THIRATCHAPON KAMSA-ARD (UDON THANI RAJABHAR UNIVERSITY)

AN INVESTIGATION OF SPEAKING ANXIETY ON SPEAKING SKILL BY USING THE EFFECT OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING : DIGITAL LITERACIES/LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

This study investigated the effect of digital storytelling and F2F storytelling on speaking skill development and identified their speaking anxiety. The participants were 64 first-year non-English major students at Udon Thani Rajabhat University. The instruments consisted of speaking tasks and a questionnaire about the students’ levels of anxiety. The instruments were developed by taking into account both validity and reliability. There were 3 raters to examine the speaking skills. The findings were as follows. Firstly, the speaking scores for grammatical errors were significantly lower than F2F storytelling (F2F= 15%; Digital = 30%), pronunciation scores in the digital story telling were significantly higher than F2F storytelling (F2F= 85%; Digital = 70%), vocabulary scores in the digital story telling were significantly higher than F2F storytelling (Digital= 90%; F2F= 85%), comprehension scores in the digital story telling were significantly higher than F2F storytelling (Digital= 90%; F2F= 85%), and speaking fluency scores in the digital story telling were significantly higher than F2F storytelling (Digital= 90%; F2F= 65%). Secondly, the student’s anxiety levels significantly lowered from F2F storytelling (X-bar = 3.35) to (X-bar=2.09) in the digital storytelling. This means that the digital storytelling could reduce speaking anxiety. In Addition, excitement may cause of reducing speaking performance and increasing grammatical errors.

Dr. Thiratchapon works at Udon Thani Rajabhat University. He is responsible for Business English (international program), Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and the department of curriculum and instruction. He does research in speaking skill, task-based learning, blended learning, pronunciation, and second language acquisition.