Educational potential of digital storytelling in teaching English

Abstract

Nowadays, digital storytelling is becoming popular in business, advertising, and education. This innovative educational technology is considered to have promising perspectives in teaching a new generation of students who are surrounded by a digital environment in everyday life. The article deals with a number of issues that reveal the possibilities and prospects of introducing digital storytelling into the modern educational process. Definitions of storytelling, educational storytelling and digital educational storytelling are presented, their characteristic features are revealed. The main types of digital educational storytelling are defined as follows: visual storytelling, audio storytelling, transmedia storytelling, analytical storytelling, data storytelling, immersive storytelling. The possibilities of digital educational storytelling as an educational technology are given. They are: the capabilities of both a teacher and a student through the use of services for the development of interactive educational content, data visualization, the implementation of didactic games, the development of animated storytelling, the recording of audio storytelling, the creation of video storytelling. The expected feedback is also considered. Examples of digital storytelling technology in English language teaching are given, such as: modern resources of teaching English based on storytelling principles; the purposes and tasks of the International Digital Storytelling Competition "Life stories to heal and inspire from those who teach and learn English", announced in 2023 by a number of educational institutions of Ukraine, Moldova and Hungary. Digital stories encourage and motivate students to communicate, develop critical thinking and soft skills, help to create their own projects and explore the most effective way to present them.

Key words: storytelling; digital storytelling; educational storytelling; types of digital educational storytelling; teaching English.