of jury. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group and that of the second one on the post-administration of the oral communication test for the first experimental group. Moreover, results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the responses of the first experimental group and that of the second one on the post-administration of the semi-structured interview favoring the first experimental group. As such, it was concluded that storytelling versus digital storytelling had a positive effect on developing fifth year EFL primary pupils’ oral communication performance.


Introduction
Referring to the Egyptian education system and its relat ion to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning, the status of English in Egyptian schools has changed fro m an optional subject to a compulsory one. Most school children s peak Arabic as their first language, English as second and French or German are their third or foreign language (Haridy, 2012). Elmeshad (2012) states that the ministry of education of Egypt (MOE) started implementing English in schools in the 1860s. Gradually, teaching English language in primary schools as a relatively new global phenomenon started in Egypt in the 1990s. Generally speaking, the link between knowledge of English and success in changing 36 Published by SCHOLINK INC. familiar th ings to children and creates an active interaction amongst pupils. If a topic is difficult to explain to children, we can integrate the topic into a story. ST presents the solution which might help children to visualize the textbooks and understand them better.
In this study, to engage pupils in meaning making -oriented English learning, ST and DST are introduced because this category is rarely taught in Egyptian primary schools, and it is a new strategy suggested to be included in Egyptian English curricula. In the context of primary schools, ST helps to share knowledge, wisdom, morals and cultural values. With this in mind, teachers may be encouraged to include stories in their language classrooms.

Method and Procedures
The current study methodology includes the research design, the participants and sample selection, the research instruments (oral co mmun ication checklist, semi-structured interview, pre-posttest, and the reflection log), the pilot study, and the procedures used for data collection as well as the data analysis.
The study aimed to improve pupils' English OCP via ST/ DST.

Research Design
The present study used the quasi-experimental design to detect the effect of using ST versus DST to develop the English OCP of primary fifth pupils at Dr. Ah med Zewail primary school. Two groups were selected to represent the experimental groups: the first experimental group (n=30 t aught according to DST) and the second experimental group (n=30 taught according to ST). The whole experiment fro m beginning to the end lasted for six weeks. The results of the pre-post tests were analy zed using t-tests for independent samples to investigate if there was any significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups and between the pre-posttest for each group as well.

Participants of the Study
The participants of the study consisted of 60 pupils fro m the fifth year at Dr. Ahmed Z ewaill primary school, New Damietta for the academic school year (2017)(2018). They were divided into two experimental g roups: the first group (n=30) and the second group (n=30). The first experimental group was taught in using the DST to improve their English OCP and the second experimental group was taught in using regular ST to imp rove their English OCP. The following table shows the distribution of the participants.

Variables of the Study
To assure the results' accuracy and avoid any marginal interference, the groups were randomly chosen fro m a purposive sample (150 5th grade pupils) fro m Dr. Ah med Zewaill p rimary school where the researcher works by using the following procedures: • The participants were filtered by drawing out pupils who have a hearing or sight impairment.
• The researcher divided the participants into two groups by choosing the individual numbers for the first experimental g roup and the even numbers for the second experimental group to avoid bias.
• The researcher tried to control some variables before apply ing the study: 1) Age variab le: The researcher recorded the pupils' ages fro m their school files at the beginning o f the school year (2017)(2018) 2) Determin ing the equivalence between the two experimental groups: To make sure that the participants are equivalent in their previous English language achievement, the researcher admin istrated the pre-achievement test. The results of the participants were recorded and statistically analyzed by using T-test. Table 1 Shows the mean and the standard deviation of each group in English previous learning. The results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences between the first experimental group and the second experimental group at (0.05 ) level.

The Instruments and Materials of the Study
1) The Oral Co mmun ication Skills checklist.
3) The semi-structured interview of the fifth-year primary pupils.

4) Reflect ive log 2.4.1 The OCSs Checklist
The Oral Co mmunicat ion Skills Checklist:


The purpose of the checklist: The checklist aimed at determining the most important OCSs to be developed for the fifth year EFL primary school pupils and constructing the oral commun ication pre-posttest.

Sources of the checklist:
In order to construct a checklist of the most appropriate OCSs for the fifth year EFL primary pupils to be the basis of the pre-post oral co mmunication test, the researcher made use of the following sources; To let the jury be confined to a particular standard, the seventeen OCSs were put in three levels of importance. Each level of importance was given an estimated value. The first level (very important ) was assigned 3 marks. The second level (important) was assigned 2 marks. The third level (not important) was assigned one mark.


Checklist Ad min istration: The checklist init ial form was submitted to a TEFL panel of the jury (7 members) to determine the degree of importance and the appropriateness of each skill to the fifth year EFL primary pupils.
Moreover, the panel of the jury was kindly requested to modify, o mit, or add to the OCSs checklist whatever they considered important. The jury reco mmended some mod ifications; 1) Restating the following skill: "listen to identify the words of a story" to "listen to identify the keywords of a story".
2) Omitting some skills 3) Confin ing the research to a fewer nu mber of skills to be mo re manageable and applicable for the final form of the OCSs checklist and for all the modifications  Checklist Validity: In order to obtain the content and the face valid ity of the OCSs checklist, the jury responses were statistically calcu lated. The researcher selected the skills that were agreed upon at least by 80% of the jury members. The ju ry indicated 7 skills to be valid, very important and required for the fifth year EFL primary pupils. Then, two formulas were used to get the percentage and the relative weight of each sub-skill.
After validating the checklist, it was concluded that there were seven English OCSs to be valid, very important and required for the fifth year EFL primary pupils. Consequently, those skills were used as a basis for the pre-post OCSs test.
The selected OCSs were operationally defined as follows: -Listening to identify the keywo rds of a story: pupils try to identify the keywords during listening to the story.
-Listening and repeating sentences in a story: pupils' ability to repeat full sentences cut out of the story.
-Listening and answering some questions in a story: pupils think out of the box reflect their understanding of the story events.
-Listening and rearranging the parts of a story: pupils' ability to predict the init ial and forthcoming parts of a story.
-Describing some p ictures of a story: pupils' ability to form ideas about things they watch.
-Playing a character role in a story: pupils' ability to imitate and impersonate others. The validity of the sub-skills of the test was calculated as follows: The calculation of the coefficient correlat ion between the score of the subtest and the total test. administrated to a randomly drawn group of (20) the fifth year primary pupils at Ahmed Zewail School.
Those pupils were not included in the study groups. The reliability coefficient of the test was 0.74, see Table 3. So, this result proved that the OCSs test was statistically reliable. The test was scored by the researcher; as the questions included in the test with its skills were controlled in scoring. When scoring the question; two marks were given for a 'co mp lete answer' of the skill; one mark was given fo r an 'unco mpleted answer' of the skill and ze ro for 'wrong or missed answer' of the skill. Thus, the total score of the test was 14 marks as each skill was given two marks.

 Test Instructions:
To avoid pupils' misunderstanding, the researcher exp lained the test content and instructions clearly and orally before ad min istering it. The researcher somet imes had to use the Arabic language to explain some instructions for the pupils in order to make sure that they understood what is required for each task.  Sources of the Semi-structured interview: The researcher made use of the stories included in this study, the OCSs, the specifications of the activities assigned to the fifth year EFL primary pupils in the Teachers' Gu ide to determine if there was anything related to OCP skills. He also consulted the EFL primary school teachers, the EFL researchers, and curriculu m designers to construct the items of the Semi Structured Interview.


The Semi-structured interview Description: In order to construct the rubric of the semi-structured interview, the researcher reviewed the general English supervision directives of the Egyptian Ministry of Education and the relevant literature and related studies of the English OCSs. The semi-structured interview consisted of three main categories including fourteen items (Appendix, D). These items are rated for the extent to which "the statement is fulfilled by the pupil" (1="cannot", 2="can hardly", 3="can"). The three main ca tegories are basic skills, content understanding skills and learning strategies skills. The basic skills (oral, written and digital), content understanding skills (core knowledge and personal reflect ion) and learning strategies skills. Those semi-structured interview items were mod ified according to the jury panel and used to measure each of the English OCSs (listening and speaking).


The Semi-structured interview Scoring : To let the jury be confined to a part icular standard, the semi-structured interview was designed in three levels of importance appropriateness. Each item of importance and appropriateness was given an estimated value. The first item (can) was assigned three marks, the second item (can hardly) was assigned 2 marks, and the third item (cannot) was assigned one mark.


The Semi-St ructured Interview Administration: The researcher submitted the initial fo rm of the Semi-Structured interview to a TEFL panel of the jury (7 members) to determine the degree of importance and the appropriateness of each item to the fifth year EFL primary school pupils. Moreover, the panel of the jury was requested to modify, o mit , or add to questionnaire whatever they considered impo rtant and relevant to the v irtual wo rld of literature. The jury reco mmended some mod ifications: 1) Restating some words in the SSI to be convenient to the current study as follows: -Replacing the word 'story' with the phrase 'part of a story' to be more specific.
-Replacing the second and third categories in the orig inal form of the semi-structured interview namely 'content understanding and learning strategies' with a new category proved to be related to the current study after reviewing literature namely 'oral skills. In order to obtain the content and the face valid ity of the Semi-Structured Interview (SSI), the jury's responses were statistically calculated. The researcher selected the response items that were agreed upon at least by 80% of the ju ry members. The jury indicated three categories to be valid, very important and required at the fifth year EFL primary school pupils. Then, t wo formu las were used to get the percentage and the relative weight of each item. According to the Jury's responses, the percentage and the relative weight of each item of responses to the semi -structured interview were assigned and deducted the final form of the semi-structured interview.

Procedure (sessions):
This section covers the main procedure for the study and provides a systematic guide to teachers, administrators or any educationists who wish to emulate this study.

Description
The experiment continued for six weeks for both experimental groups as follo ws: -Concerning the second group (taught in regular storytelling) the teacher told the stories (the Campsite, Around the house, the Amusement Park, Food Festival, etc.) and the pupils then retold parts of the stories individually in simple sentences.
-Concerning the first group (taught in digital storytelling) the teacher presented the stories using mu ltimed ia (co mputer &data show) to show pupils the stories in PowerPo int slides using audio and pictures -To encourage the pupils to co mmun icate orally, the teacher asked them to retell parts of the stories in groups.
- 2) He used mo re creat ive ways of questions like mult iple choice questions and questions that can be answered by inference.
3) The teacher used exercises based on the story such as introduction of new vocabulary in lexical sets, rhyming sets, or grammat ical sets; verbal practice and grammat ical analysis of repeated phrases.
4) The teacher used listening activit ies. After the story, listeners can demonstrate comprehension by: comparing, discriminating, p redicting, sequencing, classifying, transferring informat ion, etc. Unlike other listening activities, stories are often repeated, but never in exact ly the same words.
a) The teacher did oral act ivities. Choral read ing, story fill-in, add-on stories, building a tale fro m key words, etc. b) The teacher used discussion topics which are taken fro m the story 's themes.
c) Students retold their favorite parts of the stories.
8) The teacher asked pupils to rewrite and summarize the story activities.
9) The teacher encouraged pupils to use visual activities. They used posters, models, collages, crafts, masks, puppets, mobiles, photos, picture stories, blackboard drawing, etc.
10) He encouraged them to do creative drama activities. He prepared dialogues from the stories which can be recited or retold.
11) The teacher organized story corner where pupils can read stories of their o wn choice and at their own pace.

The Role of the Teacher
A critical friend was the English teacher for other fifth grade classes who is very experienced in teaching English to that grade level took part in the experimentation procedures t o help the researcher accomplish this work.

Group work
The researcher created six five-member groups in the fifth grade in each experimental group. He asked each group to arrange and retell the story parts to encourage their oral co mmunication. In The Camp site and around the house and Around the House stories, the teacher told the beginning of the story and each group was encouraged to think and expect the end of the story in their o wn words. In the other story the Campsite, he told the beginning and the end of the story and pupils were encouraged to create the middle. So me of the shy pupils told short but vivid endings and middle parts, whereas the more outgoing pupils gave longer and mo re viv id co mponents. The teacher observed pupils throughout the story, both when he was telling the stories and when their peers were telling one, to see their reaction. Pupils' reactions (smiling, laughing, some pupils even writ ing new wo rds down, etc.) suggested that the method was effectively co mmunicative.

Group story outline
In one set (3 groups) using DST and the other set (3 groups) using traditional ST, pupils decided just to have scripts with pictures to act on (picture reading). However, in six groups, story outlines and scripts with some sketches representing the pictures they intended to draw were handed to the teacher at the end of the lesson, for assessment and feedback. Pupils handed in the assessment form, wh ich the teacher went through and gave written comments to mot ivate them.

Assigning Roles
Group members ca me to a settlement after long discussions as to what roles each member should take.
It turned out that the original criteria under which the groups were formed changed in most of the groups. According to pupils, some of the members were better at play ing certain ro les than the original roles assigned in the creation of the group. In some cases, group members thought some other pupils should take certain roles (e.g., acting, drawing, etc.) other than the ones originally assigned.
Pupils later d iscussed their decisions with the teacher, exp lain ing that those pupils were taking certain groups such as singing or translating and were already good in those areas. The teacher allowed them to change roles if they were comfo rtable and better in playing those roles other than the original roles since that would bring out the strongest intelligence in them. Even though pupils sat in groups, they performed different ro les, such as drawing, writing songs, or making musical noises here and there. The researcher sent pupils to the school's sound room for their musical rehearsal. A ll groups communicated their final roles with him for corrections and suggestions before presenting them. Pupils accepted some suggestions and rejected others.
Putting work together (Gallery Walk) Before the final, the teacher checked g roups' roles in the stories. Pupils then made posters on which they pasted their drawn pictures according to the beginning, middle and end of their stories. So me groups decided to also paste copies of their stories on posters so that after they were posted on walls, other pupils fro m other classes could see and read the stories they had presented. Pupils did the final rehearsal of their stories, ready for presentation in the next step.

Presentation of group stories
Pupils came to school more dressed up than usual on the day of their presentation. Pupils' enthusiasm, smiling faces and the way they carried themselves suggested that they were proud of the stories roles and were happy to show what they had learned. The presentation started with group members saying their names, the tit le o f their story. Stories had both narrators and translators in the Arabic language.
One pupil fro m each group narrated the story; other pupils pointed to the pictures with a pointer; others sang or recited poems, and the more outgoing pupils became the translators for the stories. Group At the end of the presentation, pupils were given fifteen minutes to respond to a semi-structured interview generally about how they liked telling and p laying the roles of the stories and the ST method in teaching them.

Results
The first hypothesis: "There is a statistically significant difference (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean score of the first experimental group (taught in digital storytelling) on the pre-post oral communication test, in favor of the post administration".
The following table shows the results reached:  Table 6 shows the following:

a)
Listening skills: As shown in Table 6, there is a clear statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group (taught in digital storytelling) in the test in favor of the post administration of the post test. In addition, T. calculated shows that there is statistical significance which reached (5.32) and it is higher than T. value which reached (1.69) at the significance level of (0.05). Therefore, the first hypothesis is verified as there is statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group in the pre-measurement and the post measurement of listening skills in favor of the post-measurement.

Speaking skills:
There is a clear statistically significant difference between the mean scores o f the first experimental group in the test in favor of the post administering. In addition, T. calculated shows that there is statistical significance which reached (8.44) and it is higher than T. value which reached (1.69) at the significant level of (0.05). Therefore, the first hypothesis is verified as there is statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group in the pre-measurement and the post measurement of speaking skills in favor of the post-measurement.

b)
The oral co mmun ication performance as a whole: There is a clear statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group in the test as a whole in favor of the post admin istering. In addition, T. calculated shows that There is statistical significance wh ich reached (8.32) and it is higher than T. value which reached (1.69) at the significant level o f (0.05). Therefore, the first hypothesis is verified as there is statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group in the pre-measurement and the post measurement of the test in favor of the post -measurement. This means that pupils' communicat ion performance, in general, has developed due to the experimentation. A lso, it can be said that the digital storytelling has a great effect on developing pupil's skills with a doubt degree at the level of (0.05). Table (6) and figure (1) shows that the digital storytelling had a positive effect on developing the overall o ral communication skills of the EFL fifth year primary pupils. Therefore, this provides enough evidence to support hypothesis one. According to the referential framework of the effect size, it is apparent that digital storytelling has a large effect size.
The second hypothesis states that "There is a statistically significant difference (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean score of the second experimental group (taught in traditional storytelling) on the pre -post oral communicat ion test, in favor of the latter".
The following table shows the results reached: There is a clear statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the second experimental group in the test in favor of the post administering. In addition, calcu lated T. value shows that there is statistical significance which reached (4.97) and it is higher than T. value which reached (1.69) at the significant level of (0.05), Therefore, the second hypothesis is verified as there is a statistically c) Oral co mmunicat ion Skills as a whole: There is a clear statistically s ignificant difference between the mean scores of the second experimental group in the test as a whole in favor of the post admin istering. In addition, T. calculated shows that There is statistical significance wh ich reached (7.73) and it is higher than T. value which reached (1.69) at the significant level of (0.05). Therefore, the second hypothesis is verified as there is statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the second experimental group in the pre-measurement and the post measurement of the test in favor of the post-measurement. Th is means that pupils' co mmunication skills, in general, has developed due to the experimentation. Also, it can be said that storytelling has a great effect on developing pupils' oral co mmunicat ion perfo rmance with a doubt degree at the level of (0.05). provides enough evidence to support hypothesis one. According to the referential framework of the effect size, it is apparent that traditional storytelling has a large effect size.
The third hypothesis states that "There is a statistically significant difference (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean score of the first experimental group (taught in dig ital storytelling) and that of the second experimental group (taught in traditional storytelling) in the post -test of oral commun ication.
The following table shows the results reached:   Table 8 clarifies that the pupils ' mean score in the first group of the listening skills as a whole is (14.40), whereas the pupils' mean scores in the second experimental group of the listening skills as a whole are (13.16). So, the pupils' mean score in the first experimental group was higher than their mean score in the second experimental group. The above table also clarifies that the calculated t value, wh ich reached (1.33), which indicates that there is no significant statistical d ifference between the pupils' mean scores in the first and second experimental group of the listening skills as a whole. It was compared with the value of t table in order to know the significance level. It was found to be (2.00) at the level of (0.05).
b) Speaking Skills: Table 8 clarifies that the pupils ' mean score in the first group of the speaking skills as a whole is (14.53) whereas the pupils' mean scores in the second experimental group of the speaking skills as a whole are (12.43). So, the pupils' mean score in the first experimental group was higher than their mean score in the second experimental group. The above table also clarifies that the calculated t value, wh ich reached (3.01), which indicates a significant statistical d ifference between the pupils ' mean scores in the first and second experimental group of the speaking skills as a whole. It was compared with the value of t www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/ct Children and Teenagers Vol. 3, No. 1, 2020 49 Published by SCHOLINK INC. table in order to know the significance level. It was found to be (2.00) at the level of (0.05).

c)
Oral co mmunicat ion skills as a whole: Table 8 clarifies that the pupils ' mean score in the first group of the oral co mmunications as a whole is (28.93), whereas the pupils' mean scores in the second experimental group of the oral communication as a whole are (25.60). So, the pupils ' mean score in the first experimental group was h igher than their mean score in the second experimental group. The above table also clarifies that the calcu lated t value, which reached (2.50), which indicates a significant statistical difference between the pup ils' mean scores in the first and second experimental group of the oral co mmunications skills as a whole. It was compared with the value of t table in order to know the significance level. It was found to be (2.00) at the level of (0.05).

The Semi-Structured Interview statistics
The following table shows the results reached: Average Table 9 clarifies that the pupils ' mean score in the first group of the Semi-St ructured Interview as a whole is (18.76), whereas the pupils ' mean scores in the second experimental group of the speaking skills as a whole are (17.50). So, the pupils' mean score in the first experimental group was higher than their mean score in the second experimental group. The above table also clarifies that the calculated t value, which reached (2.62), which indicates a significant statistical differen ce between the pupils' mean scores in the first and second experimental group of the Semi -St ructured Interview as a whole. It was compared with the value of t table in order to know the significance level. It was found to be (2.00) at the level of (0.05).

Discussion
The results of the present study, the post-test results and the semi-structured interview results, proved that storytelling (tradit ional and digital) had a positive effect on developing the English oral communicat ion performance. Therefore , the significant difference wh ich was found on the post administration may be due to exposing such sample to the reflective learn ing using storytelling. This  Main findings can be summarized as follows: 1) There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group (taught in digital storytelling) on the pre-post-admin istration of the oral co mmunication test, in favor of the latter.
2) There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the Second experimental group (taught in storytelling) on the pre-post administrations of the oral co mmun ication test, in favor of the post-test results.
3) There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the first experimental group (taught in digital storytelling) and that of the second experimental group (taught in storytelling) on the post-admin istration of the oral co mmun ication test, in favor of the first experimental group.
4) There were also highly significant differences between the first experimental pupils' scores and the second experimental pupils' scores on the post measurement of the semi-structured interview in favor of the first experimental group (taught in digital storytelling) 5) Storytelling/digital storytelling has an effect on developing EFL oral co mmun ication performance among fifth year EFL primary pupils.

Reflective Log
What have been achieved: The current study emphasized the effect of digital storytelling on d eveloping the oral co mmun ication skills especially listening and speaking. And this supported the previous researches results of: Richard (2006)

Conclusions
This chapter presented the findings, discussions of results. Accordingly, the main question which stated "What is the effect of storytelling vs digital storytelling on developing the primary school pupils ' EFL oral co mmunicat ion performance?" was answered as it was approved that there is a highly significant difference between the mean scores of the pre and post admin istration of the two experimental groups test in favor of the post one. In addition, it was proved that the first experimental g roup's performance was higher than that of the second experimental group. Su mmary, reco mmendations derived fro m these findings and suggestions for further research.