Engaging Secondary English Students Through Transmedia Storytelling: Digital Platforms and Content Creation to Enhance Literacy

Resumen

The teaching of English literature at the secondary level increasingly combines traditional texts with digital media such as films, podcasts, series, author interviews, and social media content. In this multimodal landscape, both print and digital resources shape contemporary literacy practices. This article examines the potential of transmedia narratives to enrich literature education by leveraging adolescents' involvement with digital technologies and content creation. Using a range of literary and digital artifacts, the project encouraged students to interpret and produce literary content across multiple platforms. The pedagogical approach drew on Dörnyei’s (1994) research on motivation, Livingstone’s (2012) work on ICT in education, and theories of transmedia literacy and participatory culture proposed by Scolari (2018), Montoya (2021), Ferrarelli (2021), and Miller (2020). Acting as a facilitator, I linked students’ everyday digital practices with formal literary study, which resulted in increased motivation, more profound engagement with literary texts, and greater participation. By becoming active content creators, students bridged formal and informal learning environments and developed participatory and transmedia literacies. The final reflections point out the ability of transmedia narratives to foster creativity, engagement, and meaningful learning in contemporary English literature classrooms.