Animation Movies as Multimodal Input for Improving EFL Students’ Narrative Writing Skills

Abstract

Background. Narrative writing remains a challenging skill for many EFL students because it requires the ability to generate ideas, organize story events, select appropriate vocabulary, apply grammatical structures, and construct coherent texts. In vocational secondary school contexts, students often experience difficulty transforming ideas into well-structured English narratives due to limited vocabulary, weak sentence construction, and low writing motivation. Animation movies offer multimodal input through visual, auditory, and narrative elements that may support students in understanding story structure and developing written texts.

Purpose. This study aimed to improve eleventh-grade students’ narrative writing skills through the integration of animation movies as multimodal input in an EFL writing classroom.

Methods. The study employed classroom action research based on Kurt Lewin’s model, consisting of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The participants were 21 students of class XI TKJ at SMKN 05 Enrekang, Indonesia. Data were collected through writing tests, classroom observations, questionnaires, and teacher interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using mean scores and mastery percentages, while qualitative data were interpreted descriptively to examine students’ engagement and classroom responses.

Results. The findings showed a gradual improvement in students’ narrative writing performance across the research cycles. The mean score increased from 66.19 in the pre-test to 72.57 in post-test 1 and 77.90 in post-test 2. The percentage of students who achieved the Minimum Mastery Criterion also increased from 28.57% in the pre-test to 47.61% in post-test 1 and 76.19% in post-test 2. Qualitative findings indicated that animation movies helped students generate ideas, identify characters, organize story sequences, understand conflicts and resolutions, and participate more actively in writing activities.

Conclusion. Animation movies can serve as effective multimodal input for enhancing EFL students’ narrative writing skills. Their effectiveness is stronger when supported by teacher scaffolding, vocabulary guidance, story mapping, and structured writing activities.