DIGITAL LIFE STORIES IN YEAR FOUR OF PRIMARY SCHOOL - Piroska DEMÉNY

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aditya

In Romania, mother tongue curriculum for grade three and four defines spoken and written text production as a general educational requirement and competence. This experimental study investigates how digital storytelling influences children’s text production skills. The intervention aims to strengthen self-expression, creativity, and digital competencies while improving composition abilities: staying on the topic, connecting title and content, spelling, text presentation, and meeting target length.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical background

2.1. Digital storytelling

DIGITAL LIFE STORIES IN YEAR FOUR OF PRIMARY SCHOOL Piroska DEMÉNY Abstract: In Romania, the curriculum for mother tongue education for grade three and four of primary school defines spoken and written text production in various communication situations asa general educational requirement and competence. (see the curriculum for competence-based teaching of the mother tongue approved by Ministerial Decree No. 5003 of 4 December 2014. Hungarian Language and Literature, grade three and four) . This experimental study examines the impact of digital storytelling on children’s text production skills. Our aim was to design an interventionprogramme that develops primary school children’s selfexpression, text production skills, creativity but also their digital competencies. The goal is to use digital storytelling to develop children’s composition skills, including staying on the subject, creating the connection between title and content, spelling, text appearance, and reaching the desired length. In order to achieve our objective, we devised experiments involving two cohorts of children in year four of primary school who were given stories selected from Angi Máté’s book Volt egyszeregy…(Once upon a time there was a…). Using these stories as a starting point, the members of the both groups created their own stories, the experimental group applying digital storytelling, while the control group applied the technique of collage. Key words: digital storytelling, communication competence, text production skill, life stories, creativity 1. Introduction Reception class builds on the spoken text production skills developed in nursery school, while in the first and second grade of primary school sentence building is used together with various text processing techniques in order to lay the groundwork for subsequent text production skills. It is these continuously developing text comprehension and production skills that ensure the ability of children to understand, analyse, and critically process texts created for various purposes, in different environments and by distinct methods and to produce texts adapted to the communication situation and to the audience as well. Written text production enhances communication competencies and cognitive skills because – whether we are talking to someone, holding a speech or writing a letter – we spend our whole lives producing texts. This is why communication culture and text comprehension and production competencies specifically should be stressed as early as in primary school as prerequisites of future successful learning. It is vital that the creativity and the text production competence of primary school children be developed in an enjoyable, adventuresome and interactive manner. This includes the development of digital competence and of empathy through life stories. Samu (2004) postulates that the best results are achieved by using text types with a personal tone and draws attention to the fact that writing exercises play an essential role in personality development. It is our hope that the stories written by Angi Máté will create a cosy and intimate atmosphere that will provide the framework for beautiful life stories. 2. Theoretical background 2.1. Digital storytelling Storytelling is a tradition and a way to share knowledge and memories. It is a form of expression by spoken word that bears equal significance both to the storyteller and their audience, conveying the story of a person, a family or a community to various groups, cultures and age groups. Digital storytelling combines narrative with digital media (Robin, 2008), successfully bridging the gap between the ancient tradition of spoken word storytelling and multimedia technology. Together with open teaching, digital storytelling efficiently connects digital and online learning environments and reaps the benefits of the learning environment offered by contact teaching (LévaiPap, 2015) . This technique was first introduce

FAQs

What does the study aim to improve in primary school students?

The intervention is designed to develop self-expression, text production skills, creativity, and digital competencies, alongside composition skills such as topic control, linking the title to the content, spelling, text appearance, and appropriate length.

How were the students organized for the experiment?

Two cohorts of children in year four were used. The experimental group applied digital storytelling, while the control group applied collage techniques.

Which concept does the theoretical background focus on?

Section 2.1 introduces digital storytelling, explaining it as a way to combine narrative with digital media and as a teaching and learning strategy that supports participation and learning.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Aditya