There’s a new teaching aid creeping in to progressive language lessons. And surprisingly, it’s something that you might associate more closely with landing students in detention. Comics!
But now, no longer is the humble comic being confiscated by teachers. On the contrary, it’s being handed out and studied, to infuse language lessons with a fun and engaging human touch.
“Emerging research shows that comics and graphic novels are motivating, support struggling readers, enrich the skills of accomplished readers, and are highly effective at teaching sometimes dull or dry material”, Suzanna Giacotto told Language Magazine.
Here are just a few reasons why The X-Men, The Hulk, Thor and Hellboy are making more – entirely legitimate – appearances in language lessons.
How Comics Bring Language Lessons to Life
“Visual details aid memory formation to establish recall”, continued Giacotto, “which is the foundation of learning a new language.
“With comics, students not only learn the material faster, they learn it better”, she concluded. For example –
- Elevating the Learning Process – The pairing of images and text in comics makes learning less arduous and more digestible, especially for students who are finding their language lessons challenging. After all, a picture paints a thousand words. And in the case of comics, pictures provide signposts about the nature of the content and the emotions being expressed by characters.
- Making Sense of the Illogical – Most languages have figures of speech that ‘fly in the face of’ sense and reason. (See what we did there?) The English language is a particularly guilty culprit. It’s peppered with idioms and metaphors. Visual representations in comics help to give context to breaking a leg, beating about the bush, cutting to the chase, killing two birds with one stone and the such like.
- Demystifying Grammar – Comics usually use short, highly punctuated sentences and bolded key words, often presented in small but perfectly formed bubbles of manageable information. This method of visually presenting text gives clarity to students who are struggling with grammar.
At La Academia, we’ve long since been champions of lively and experiential language lessons that bring text book studying to life in glorious technicolour. Get in touch if languages have always been your kryptonite. We might just be the superheroes you need.
Source
Using Comics to Teach, Suzanne Giacotto, Language Magazine