Storytelling Through Visual Aids and Literal Reading Comprehension in Early Adolescence: A Human Development and Life-Course Perspective
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Abstract
Literal reading comprehension is a foundational competence for adolescents’ continued learning, yet English-as-a-foreign-language learners may struggle when vocabulary demands and unfamiliar text structures exceed available processing support. This study examined changes in literal reading comprehension after a storytelling-with-visual-aids intervention among 29 ninth-grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Sungguminasa, Indonesia. A pre-experimental one-group pre-test–post-test design was implemented across four instructional sessions combining narrated stories, pictures, vocabulary explanation, guided questions, rereading, and recall. Reading-test scores were analyzed descriptively, with a paired-samples t test and normalized gain. Mean scores increased from 67.13 (SD = 4.96) to 91.62 (SD = 5.54), a 24.48-point gain, 95% CI [21.61, 27.35], t(28) = 17.456, p < .001; the within-group standardized change was dz = 3.24 and normalized gain was 0.74. The proportion of students in the very-good category rose from 0% to 96.55%. These findings indicate a substantial short-term within-group improvement following the intervention. From human-development and life-course perspectives, narrative-visual scaffolding may strengthen a proximal literacy resource during adolescence; however, the absence of a control group and delayed follow-up precludes causal or long-term developmental conclusions.
IMPACT STATEMENT
Adolescence is a period in which classroom experiences can support competencies that accumulate across later educational transitions. Four sessions combining storytelling, pictures, vocabulary support, and guided reading were followed by large short-term gains in literal reading comprehension among Indonesian ninth-graders with low initial performance. The evidence supports developmentally responsive, low-cost multimodal literacy instruction while also showing the need for controlled and longitudinal studies before claims are made about enduring life-course effects.
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