Effects Of Comics Reading On L2 Literacy Skills Development

Comic books are experiencing a steady rise in popularity in various educational fields.However,they are still seeing as low-quality reading.Comics and graphic novels are widely available in school libraries around the World and are used in foreign language education.Not only they being investigated as subjects of literary studies,but they are also getting recognized as instructional resources to improve second language(L2)literacy skills and enhance reading motivation.This action research was aimed to study the advantages of not adapted comic books use in mixed ability elementary school EFL classroom in terms of L2 literacy skills enhancement.This study reports on an investigation of 30 Chinese primary school students with mixed language learning abilities and mixed previous English learning background.An action research method with three cycles was employed,whereby multiple tools of data collection were used across six weeks of the summer comics reading course.Tools included: classroom observations,open interviews,questionnaires,field notes,and standardized L2 literacy tests.Subjects were assigned to read two books – “Dogman” and “Ghosts” during the experiment.Data were collected while and after each of three cycles,later analyzed,and changes in teaching were adopted in the following cycles.Finally,all the data collected was analyzed descriptively using SPSS in the case of quantitative data and content analysis – qualitative data.Findings suggest that participants of low and typical abilities,as well as coming from different L2 learning backgrounds,show a significant average 23% improvement in L2 literacy skills.Questionnaires showed a positive attitude and motivation in reading in English and comics reading course.Most of the subjects liked learning English through reading comics.Moreover,by the end of the course,such an extensive,not adapted comics reading was shown to be effective,engaging learners in further English comics reading at home and with the teacher.Additional findings,from post-cycle open interviews,show that subjects were enthusiastic,willing to participate,and provide longer and accurate responses while doing pre-while-post reading tasks.This study emphasizes the significance on mixed-ability EFL classroom,and selecting teaching materials which increase learners' motivation and interest will directly influence L2 literacy skills outcomes of all participants without exception.This study suggests that comics are not low-quality reading;not-adapted comics are not hard and advanced reading for EFL learners;on the contrary,as visuals narratives – they are highly beneficial.We suggest that young elementary school learners due to the age factor and the ability to acquire language implicitly may benefit the most from comics reading.Findings support the i+1 input theory of Krashen,emphasizing that young learners are ready for a “heavy” load,similar to the case with not-adapted comics.Finally,visual narrative plays a major role in reducing and turning the “heavy” load into fun and long-memory learning.We highly support the idea that comics should be considered by primary school EFL curriculum developers and EFL teachers as well as more research on teaching with not adapted comics and graphic novels should be done in China,considering the effect of each L2 literacy skill,in particular,applied on secondary and high school subjects,etc.