The Use of Digital Storytelling for English Learning: Advantages, Problems, and Solutions

Digital storytelling has recently been a buzz term across many different fields including movies, games, advertisements, design, and education. Though digital storytelling can be deemed an effective tool to develop ecological communicative competence and multiliteracies as well as English learning in this digital era, few studies have been done in the Korean EFL context. This study aims at informing English teachers, researchers, and those who look for an innovative teaching method of how to employ digital storytelling as an alternative way to teach English. To this end, the purpose of this study is threefold. First, it defines what digital storytelling is and examines the process of its creation and the elements that compose digital storytelling. Second, it looks at how digital storytelling can be exploited for English learning in Korea by reviewing the domestic and overseas studies. Third, based on the review of existing studies, it looks into advantages, potential challenges that digital storytelling involves when it is used in English teaching and learning and suggests some solutions.