Designing digital drama as multimodal CALL practice: a ten-week performance project in Vietnamese high schools

This Innovative Practice article reports a ten-week, smartphone-supported Digital Drama (DD) project implemented in six Vietnamese public high schools (N = 1207 learners). DD is defined here as a cycle of collaborative scripting, rehearsal, filmed performance, and reflective revision in which learners compose short drama scenes for video and share them through everyday digital platforms. The project aims to expand high-school English learning beyond test-oriented routines by positioning learners as multimodal meaning-makers who negotiate language, gesture, space, sound, and editing choices. We frame DD as a form of digital multimodal composing within computer-assisted language learning (CALL), aligned with process-oriented task cycles (planning → production → sharing → reflection). The article describes the project design (teacher preparation, group roles, rehearsal and filming routines, and assessment criteria), documents implementation conditions common to provincial Vietnamese schools (large intact classes and uneven connectivity), and summarizes evaluation evidence from pre/post learner questionnaires and teacher reflections. We conclude with design principles, common challenges, and practical resources (task models, checklists, and templates) to support transfer to other secondary contexts.