Peer-reviewed article
Interactive Low-Cost Teacher-Guided Mobile-Based Storytelling and Children’s Vocabulary Retention in ECCE Centres in Calabar Educational Zone
Emilia Etim Okon ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study tested whether teacher-guided storytelling on mobile devices helps young children in early childhood care and education centres learn and remember words. It took place in the Calabar Educational Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Children taught with the mobile storytelling method scored higher on vocabulary tests than children taught with traditional storytelling, including in a test four weeks later. Teachers also held positive views about using mobile storytelling and felt ready to use it. The authors recommend adding mobile-based stories to the early childhood curriculum.
Key points
- Pre-test vocabulary scores were similar in the experimental group (M=12.84) and the control group (M=12.67).
- Post-test scores were higher in the mobile storytelling group (M=24.81) than in the traditional storytelling group (M=17.94).
- At the four-week delayed post-test, the experimental group scored 23.73 and the control group 15.86.
- ANCOVA showed a significant treatment effect on vocabulary retention (F=104.95, p<0.001, partial η²=.275).
- Teachers showed positive perception and readiness towards mobile storytelling (grand mean=3.70).
Limitations
The groups were not randomly assigned (non-equivalent control group), and the abstract does not say how long the intervention lasted or whether effects last beyond four weeks. Results from one educational zone in Nigeria may not apply elsewhere.
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of a teacher-guided interactive mobile-based storytelling method on vocabulary retention of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) learners within the Calabar Educational Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design was adopted for the research. The population comprises 17,795 individuals, consisting of 1,756 caregivers and teachers as well as 16,038 preschool children in 439 ECCE/Creche centres in the Calabar Educational Zone of Cross River State. Multistage sampling technique was adopted to obtain a sample of 391 participants consisting of 111 caregivers and teachers and 280 preschoolers selected from 49 ECCE/Creche centres in the same educational zone. Three instruments; Vocabulary Retention Test (VRT), Teacher Perception and Readiness Questionnaire (TPRQ), and Classroom Observation Checklist (COC) were used for the collection of data. The three instruments were validated by experts in relevant fields while an overall reliability index of 0.81 was obtained using the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) as well as inferential statistics, namely Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and independent samples t-test, and all tests were conducted at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that there was no significant difference in the pre-test performance (Baseline) vocabulary level of learners of both the experimental (M=12.84, SD=2.31) and control groups (M=12.67, SD=2.28). However, the performance in terms of the post-test level indicated that learners exposed to teacher guided mobile-based storytelling method showed statistically higher vocabulary retention (M=24.81, SD=2.62) compared to learners taught using the traditional storytelling method (M=17.94, SD=2.83). The result also shows that at four-week delayed post-test, the experimental group maintained a higher score (Mean=23.73, SD=2.48) than the control group (Mean =15.86, SD=2.91) in the retention vocabulary test. ANCOVA performed revealed a significant influence of the treatment on the vocabulary retention of the learners (F=104.95, p<0.001, Partial η²=.275), and the teachers showed a positive perception and readiness (Grand Mean=3.70) towards integrating mobile storytelling in teaching vocabulary. The study concluded that the teacher guided interactive mobile-based storytelling is an effective instructional method for improving learners’ vocabulary acquisition and retention. Therefore, this study recommends that mobile based stories could be integrated into the ECCE curriculum to improve learner’s vocabulary.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Teacher-guided interactive mobile-based storytelling used to teach vocabulary, compared with traditional storytelling
- Population
- 280 preschool children and 111 caregivers and teachers from 49 ECCE/Creche centres in the Calabar Educational Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria
Key finding
Post-test vocabulary: experimental M=24.81 (SD=2.62) versus control M=17.94 (SD=2.83).
Okon · OpenAlex - Early Childhood · 7 Oct 2026