Andrew Walsh

ENGL 3100

Smith-Sitton

12/9/14

Using Comics to Teach English Composition to Japanese Students

With a quickly increasing number of English language learners worldwide—currently 1

billion with the number expected to grow to 1.9 billion by 2020 (British Council)—it is no

surprise that discovering effective methods for teaching English to English as a Foreign

Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers is of great concern to

researchers. According to the Oxford Seminars, there are nearly thirty-four thousand English

language schools around the globe, with almost five thousand in Japan alone (Oxford Seminars).

In 2014, the Japanese Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program placed 4,476 native English

speakers in classrooms across the country (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program USA). While

many Japanese are eager to learn the language, they experience difficultly in language

acquisition due to fundamental differences between Japanese and English, such as the frequent

omission of subjects in Japanese, lack of articles, absence of plurals, and varying word order. In

recent years, comics have become more widely accepted as an instructional tool, not only to

instruct English students in a variety of subjects (arithmetic, natural science, history, sociology,

etc.), but also to teach English to EFL and ESL students.

In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Scott McCloud defines comics as

“juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information

and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (9). Comics can refer to many types of

work ranging from something as simple as a comic strip to something as vast as an entire graphic

novel. Comics can be excellent instructional tools because they are versatile, easy to use and

culturally relevant (Liu 230), but they may be especially effective in teaching English to EFL and

ESL students due to what researchers refer to as dual coding theory (DCT). DCT, discussed in

Jun Liu’s “Effects of Comic Strips on L2 Learners’ Reading Comprehension,” concerns the

nature of language and imagery. It includes a linguistic coding system, or verbal system, and a

non-verbal system, or imagery system. DCT assumes that these two systems work harmoniously

and thus “provide a broader and more specific account of meaning, coherence, and inference

effects” (Liu 227). For English learners with low-level proficiency, comics are an incredible tool

because “when [they] don’t have the relevant target language readily available for

comprehension, nonverbal cues to meaning are invaluable as they allow access to the text’s

meaning through the visual mode” (Ranker 304). Through the use of comic books, I believe that

Japanese students, while improving their reading comprehension skills, will internalize rules of

the English language, which will directly translate to their composition ability. To accomplish

this, I have developed several lesson plans (intended for a third year Japanese middle school

class with low- intermediate-level proficiency) that include a combination of reading, writing,

and speaking activities.

Generally, the lessons will be based on two comics: Fujiko Fujio’s Doraemon Vol. 1, an

educational manga “based on a child’s daily life at home and school” (Masaaki 12); and Bryan

Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1. Doraemon—written with the intention of teaching English

to Japanese students—is written entirely in English, but Japanese translations are provided. Scott

Pilgrim is a more difficult text that will be introduced later in the course. Students would either

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need to purchase these texts, or have them made available through the school. Copies of shorter

readings could be made and distributed to students.

Doraemon will be used as a read-aloud, a method seen in Ranker’s study of Ms.

Stephens’ classroom. The instructor reads a selection from the text out loud and then discusses

the content of the story with the students, meanwhile identifying problems and solutions within

the text (Ranker 297). Teaching lessons with comics about narrative structure—in this case,

problems and solutions—is “an effective way of increasing reading comprehension” (Ranker

304). For example, the instructor might read from Doraemon the chapter titled “Shadow

hunting.” In this chapter, Nobita (the main character from the series) is asked to weed the yard.

He complains that it is too hot, so Doraemon uses one of his gadgets to separate Nobita’s shadow

from him. The shadow follows Nobita’s orders and does his chores. However, Nobita waits too

long to reconnect with his shadow; the shadow starts becoming human, while Nobita begins to

turn into a shadow. Doraemon and Nobita chase the shadow until they finally think to use

Nobita’s mother’s shadow to capture it because “Nobita’s shadow is weaker than his mom’s

shadow” (43). Then, the class would identify and discuss the various problems and solutions in

the text. Using a comic to teach students about narrative would increase student interest and

motivation to engage in the text (Ranker 296). Because of the visual nature of comic books,

students’ comprehension of the narrative should be higher than if it were text alone (Liu 228).

Ideally, students’ understanding of the narrative would lead to an involved discussion, which

would also help to improve their verbal fluency.

Following the lesson about narrative, students will be asked to create comics of their

own. “Teachers can promote literacy, higher level thinking, and writing skills by encouraging

students to combine words and pictures to create comic[s]” (Liu 230). For this assignment

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students would be given a worksheet that contains four blank panels with lined space below

(Appendix A). Students would draw pictures in the panels and would be encouraged to use voice

bubbles “to increase their understanding of dialogue” (Ranker 303). The lines below the panels

would be used for writing the actions portrayed through the drawings. The students would be

instructed to create comics containing a problem and a solution like the ones they identified in

the Doraemon read-aloud activity. In doing so, they would be given an opportunity to practice

composition. Practicing writing through the creation of comics allows students to “learn to

control the language of print by manipulating the language in meaningful contexts” (Hartwell

579). This assignment also involves invention, a major component of rhetoric and composition.

Creating comics requires planning on the student’s part to create a coherent narrative (Crowley

338).

Another activity using Doraemon involves a fairly primitive method for teaching

language called the “grammar-translation method” (Rifkin 167). This method traditionally has

students translating text into and out of the target language. For the purposes of this assignment,

the worksheet (Appendix B) simply asks students to translate text into the target language

(English). In this particular assignment, they are given a small selection from Doraemon with

only Japanese text. Below that, the same portion of the comic is reprinted with the absence of

text. Students are asked to translate the Japanese text into English. Because of the ambiguous

nature of the Japanese language, there could multiple correct English translations. While the

assignment does not necessarily involve invention, as with the previous assignment, Hartwell

argues “any form of active involvement with language would be preferable to instruction in rules

of definitions” (579).

The previous two assignments (creating a comic and the “grammar-translation”

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assignment) will be graded solely based on content. For the first assignment (Appendix A),

students were asked to create a comic containing a problem and a solution. Rather than reading

their work for typographical errors, the instructor would mark the assignment for errors in

content, such as an incoherent plot or lack of a problem or solution. The “grammar-translation”

assignment would be graded similarly. Here, the instructor would grade with the intention of

checking to make sure the content is relevant and coherent. In an interview with Dan Woten

(Appendix C), former instructor with the JET Program, he argued that “spelling and content were

[the] most important” factor when grading students’ written assignments. Word choice and

punctuation were periphery to the content of their work (Woten). Williams, too, argues that

content should be the primary concern of grading (420). Because heavily marking students’

writing can be discouraging, it is best to focus on content first, and to look at typographical and

grammatical errors after they have mastered content. Reading for content actually benefits

student progress, and encourages more control and a deeper understanding of the language.

Scott Pilgrim will be introduced to the class as a more difficult text. It will be used as a

read-aloud in the same way that Doraemon was, where students are asked to identify and discuss

problems and solutions in the narrative. Scott Pilgrim is a significantly more difficult text than

Doraemon, containing idioms, slang, and no Japanese translations; however, Liu found that

“using visuals helped low-proficiency level students” and that “visual imagery via picture cues

can overcome deficits of lower proficiency readers” (229). Using a more difficult comic will

expand students’ vocabularies, as well as facilitate their comprehension and memory (Liu 226).

Using comics is an effective method for teaching English composition to Japanese

students. The medium itself is accessible to students because it is interesting, motivating, and

promotes deeper engagement with the reading. Through reading comics, students will internalize

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rules of the English language that will be reflected in their writing. Their reading skills, and thus

comprehension of the texts, will also be reflected in their writing. The use of higher-level comics

will further improve their comprehension and memory and ultimately their control of the

language through natural English dialogue. The composition activities have students

manipulating the language in meaningful contexts, which is an important factor in language

acquisition. Because of the visual nature of comics, this medium may be the most effective

instructional device for teaching English to ESL and EFL students with limited English language

abilities.

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Works Cited

“About the JET Program.” Japan Exchange & Teaching Program USA. Embassy of

Japan, n.d. Web. 5 Dec 2014.

“The English Effect.” British Council. British Council, 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.

“English Language Schools Directory.” Oxford Seminars. Oxford Seminars, 1992. Web.

5 Dec. 2014.

Crowley, Sharon. "The evolution of invention in current‐traditional rhetoric: 1850–1970."

Rhetoric Review 3.2 (1985): 146-162. JSTOR. Web. 20 Sept. 2014. (Norton 333-346)

Fujio, Fujiko F. Doraemon Vol. 1. Japan: Shogakukan English Comics, 2002. Print.

Fujio, Fujiko F. “Shadow hunting.” Doraemon Vol. 1. Japan: Shogakukan English

Comics, 2002. Print.

Hartwell, Patrick. “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar.” College

English 47.2 (Feb. 1985): JSTOR. Web. 24 Aug 2014. (Norton 563-85).

Liu, Jun. “Effects of Comics Strips on L2 Learners’ Reading Comprehension.” TESOL

Quarterly 38.2 (2004) : 225–243. Web.

O’Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1. Portland, Oni Press, 2004. Print.

Masaaki, Shindoh. “‘Doraemon’ in Learning Materials.” ABD 34.1 (2003): 12. Web.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins

Publishers, Inc., 1994. Print.

Ranker, Jason. “Using Comic Books as Read-Alouds: Insights on Reading Instruction

From an English as a Second Language Classroom.” The Reading Teacher 61.4 (2007):

296–305. Literary Reference Center. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

Rifkin, Benjamin. “Guidelines for Foreign Language Lesson Planning.” Foreign Lanuage

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Annals 36.2 (2003): 167–177. Web.

Williams, Joseph M. “The Phenomenology of Error.” College Composition and

Communication 32.2 (May 1981): 152-68. JSTOR. Web. 24 Aug. 2014. (Norton

414-35).

Woten, Dan. Personal Interview. 28 November, 2014.

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix C

1. The level of English proficiency for middle school students in Japan is “beginner”. Although the students begin studying English in elementary school, they do not begin studying grammar or writing until their first year of middle school. Within each grade level, the students’ skill varies greatly. For example, in my third years’ class, some students could not put together a full sentence, while others could write a couple paragraphs. Their level of skill had a great deal to do with how hard they chose to study the subject outside of the classroom. Here is an example of the top student in my school:

This worksheet was completed during a fifty minute class period in which the students had access to a student dictionary, the Japanese teacher of English, and myself. It should be noted that last year, this student won a contest to participate in a two week exchange program in California. She was the only student in the school that could write at this level. There were perhaps two or three other students who were close to this level. On average, the students would complete seventy-five percent of the questions, with some punctuation errors and moderate spelling and syntax errors. The lower quarter of the students would complete less than half of the questions, with some not including a single complete sentence. In a class of thirty students, it was common to have three or four students who could consistently meet the full requirements of the assignment without major errors and three or four students who could not complete any portion of the assignment. The remainder were spread between the previous two categories.

2. To improve participation outside of the classroom, I created a role playing game that focused on English. I split the students in each grade into five parties. Each of the parties was part of guild. Each guild had one party from each grade (for example, there was a first year “Team Cat”, a second year “Team Cat”, and a third year “Team Cat”). The purpose of this was to encourage the older students in each guild to help the younger students complete the challenges.

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Once the students were split into groups, I gave them character i.d. cards. The students named their character and drew a portrait of it as well. Each character had four “stats”: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

As the students participated inside and outside of class, I gave them small slips of paper that acted as “experience points”. I also posted “quests” on the English board each week. These were English challenges, usually a writing exercise, which the students could complete for experience points. These quests were generally the only way for the students to get enough reading and writing experience points to level-up those stats and, by extension, level-up the character level (the character level was equal to the lowest stat). Around once a month, I also posted a “boss challenge” that had involved all four stats and required the entire guild to participate.I used a weighted point system to keep a running ranking of individual students, parties, and guilds that I posted each week on the English board. At the end of the term, I gave prizes to the top ranking students and guilds.

3. The role playing game that I used was quite effective at increasing participation and, as a result, the general level of proficiency. The students were very motivated by the ranking system. There would be large groups of excited students crowded around the English board after each new ranking was posted. Participation rates inside and outside of the classroom before the game were around thirty percent. After using the game for four months, participation had risen to eighty-six percent and it remained around that level until I left.

4. As a native speaker, I was hired mainly for the purpose of teaching speaking skills. I spent three days a week at my middle school and two days at my elementary schools. Usually, the three days I was at the middle school were used for reading and speaking exercises, and the two days I was away were used for writing. I would

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then correct the papers and discuss them with the students. I also helped teach the more difficult writing exercises when needed.

5. Spelling and content were most important. After this, I would focus on word choice and punctuation beyond the period (see question #3 in the image on the first page for example of a word choice problem).

Appendix D

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Appendix E

Appendix F

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Appendix G

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