In the practice of teaching foreign languages, the use of information technology has been used for quite a long time. The use of multimedia allows you to significantly expand the range of possibilities for language training. In the teacher’s arsenal, methods have appeared that allow the use of information and communication technologies not only to perform a certain set of tasks in a particular electronic environment, but also to enable foreign language communication, the ability and willingness of students to carry out foreign language communication and achieve mutual understanding with native speakers of a foreign language. Communication skills are becoming increasingly important – modeling a situation, gaining experience in conducting a dialogue or discussion, and introducing creativity. Nowadays, the once well-forgotten, but long-proven method of “storytelling” has begun to be actively introduced into various fields of activity (business, advertising, education); now this concept is called “storytelling”: story – myth, history and telling – ritual, performance). Digital storytelling or DS (digital storytelling) – learning through creating your own story not on paper, but with the help of computer programs (video, audio, special effects) – this is a combination of storytelling with the display of digital images, text, recorded speech, video and music to convey more comprehensive information on the topic. Digital stories allow students to take a linear series of events and turn them into a complex experience. This encourages them to communicate, collaborate and explore, and to use media in the process. [1, p. 359]
Digital storytelling is attracting the attention of educators as a combined educational tool that combines visual, figurative, musical and verbal components. In addition, DS promotes the development of both speech skills and universal learning skills:
- think creatively and critically,
- set educational tasks and solve them,
- work with information using digital technologies (not only find, but also create your own content),
- be attentive to details,
- learn from what you read,
- choose and use scales wisely,
- navigate and work with tech,
- create design work, etc.
In addition to the fact that DS allows you to successfully solve educational, educational and developmental tasks, this technology is a very attractive form of work for modern students who were born in the age of high technology and enjoy using them in their studies and everyday life.
There are many approaches to creating digital stories, depending on the purpose and age of the students. But the main 6 elements of DS are defined as fundamental by most educators and researchers in the field [2, p. 808]:
1. the story is always told in the first person in the voice of the storyteller,
2. the story reveals personal meaning and understanding of what is being said,
3. the story contains intrigue, which is indicated at the beginning of the story and revealed at the end,
4. history involves the economical use of time and visual means, their careful selection, which gives completeness to the story,
5. part of the story is told verbally, and part – emotionally, using visual means,
6. technical special effects are used in doses to enhance the emotional effect.
Today there is a whole movement of like-minded people using digital storytelling in their practice. There is a huge number of educational websites where you can get acquainted with the technology of creating digital storytelling, there are a number of free supporting programs that can be downloaded to your computer, see examples of finished digital products. Let’s give examples of websites for DS, conditionally grouping them by stages of training.
First stage (comic making resources and digital books): Dvolver: www.dfilm.com, Comiqs: http://comiqs.com, MakeBeliefsComix http://makebeliefscomix.com, Pixton: http://pixton.com, Storyboarding: http://nfbkids.ca, ToonDoo: www.toondoo.com, Digital Books, Flickr: www.flickr.com, Lulu: www.lulu.com, Newspaper Clipping Generator: www.fodey.com.
Middle Stage (voice, conversation and project resources): Gcast: www.gcast.com, Read The Words: http://readthewords.com, SIMS On Stage: http://thesimsonstage.ea.com, Soungle : www.soungle.com, Conversation Tools, MeBeam: http://www.mebeam.com, Scribblar: www.scribblar.com, VoiceThread: http://ed.voicethread.com, Oral Practice Tools, Blabberize: http://blabberize.com, Video Tools, Animoto: http://animoto.com, ESL Video: www.eslvideo.com, XtraNormal: www.xtranormal.com, Workshop Resources, Center for Digital Storytelling, Creative Commons, Digital Storytelling for kids, DigiTales, Educational Uses for Digital Storytelling.
Among those teaching digital storytelling, the following algorithm for creating a digital story is suggested.
Step 1. Decide on a story idea.
Step 2: Find the information you need.
Step 3: Make a plan.
Step 4: Plan your storyboard/event map.
Step 5. Select the necessary materials (photos, audio, video).
Step 6. Edit your story.
Step 7: Share the story in your speech.
Step 8: Get feedback and think about what worked best and what you can work on needs some work.
Considering examples of the use of digital storytelling in teaching foreign languages, one can notice that foreign experience is far ahead of domestic experience. It is necessary to understand that when working with digital narratives, the role of the teacher changes, whose main task is to support and guide the development of students’ personalities. Relationships with students are built on the principles of cooperation and joint initiatives.
In conclusion, I would like to note that creating high-quality digital stories when teaching a foreign language is a complex process that requires time and the combined efforts of students and teachers, as well as specialists in the field of information and communication technologies. It should also be noted that the use of digital storytelling in the educational process significantly expands the teacher’s capabilities, providing greater freedom for creative search for new methods of working on an interactive basis, which in turn, helps to improve the quality of language training.
References
- Loginova A.V. Advantages of using the MOODLE distance learning system when teaching foreign languages to technical students. Bulletin of Science of Siberia. 2011. No. 1 p. 358–362.
- Loginova A.V. Digital storytelling as a way of teaching communication in a foreign language. Young scientist. 2015. No. 7 p. 805-809.