Digital Stories for Enhancing Palestinian Refugee School Children’s English Reading Micro-skills: Action Research Study

Abstract

This action-research-based study aims to investigate the effect of digital stories on students' English micro-skills of reading by designing a series of seven digitized stories based on the seven themes covered in English for Palestine, fourth grade. A digital story is a newly recognized technique in teaching that is believed to improve students’ learning and make it more real and meaningful. It is a technological facility that allows storytellers to accompany their scratch stories with different sorts of multimedia such as video clips, recorded audio, computer generated text and music so that they can be played on learners’ computers and mobiles. The specific objectives of this research are to identify students’ English micro-skills of reading, to illustrate how reading micro-skills-based digital stories can be designed, to illustrate how these stories can be used as a medium to develop English micro-skills of reading and to evaluate the outcome of this technique on these skills. This research study adopted a descriptive analytical approach using a mixed-methods design. The study employed two primary data collection instruments: pre/posttests and reading assessment sessions, and three secondary ones: field notes, comprehension worksheets, and parental reports. The sample consisted of 84 children from UNRWA Biet Lahia Elementary School in North Gaza. The researcher examined the effect of digital stories on students’ English reading micro-skills in the experimental group while maintaining the traditional teaching techniques with the control one. The findings revealed that digital stories can largely enhance students' English micro-skills of English. Additionally, it promotes students' motivation, critical thinking skills, self-confidence and enthusiasm. The researcher recommended further studies in this area with adequate preparation and planning during the whole process of action research.