The importance of using comics in the English and French classes

Cartoons and comic strips can be used from beginner to advanced level for a variety of language and discussion activities. Using comics to teach English is a great way to teach and have fun with your class.

Why use comics?

1. They are fun

- similar to using games or music

- positively impacts motivation

- lowers affective filter

2. They allow creativity - with language and art.
3. They improve cultural knowledge of the target language
4. They show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected to behave
5. They comment on and illustrate a whole range of issues like racism, teenage relationships, sexism, ageism, family relationships.
6. They build vocabulary
7. They teach students various idiomatic expressions
8. They provide a visual element to reading exercises that traditional books don’t have
9. They entertain your students with funny, culturally-relevant material
10. They are appreciated as new methods of learning

From the pedagogical point of view comics promote the target language through student-centered work and and they promote the use of higher-level thinking skills.

Comics can promote the acquisition of L2 pragmatic intelligence as students discuss “appropriate” responses. They can also offer the way to bring in target-language culture - they are often contextualized.

Graphic texts are complex, effective teaching tools because they require readers not only to passively receive information, but to interact with both text and images to construct meaning, and that is the key to the magic. Words and pictures work together!