Comic Strips for Language Teaching

Comic strips are one of the authentic material in linguistic teaching, it has been explored over the past few years. While I was searching “ how to make  comic strips online”, I found the benefits of using comics in ESL classrooms on http://www.esl-lab.com/research/comics.htm on their page

Comic books and comic strips can be used to teach a wide variety of skills including:

·        To practice describing characters using adjectives (e.g., Garfield is a very troublesome cat);

·        To learn synonyms and antonyms to expand vocabulary;

·        To introduce a culture-specific onomatopoeiaÇwords that imitate what they represent (e.g., Drip, drip for the sound of falling rain or leaking pipes, Bang representing the sound of something crashing, etc.);

·        To practice writing direct speech (e.g., Hey, move your car!) and reported speech (The man said, "Move your car!");

·        To identify different family roles and stereotypes (e.g., Are men in Japanese comic strips portrayed as indifferent to sexual harassment as the news suggests?);

·        To improve students' listening by reading aloud the action in one of four panels in a comic strip and having students select the correct picture;

·        To identify social, political, economic, or environmental problems facing the world today;

·        To introduce paralanguage Çlexical items with out a written correlate (e.g., Uh-oh, you're in trouble now for lying to Mom; Pssst. What's the answer to number five on the test; Uh, let me see). Paralanguage is perhaps the most used, yet most pervasive, language form, and many teachers are slow to introduce them because they are not aware of how much these items permeate everyday language. Fortunately, comics are rich in paralanguage content;

·        To practice formation of different verb tenses (i.e., changing the present tense of the action in the strip to the past tense);

·        To practice telling the story of a sequentially-ordered comic strip that has been scrambled up;

·        To reinforce the use of time-sequence transition words to maintain the unity of a paragraph or story (e.g., First, the boy left for school. Next, he . . .);

·        To help student recognize word reductions in written text, identify the corresponding long form, and practice these reductions orally (i.e, going to versus gonna; have to verses hafta; want to verses wanna);

·        To practice basic rules of pronunciation.

I found a great comic strip on http://www.comicsenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Mistake-Realities_-Bored-vs-Boring.png

 

I found plenty of good comic strips I can use in my classroom.

By: Aayesha Qureshi