This paper examines the effects of a story-writing class and a digital story-game class for primary school students at an after-school English program. To compare the effectiveness of a story-game p(23 students) and a story-writing class (22 students), this study used preand post- English achievement tests. This study also administrated a survey on students’ attitude towards their learning, and interviewed students as well as teachers. The results showed the two classes improved the students’ English ability in terms of reading, listening, writing and vocabulary over the 16 weeks. However, there were big differences between listening skills and writing skills between the two classes. The students in the story-game class showed a big improvement in listening skills. The students in the story-writing class were highly motivated by writing English stories in a group. Based on the results of the two classes, this paper discusses the factors that lead to an effective class with English story-based language learning. By exploring these elements, this paper suggests the educational implications for those who want to develop and implement a digital story-based language learning program for primary school students.