MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Comics in English lesson in primary classes Bachelor Thesis Brno 2009 Supervisor: Mgr. Ivana Hrozková Author: Štěpánka Hrdinová Bibliografický záznam HRDINOVÁ, Štěpánka. Comics in English lesson in primary classes o: diplomová práce . Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2009 42 l., 12 l. příl. Vedoucí diplomové práce Ivana Hrozková. Annotation The bachelor thesis deals with the use of comics for learning and teaching English to young learners. The theoretical part firstly defines the terms and deals with the development of comics in the Czech Republic and in the USA. Further it studies young learners ‘specifics in learning English as foreign language, and development of their writing skills. The practical part begins with an analysis of the use of comics in chosen textbooks. The practical part also contains a set of 5 lessons piloted at a basic school. The lessons are focused on work with comics towards development of writing skills at young learners. A muse on development of key competencies through the lessons follows. The last issue is an offer of possible follow-up activities. Anotace Bakalářská práce pojednává o možnostech využití komiksu ve výuce anglického jazyka u mladších žáků. Teoretická část vymezuje potřebné termíny a pojednává o vývoji komiksu v České Republice a v USA. Dále sleduje specifika mladších žáků v návaznosti na výuku cizího jazyka a zabývá se rozvojem psaní. Prvním bodem praktické části je analýza vybraných učebnic z pohledu využití komiksu. Těžištěm praktické části je realizace 5 lekcí, zaměřených na práci s komiksem k rozvoji dovedností pro psaní. Následuje zamyšlení o rozvoji klíčových kompetencí žáků při výuce těchto lekcí. Práci uzavírá část věnovaná možnostem navázání na lekce. Keywords English; foreign language; comics; young learners; use of language; writing skills, key competences. Klíčová slova Angličtina; cizí jazyk; komiks; mladší žáci; použití jazyka; rozvoj psaní, klíčové kompetence. 2 Declaration I declare that I worked independently on this thesis with the help of the literature stated in bibliography. I agree with storing this work in the library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University Brno and making it accessible for study purposes. Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury. Souhlasím, aby práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům. In Brno, April 20 th 2009 Štěpánka Hrdinová .................................................. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Ivana Hrozková for her helpful approach, useful advices, patience and confidence in me. Štěpánka Hrdinová 4 Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 6 1 COMICS ............................................................................................................................................. 7 1.1 RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMICS .......................................................................................... 9 2 YOUNG LEARNERS ...................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 TEACHING WRITING TO YOUNG LEARNERS ................................................................................ 13 II. PRACTICAL PART ............................................................................................................................ 16 3 ANALYSIS OF COMICS IN THE TEXTBOOKS ...................................................................... 16 3.1 ENGLISH ADVENTURE 1 ............................................................................................................ 16 3.2 NEW ENGLISH FOR YOU 1 ......................................................................................................... 17 3.3 CHIT CHAT : CLASS BOOK 1 ....................................................................................................... 18 4 CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CHOSEN SCHOOL ............................................................. 19 4.1 CLASS I. - 3.A ........................................................................................................................... 19 4.2 CLASS II. - 4.A .......................................................................................................................... 20 5 LESSON PLANS AND THEIR FEEDBACK ............................................................................... 21 5.1 LESSON 1 – ADD BUBBLES TO THE PICTURES ............................................................................ 22 5.2 LESSON 2 - SOUNDS IN BUBBLES .............................................................................................. 25 5.3 LESSON 3 – TONGUE -TWISTER COMIC ....................................................................................... 27 5.4 LESSON 4 - PUPIL ’S COMICS ...................................................................................................... 30 5.5 LESSON 5 – THE FINAL LESSON - EXHIBITION ............................................................................ 32 6 DEVELOPMENT OF THE KEY COMPETENCES ................................................................... 34 6.1 LEARNING COMPETENCIES ........................................................................................................ 34 6.2 PROBLEM -SOLVING COMPETENCIES .......................................................................................... 35 6.3 COMMUNICATION COMPETENCIES ............................................................................................ 36 7 POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES ...................................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 38 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 39 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 40 INTERNET SOURCES ............................................................................................................................ 41 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................... 42 5 Introduction In recent years, the change of children’s approach to reading books has been discussed. Their preferences have changed and many children elect watching television programme or playing PC games. Beside phenomenon of media (especially TV) and PC, also family participates on the present situation. Not only children, but also parents have changed the book for remote control or for example shopping basket. Nevertheless, there is still a genre that children seek out: Comics. Children like comics and read comics although some of them might not like reading in general. Why is it so? There are more possible explanations. Comics contain colourful pictures that children like. Next, the textual part is shorter in comparison with most books, and is integrated with the visual element, so that certain part of the meaning can be read out of the pictures. It might be very helpful for children, who have difficulties with reading (dyslexia) or for learners of foreign language or finally to the readers, who simply do not consider too much reading enjoyable. These features of comics are also used for education purposes. Many textbooks contain comics to make subject matter closer to children and thus more understandable. It is especially significant for education of foreign languages. Modern English textbooks, particularly, contain many comics and also variety of activities based on them. Mostly they develop reading skills as we will see further. The main aim of the thesis is to find out how to use comics for development of writing skills, which are probably the most complicated, to compile activities into several lessons and to pilot the prepared lessons at chosen school. The purpose of the thesis is to offer inspiration for teachers, who want to try to use comics in a different way to make the lesson interesting and for students as a study source. 6 I. THEORETICAL PART 1 Comics Comics are a genre of popular literature. The plot is represented by both visual and textual means. The story is, similarly to film, divided into particular pictures. The text is condensed into bubbles and panels, and is attached to the pictures. 1 Comics, however variable their form is, have several components that do not change and appear in the most of them. Further in this chapter, we will define these components that will be used for the purposes of the thesis. Pictures The picture is basis for every complex visual production. Beside comics we can name also film. Although the discourse value of the particular pictures is limited, it is usually perceived in the context of the whole comics. The picture can be created through many art techniques. The most common techniques used for this purpose are drawing, painting, and graphic techniques such as most usual linocut or for example wood cawing.