Using Diorama-Based Projects to Foster Students’ Narrative Meaning-Making
Keywords:
Collaboration, Diorama, EFL Students, Learning Experience, Narrative Meaning-Making, Project Based LearningAbstract
This qualitative case study explored how a diorama-based project fostered narrative meaning-making among junior high school EFL students. The study was conducted with ninth-grade students at SMP Negeri 6 Garut who had previously experienced difficulties understanding and orally expressing narrative texts. Semi-structured interviews and reflective photovoice were used to collect data from five focal students, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the diorama-based project supported students in collaboratively constructing narrative meaning, developing narrative understanding across sequential project stages, and reconstructing stories more coherently during oral storytelling activities. The sequential project stages also helped students connect abstract narrative concepts with visual and physical representations while improving their confidence during storytelling activities. These findings imply that the employment of Diorama-Based Project learning can create a positive, engaging, multimodal environment that supports narrative comprehension and oral communication in EFL classes.
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