Digital storytelling in preschool education: Enhancing early reading skills and conceptual understanding through multimodal narrative pedagogy
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Digital storytelling has emerged as a promising multimodal pedagogical approach in early childhood education; however, empirical evidence on its integrated impact on early reading skills and conceptual understanding remains limited, particularly within Malaysian preschool contexts. Grounded in multimodal learning theory, sociocultural theory, and narrative cognition, this study examines the effects of structured digital storytelling aligned with the National Preschool Standard Curriculum or Kurikulum Standard Prasekolah Kebangsaan (KSPK) on children’s literacy and thematic comprehension. Methodology: A quasi-experimental mixed-methods design was employed involving 60 preschool children aged 5–6 years with parental consent across two Malaysian preschools and four of their teachers (i.e., two teachers from each of the preschools) with individual consent and institutional permission. The intervention group engaged in teacher-guided digital storytelling over eight weeks, while the comparison group received traditional print-based storytelling. Quantitative data were analysed using ANCOVA, complemented by qualitative observations and teacher interviews. Findings: The findings from quantitative analysis have revealed that children in the digital storytelling group demonstrated significantly higher gains in phonological awareness, vocabulary acquisition, narrative sequencing, and conceptual understanding of environmental and social themes. Findings from qualitative analysis have provided further evidence of enhanced engagement, multimodal meaning-making and collaborative interpretation. Contributions: This paper proposes the Multimodal Narrative Learning Model for Preschool (MNLM-P) to explain how multimodal representation, narrative engagement, and interactive scaffolding mediate learning outcomes. This study has contributed to theory by integrating literacy and conceptual learning within a unified framework and provides context-specific evidence supporting digital storytelling as an effective pedagogy for reading in early childhood education in Malaysia. Keywords: Digital storytelling, preschool education, early reading development, conceptual understanding, multimodal learning. Cite as: Zainudin, Z., Jamil, N. K., Wan Nik, W. S., Mohammad Khaidzir, A. S., & Mohd Ali, Z. (2026). Digital storytelling in preschool education: Enhancing early reading skills and conceptual understanding through multimodal narrative pedagogy. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 11(2), 360-379. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol11iss2pp360-379