Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.70856/p.2.2.8
Integrating Socially Conscious Digital Narratives into a Japanese University English for Academic Purposes Course
Sean H. Toland
orcid.org/0009-0001-2023-4299
; The International University of Kagoshima, 8-chome-34-1 Sakanoue, Kagoshima, Japan, 891-0197.
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Digital storytelling (DST) is an effective pedagogical approach that integrates foundational language skills (i.e., reading, writing, speaking, listening) with emerging visual and technology-based literacies. Numerous studies have shown that higher education students can gain significant benefits from creating digital narratives in communicative English courses. However, DST remains an underutilized instructional strategy and a relatively under-researched area within the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) field. This qualitative study explores the value of incorporating a socially conscious multimodal video project into a first-year EAP course at a Japanese university. The researcher employed pre- and post-project questionnaires, focus group interviews, and a video analysis rubric to evaluate the effectiveness of a project-based learning DST approach in fostering the participants’ (n=64) critical engagement with local and global sociocultural issues in an EAP context. An established and empirically validated model of critical thinking attributes served as the framework that guided the study and informed the data analysis. The results suggest that socially conscious digital narratives cultivated the students’ awareness of local and global sociocultural issues and positively influenced each of the three domains (i.e., skills, knowledge, disposition) in this theoretical model. Although most participants found higher-order thinking activities challenging, they still perceived them as an engaging and beneficial way to study academic English. This paper also presents an original and practical framework that educators can use to implement a socially conscious DST initiative in an EAP setting.
Keywords
critical thinking; digital storytelling; English for academic purposes; Japanese higher education; socially conscious education
Hrčak ID:
343608
URI
Publication date:
22.1.2026.
Visits: 319 *