Effects of Comic Strips on L2 Learners' Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The article focuses on the results of an experiment investigating the role of comic strips on ESL learners' reading comprehension. It is reported that the ESL and EFL textbook designers and materials developers often use visuals to provide context, which helps engage students in reading. Accordingly, comics as visual support for ESL texts increases reading comprehension. Various researchers have outlined five major functions of visuals in reading. Representation is the first as it repeat the text's content or substantially overlap with the text. Second is organization where visuals enhance the text's coherence. Third is interpretation, where visuals provide the reader with more concrete information. Transformation could be marked fourth where visuals target critical information in the text and recode it in a more memorable form. The last and fifth function of visuals in reading is decoration in which visuals are used for their aesthetic properties or to spark readers' interest in the text. In a meta-analysis of the effects of visuals, it was found that all but the decorative function facilitate memory.