Audio Description Motivating Writing: A Case Study

This research proposes audio description as an engaging activity to motivate preparatory school students towards writing. Twenty-eight students, in grade seven, in an independent school in Qatar, participated in writing and voicing the audio description of a short film called The Clock Tower. Pre- and post- writing motivation questionnaires and activity feedback provided the tools for the study. Students and teachers’ interviews were also carried out to provide triangulation for the results of the primary measures. Results show that although the mean for the pre-questionnaire was a little higher than the post-questionnaire, this difference was not statistically significant which could be explained by the complex nature of motivation. However, results from the activity feedback show that students perceived the audio description as an enjoyable task that has more aspects than traditional classroom writing activities.