The Impact of Personal Storytelling on Motivation and Language Acquisition in University ESL Learners

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of personal storytelling techniques on the motivation, engagement, and language development of university-level English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. Grounded in theories of narrative psychology, the affective filter hypothesis, and conceptual metaphor, this mixed-methods study involved 51 intermediate-level (CEFR B1) students and 7 instructors at Akaki Tsereteli State University; 47 of the 51 students completed both the pre- and post-intervention measures. The intervention consisted of a structured 8-week program of personal storytelling activities. Quantitative data from a 9-item pre- and post-intervention survey and qualitative data from semi-structured teacher interviews were analyzed to assess the technique's effectiveness. Results indicate a statistically significant increase across all nine survey items, corresponding to four underlying constructs: motivation, confidence, participation, and perceived vocabulary learning. While grammar improvement was not a primary focus, students reported greater confidence in applying grammatical structures. Thematic analysis of teacher interviews revealed strong support for the method, citing enhanced student participation and the emergence of metaphorical competence, though variations in adoption were noted based on student personality and confidence. As the study did not include a control group, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary evidence that personal storytelling is a promising, theoretically grounded approach for creating meaningful contexts for second language acquisition (SLA), and future controlled research is needed to confirm these effects.