Computer-aided storytelling: effects on emergent literacy of preschool-aged children in an EFL context

This thesis presents the results of a study involving very young learners of English
as a foreign language in Spain. In Phase I of the study, the feasibility of developing a
series of guidelines that could be used to develop English lessons based on ICT-stories
and communicative tasks was investigated. In Phase II, the lessons derived from the use
of the guidelines were implemented with the purpose of exploring the development of
story-related emergent literacy skills of a group of 3- and 4 year-old children receiving
daily English lessons.
The study has extended previous research studies regarding emergent literacy development
in first and second language contexts by studying a foreign .language context.
The children were asked to retell stories viewed and the transcribed retellings were analysed
under the Narrative Scoring Scheme. The children participants showed signs of
developmental changes throughout the duration of the course. However, there were
marked individual differences in these changes. Further investigation is suggested to
study the reasons that might provide insight into why the children developed understanding
of story structure in such high variations.
Results showed that the ICT-stories motivated the children and as a consequence,
their level of participation in the lesson improved. Additionally, teachers found the
use of ICT as a positive strategy to enhance young children's learning environment,
but they said that implementing ICT-based projects in the young learner classroom
necessarily raises issues of school's provision for training and technical support as well
as considerations of teacher:child ratios. From the children's perspective, an evaluation
of the lesson tasks via a survey showed positive reactions to the inclusion of ICT in the
English lesson.
Findings of the study show how the young learner English curriculum could consider
children's development of emergent literacy skills as a result of learning English via ICT enhanced
stories. They also show how ICT integrated in the foreign language curriculum
can motivate young children and provide meaning to the activity of learning English at
a time when their mother tongue is still developing.
The study also yielded unexpected results related to how young children address a
task in which a story has to be organised in sequence. These results present interesting
research opportunities that could be explored further in the light of theories of cognitive
development.