ANAIS DO IV SEMINRIO DE LNGUAS ESTRANGEIRAS - UFG/2002

COMICS AND CARTOONS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Guido de Oliveira Carvalho* Universidade Estadual de Gois

Pedagogical and practical reasons for using comics

Comics were already considered pernicious to the children s minds, all because of Dr. Frederic Werthan s allegation that they could influence people negatively. However, this point of view belongs to the history and nowadays comics are viewed as a kind of art which joins two ways of cultural expressions, the literature and the plastic arts (Serpa and Alencar 1998, Calazans 2001). This new view about comics made them capable of being used in classes as a pedagogical resource to education. Davis (1998) claims that in the area of language instruction, teachers are constantly searching for new and innovative materials to enhance learning in the formal classroom environment . One way of supplying this seeking is the comics and cartoons. Conrad (1993, cited by Davis 1998) states that the comics have a widespread appeal because they present authentic language and culture. Serpa and Alencar (1998) found out a school where 100% of the students said they read comics (that is, all of the students). The authors question so, why not to take advantage of it and incorporate the comic books definitely to your class? (p. 10) Besides, Calazans (2001) points out that the handling and constant contact creates the habit and intimacy which can be slowly and gradually transferred to the books. Fewles (1970: 156) reminds us the advantages of using cartoons:
They can be had fairly cheaply, for the price of a magazine. They can be easily mounted on cardboard for class use. Not being ephemeral like a joke or a sight gag, they can be studied closely. They usually have a line of dialogue that can be learned, and a picture which goes some little way towards showing the conditions under which the language is used. And like all humor, they are innately intriguing, or at least diverting.

Considering all the points above, we think it is really interesting the use of comics and cartoons in class. However, the decision of using them in class depends largely on the pedagogical orientation of the school. Serpa and Alencar (1998:11) claim that the students can have move enthusiasm for the class if the teachers use comic books. Some authors relate successful experiences with comics and cartoons in class. Serpa and Alencar (1998) relate activities tried by teachers of young children. They erase the lines in the balloons and ask the children to understand the drawings sequence and create their own stories. Other activity is that the teacher cut the panels and distribute them at random; the students try to solve the puzzle. The reading aloud comics is a technique in which a child starts reading aloud the balloons, stops at a certain point and other students continues from that point.

English Teacher at Universidade Estadual de Gois Unidade Universitria de Itapuranga. Attending the Master Course in Applied Linguistic at Faculdade de Letras da UFG, Goinia-GO.

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The same authors and Calazans (2001) point out that organizing a comic library can be utilized to study mathematics. For instance, to count the issues which are in the library and those are lent. Calazans (2001) relates a number of cases in which comics books were used to spread an educational campaign, such as those that teach how to avoid diseases, inform people s rights, and work with regional, national or world history. Related specifically to the language teaching, Davis (1998) presents an activity which took place in three classes. He assigned the students to work in small groups and gave each group a multi-panel story, without beginning or end. The students discussed the aspects in each panel, action, characters, expressions, gestures, settings etc. They practiced language through the discussions and the writing, since they should write down what they thought could be the beginning and the end of the story. Next, we present suggestions to work with comics and cartoons in classes of English Language Teaching (ELT). The activities focus on reading and writing skills, since these are the most involved skills when we deal with comics. The teacher will have no problems to get the comics or cartoons: Internet can provide them in a few minutes. None of the activities were planned to last more than one class of 45-50 minutes, however each teacher should adapt them to his/her need.
Who s Who? Aim: reading practice understanding descriptions Distribute stories to the students to read. Then distribute handouts with the characters and the names and a brief description of them, but mixed. Their task is to match the pictures, the names and the descriptions. The Quiz Aim: reading deduce character s characteristics through reading texts and comics Distribute stories of the same character set to the students to read. Then distribute handouts with a quiz (10 to 15 questions) about the main characters of the history. Who Said That? Aim: reading practice coherence of speech through pictures Choose a small story and take the lines out. Put them apart. The students fit the lines in the correct place, examining attentively the pictures. An additional task: erase the title and offer it with other four different ones apart. The students decide which is the best title to the story. The Puzzle Aim: reading think about the coherence in the text Cut the pictures of a story (a panel or a comic strip) and put them at random. Make copies and distribute them to the students. They try to discover what is the correct order of pictures to the story makes sense. You Decide Aim: reading practice guessing and deduction through the context Find a comic strip and cut the last picture out. Get other two ends of similar stories and offer them as options a, b, c or 1, 2, 3. The students choose the best final to the comic strip. What Is The Function? Aim: reading and writing

discuss functions of the language

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The language is characterized by a set of functions (asking something, apologizing, introducing someone, etc.).1 Work these categories in a brainstorm session with the students. Distribute comic books to the student and tell them to focus their attention on specific pictures. Then, they explain what are the functions of what is said by the characters. Body Language Aim: reading, writing and speaking discuss the body expressions When a person says something, he/she uses not only words but also his/her own body to express his feelings (happiness, anger, pain, irony, etc.).2 Discuss the body language with the students. Distribute comic books and ask the students to focus their attention on a character and his/her body language. Next, they discuss what the character says and what are his/her expressions showed through the drawings. Just Your Imagination Aim: writing create dialogues Choose a small story and erase the lines. Ask the students to create a dialogue on their own. If you think it might be interesting, show them the original dialogue in the end of the activity. Script Aim: writing writing a story based on wordless comics. You need a wordless story to this activity. The students read/observe the story and rewrite it in a narrative way, a kind of script . Profile Aim: writing describe people (or comics characters) After reading one or more stories of a specific set of characters, the students are asked to choose a character and describe his/her physical and psychological characteristics. It can be done a writing or speaking activity. The Interview Aim: writing create an interview based on a sequence of panels. The students read a wordless story and create an interview with the main character about what happened in the story. Orientate them to follow the steps of the story in the questions. Understanding Cartoon Aim: practice reading skill After choosing the cartoons, elaborate comprehension questions. You can base them on Developing Reading Skills by Franoise Grellet (see the bibliography section). We suggest that you take a look at the section Understanding Meaning , specifically the linguistic response to the text .

Conclusion
The choice of comics and cartoons to the activities is not purposeless. They join text and pictures, which provide a context to the meaning of the language studied. The visual resource can help the students to work with meaning, guessing and characters attitudes. Besides they are pleasant to work with. In short, this is a pleasant way of studying English.

1 2

The book Functions in English has other insights on this topic. See the Bibliography section. On this topic see the book New Interchange, vol. 2, Unit 14.

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We do not claim that the activities presented here are new. They were created based on other activities related to reading and writing skills. That is the point we would like to call your attention: read different sources of activities and adapt them to your needs. Do not forget reading comics too. Bring them into your English classes. We think that any exercise which breaks the routine, if well conducted, will make the students more interested and will help them to learn more English.

References
BLUNDELL, J.; HIGGENS, J. & MIDDLEMISS, N. Functions in English. Oxford, OUP, 1982. CALAZANS, Flvio Mrio de Alcntara. Midiologia das histrias em quadrinhos como recurso didtico. 2001. Disponvel em: <www.intercom.org.br/papers/xxiiici/gt24/gt24b4.pdf> Acesso em 17/10/01. CONRAD, D. J. Comics in the foreign language classroom: pedagogical perspectives. Foreign Language Annuals, 5, p. 18-25, 1977. DAVIS, Randall S. Comics: a multi-dimensional teaching aid in integrated-skills classes. 1998. Disponvel em: <http://www.esl-lab.com/research/comics.htm> Acesso em 10/10/01. FOWLES, Jib. Ho ho ho: cartoons in the language class. TESOL Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, June 1970, p. 155-159. GRELLET, Franoise. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge, CUP, 1981. RICHARDS, J.C.; HULL, J. & PROCTOR, S. New Interchange. Cambridge, CUP, 1998. Vol. 2 SERPA, Dagmar; ALENCAR, Marcelo. As boas lies que aparecem nos gibis. Nova Escola, ano XIII, no. 111, abril de 1998, p. 10-19.

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