Effects of Comic Strips on L2 Learners' Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This article reports the results of an experiment investigating the role of comic strips on ESL learners' reading comprehension. The students' proficiency levels were estimated, and students were organized into a low intermediate-level proficiency group (low-level students) and a high intermediate-level proficiency group (high-level students). Students in each group were presented with either a high-level text or a low-level text, and the text was presented with or without a comic strip. Two-way and three-way ANOVAs run on data from 107 immediate recall protocols reveal that the low-level students receiving the high-level text with the comic strip scored significantly higher than their counterparts receiving the high-level text only. They also show that providing a comic strip with the high-level text did not enhance the high-level students' recall. In addition to offering pedagogical suggestions, I discuss results in light of the dual coding theory and refer to other cognitive theories such as mental model, noticing, and the repetition hypothesis.