THE IMPACT OF STORYTELLING ON DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND CREATIVITY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS STUDYING ENGLISH (ESL)

Abstract

The study is dedicated to how the use of English-language sites used to implement storytelling helps to develop communicative and creative skills of university students of non-language specialties in learning English as a foreign language. The paper analyzes three major English-language sites dedicated to the creation and dissemination of stories, Kialo Edu, Tell a Story, and Storium, and examined different types of storytelling depending on the communicative and narrative aspects implemented in them. Critical discourse analysis, content analysis and critical narrative analysis were applied as research methods. The results of the study show that a variety of sites and types of storytelling require different levels of creativity utilization from students. At the same time, it has been proven that working with storytelling and its designated platforms contributes to the enhanced development of students’ communication and creativity. The paper concludes that depending on the Internet platform used and the task set, different levels of creativity will be required from the student. At the same time, the analysis of the research material shows that working with storytelling will contribute to the enhanced development of both creativity and communicativeness in all topics and types.