"From Local to Global": Students' Digital Narrative Strategies in Creating English Videos About Yellow River Cities

Abstract

College English students often face the difficulty in expressing the Yellow River culture in ways that resonate with international
audiences, although they own language abilities to describe it. One workshop is carried out to explore how 49 Chinese university students
developed intercultural narrative competence through creating English promotional videos about their hometowns along the Yellow River
(Zhengzhou, Jinan, and Baotou). Each group of students produced three versions of their video scripts, guided by the workshop on three
core dimensions: audience awareness, resonance building, and transcoding. Data included 147 scripts, semi-structured interviews with six
students, and reflective journals. By Using grounded theory analysis with NVivo 12 Plus, the study traced students' developmental path
across three linked dimensions. Results reveal a three-stage progress, awakening, transformation, internalization, in each dimension. This
study extends Yang Hua's framework of digital storytelling competence by revealing how students actually move through its dimensions.
On teaching aspect, it provides an effective model, a workshop focusing on three dimensions combined with repeated revision, to help
students to "tell China's stories well" in English. Thus, the findings also emphasize the value of personally significant topics in enhancing
motivation and cultural confidence.