Voices beyond the screen: Charting language learning with digital storytelling

Although digital storytelling (DST) has been a potent pedagogical approach in language learning, robust statistical evidence of its effect has yet to be determined. As such, in an attempt to assess the influence of DST on language learning and explore factors modulating its effectiveness, the current study conducted a thorough meta-analysis to address the research gap. The current meta-analysis consisted of 34 experimental studies published between 2006 and 2023 with 3,208 participants and 45 independent effect sizes. The results of the Bayesian meta-analysis showed a moderate-to-large effect size of 0.74 that confirmed the facilitative effect of DST in language learning. Furthermore, the results of moderator analyses revealed that multimodality, learning activities, intervention duration, and assessment format significantly modulate the effectiveness of DST on language achievement. The research findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are also provided.