The Efficacy of Digital Storytelling in Maintaining Heritage Language Nuance Among Third Generation Immigrant Learners

Abstract

Heritage language maintenance becomes a major educational issue among third-generation immigrants since insufficient intergenerational communication may not only negatively affect vocabulary and grammar but also idiom usage, pronunciation, cultural meaning, storytelling patterns, and emotional expressiveness. This paper explores the efficiency of using digital storytelling to maintain heritage language nuance among Uzbek heritage language learners. The research involved a comparative experiment. Eighty learners participated in the research and were divided into two groups: an experimental group where learners used the digital storytelling technique and a control group with conventional heritage language learning techniques. The duration of the experiment was eight weeks. The digital storytelling approach comprised choosing a story theme, creating a script, voice recording, incorporating images and video, peer exchange, instructor evaluation, and iterative feedback and revision. The findings suggest that the experimental group demonstrated greater improvements in all learning aspects under consideration. Heritage language nuance retention was raised from 52.4 to 81.6 in the experimental group, as compared to 51.8 to 63.7 in the control group. Idiomatic expression was enhanced from 46.7 to 78.5; cultural meaning awareness was raised from 49.3 to 83.7; learner engagement was raised from 54.1 to 86.2; and speaking confidence was raised from 48.9 to 79.8. The statistical analysis showed considerable improvements with p-values being lower than 0.001 for each important indicator. The most significant progress was achieved in cultural meaning awareness, idiomatic expressions usage, engagement level, and oral communication skills. Hence, one may assume that digital storytelling contributes to heritage language teaching by using multiple forms of expression, constant oral training, emotional involvement, and culturally rich discourse. Consequently, digital storytelling is an efficient ICT-based method of heritage language preservation among third-generation immigrants.