Using Comics with ESL/EFL Students Justine Derrick

Using Comics with ESL/EFL Students Justine Derrick

1. Second Language Acquisition, Reading, and Comics

   • Commics could be used as a tool Encourage students to read (input)
     • The most important factor in the development of reading skills is the amount of time a student actually spends reading
       • comics is used to increase the amount of time their students read they not only can provide language learners with contextualized comprehensible input, but also engage the learner and lead him or her to explore more graphic novels or books.
   • commics deals with real spoken language more than books
     • therefore it could be a tool to introduce learners concepts such a ‘ellipsis, blends, nonwords, vague lexis, confirmation checks, contrastive stress, new topic signals, nonverbal language, mitigators, [and] routine/ritual phrases’ Comics, on the other hand, put each of these into context and make them relevant to second language learners.”

2. Visual Literancy

   • Comic books and graphic novels call for “visual literacy,” where students need to learn to recognize certain symbols and decode their meaning

3. How to Use Comics in the Classroom

   • Understanding Visual Symbols
     • prepare students to interpret symbols
   • Reading Order in Comics
     • Give students the oportunity of reading commics, and discuss the order they should read the page.
   • Comic Jigsaw
     • Give some students texts and other panels. Students could match their panel to text or their text to a panel
   • Fill in the Text
     • students could generate text based on pictures
   • Creating Pictures
     • students have to draw pictures to accompany text
   • Putting Panels in Order
   • Creating Comics