CULTURE-LANGUAGES-MEDIA Independent Project with Specialization in English Studies and Education 15 Credits, First Cycle Comics in Education: Can Comics Facilitate Reading Comprehension for ESL learners Serietidningar i undervisning; kan serietidningar främja läsförståelsen för elever med engelska som andraspråk David Jatta Kölin Master of Arts in Upper Secondary Education, 270 credits Examiner: XX English Studies and Education Supervisor: Philip Clover 2021-10-21 1 Abstract Följande kunskapsöversikt ämnar att undersöka effekten serietidningsliknande läsmaterial har på läsförståelsen hos andraspråksinlärare av Engelska. För att undersöka detta formulerades följande forskningsfråga: I vilken mån kan serietidningsliknande material påverka läsförståelsen hon andraspråksinlärare av Engelska? En prototypisk definition av serietidningar (Mayer, 2007) användes för att tillåta denna kunskapsöversikt att använda både studier som använde serietidningar och studier som använde seriestrippar som läsmaterial. I denna kunskapsöversikt kommer därför termen serietidningsliknande läsmaterial (Comic reading materials) användas som en paraplyterm för de två mediumen. För att granska om serietidningsliknande material kan påverka läsförståelsen för andraspråksinlärare i engelska har nio vetenskapliga artiklar som behandlar ämnet valts ut. Studierna I denna kunskapsöversikt har delats upp beroende på om de använder seriestrippar eller serietidningar/grafiska noveller då dessa två material bör åkalla effekten av de kognitiva teorier som presenteras i studien. Studierna gav inte ett tyligt svar på huruvida läsmaterialen påverkade läsförståelsen bland deras deltagare. Studierna hade även olika definitioner av nyckelord så som läsförståelse, skilda metoder för att mäta läsförståelse samt variation i hur de utförde texter tester. De olika resultaten från studierna har lett till följande slutsatser. Serieliknande läsmaterial har en potential som läromedel då de kan främja läsförståelse trots att det i fallet av de valda studierna inte alltid gör det. Det behövs vidare forskning i ämnet, då definitioner av nyckelbegrepp samt tester varierar i hög grad och detta gör det svårt att dra en tydlig slutsats. 2 Table of contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….4 2. Aim and Research Questions………………………………………………………..8 3. Method………………………………………………………………………………..9 3.1 Search Terms………………………………………………………………...9 3.2 Inclusion Criteria…………………………………………………………...10 3.3 Exclusion Criteria…………………………………………………………..11 3.4 Search Process……………………………………………………………...11 4. Results.………………………………………………………………………………12 4.1 Studies using Comic strips…………………………………………………12 4.2 Synthesis of studies using comic strips…………………………………….14 4.3 Studies using graphic novels or comic books………………………………17 4.4 Synthesis of studies using graphic novels or comic books.………………...20 5. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………...22 6. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..24 References……………………………………………………………………………...26 3 1. Introduction. The interest for printed text has been on a downward spiral for years in Sweden, as written information has moved to the digital landscape of computers and phones (Statens medieråd, 2019). However the popularity of another medium is on the Rise. The popularity of comic book reading materials such as graphic novels, comic books and webcomics has risen the last ten years (ICV2 and Comichron 2019). The status of Graphic novels as a medium has also changed. It has gone from teenage nerd hobby to respected art form reflected by graphic novels such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1992) winning the Pulitzer price, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Swedish author and comic book artist Moa Romanova being nominated for the Leonard prize 2020 for her debut graphic novel Goblin Girl [Alltid Fucka Upp]. Neil Gaiman’s comic series The Sandman (1989-1996) has also won multiple respected prizes, such as the World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, and the Bram Stoker Award throughout its span as a series. Eisner (1985) defines comics as “Sequential art, the arrangement of pictures or images and word to narrate a story or dramatize an idea”. Mccloud (1994) has developed Eisner’s definition of comics to “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and / or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (p. 9). For this research synthesis a prototypical approach to defining comics will be used. According to Meyer (1997) prototypical approach strives to define through “… an established prototype, a particularly good example of the word, to which other examples of the word bear some resemblance,” (p. 3). The choice to use a prototypical definition is due to several studies using non sequential comic strips, or pictures. these studies, which use non sequential art are featured since their materials are compatible with the effect of the cognitive theories this study aims to investigate. The materials also resemble comics, and multiple make use of comic conventions, while failing to check all of the boxes for both Mccloud and Eisner’s definitions. The grading criteria for 9th grade English (Skolverket 2018) has the following requirements for a passing grade related to reading comprehension. “Pupils can understand the main content and clear details... in basic texts in various genres.” (p.39). 4 Lenz (n.d) defines reading comprehension as “the process of constructing meaning from text” further developing that “The process of comprehending involves decoding the writer's words and then using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer's message”. Additionally Snow (2002) defines it “as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language”. Skolverket, Lenz and Snow all define it as an internal process, in which the learner interacts with a text to construct meaning. There are certain issues with measuring reading comprehension, as there is a need to measure student output through a test which can be affected by stress, and method of testing, Students could also encounter issues while performing tasks that are designed to measure their reading comprehension as their passive vocabulary might allow them to comprehend the text, while their active vocabulary might not allow them to discuss it. The difference of active and passive vocabulary can also have an impact on the results of measurements (Fan, 2000, Webb, 2008, Laufer and Paribakht, 1998). According to Laufer (1998) Active vocabulary is the ability to use the appropriate word in text or speech, and passive vocabulary is the ability to deduce meaning of a word from reading or hearing it. The differing levels of active and passive vocabulary is an important variable since Skolverket requires teachers to assess an internal process by external output. Prior research has shown that comics has a justified place in education as an L1 teaching tool, and that it can improve the reading habits and reading comprehension of L1 students. According to Greaney (1980), children who read nothing but comic books develop their reading comprehension at an equal level of other children. Krashen and Ujiie (1996) report that children who read comic books spend more of their leisure time reading books than non comic readers. Furthermore the authors report that comic readers from low income families read at a higher rate than middle class non comic readers, which bridges the gap between the two groups. Boerman-Cornell (2013), argues that comic books doesn’t necessarily dumb down texts. He uses the example of Journey into mohawk country (2006) to demonstrate this. the graphic novel is an adaption of the diary of the dutch explorer Harman Van Der Bogaert, and does not change any of original text, but instead supplies the reader with additional context through the use of images. Furthermore Krashen (2004) claims that reading comics can lead to a boost in motivation and confidence of struggling readers. The accompanying commentary material for the english syllabus (Skolverket, 2017) also justifies the use of comic books, as they mention comics 5 as one of the possible genres of text students should be allowed to interact with in their education (p. 13). There are several cognitive theories which hypothesize the effects of reading materials that use both verbal and pictorial information. One of which is Paivios (1991, 2013) Dual Coding theory (DCT). DCT (Paivio, 2013) postulates that “Cognition involves the cooperative ability of two functionally independent but interconnected systems, a nonverbal system specialized for dealing with nonlinguistic objects, and events and a verbal system specialized for dealing directly with language” (p.33). According to DCT, a learner who is reading plain text, or is looking at pictures of an object, would only be using one of the systems. This would provide them with less input than if they were to read a text making use of images, which according to DCT would increase the possibility of them comprehending abstract information to a further degree, and recalling the information. Moreover Sadoski and Paivio (2001) have also claimed that the effects of DCT are universal. It’s also in agreement with other cognitive learning theories such as Mayers Multimedia Learning Theory (2014). Multimedia Learning Theory similarly hypothesizes that it’s better to present information through words and pictures than words alone, as the combination is easier for our brain to organize