Inter-Faculty Cooperation in English Language Teaching Using Educational Comic Strips on Geoforensics – A Pilot Study

Abstract

The paper deals with the research and promotion of inter-faculty cooperation in the field of foreign language teaching. By focusing on educational comic strips as an underutilised language strategy at university level, we have tried to reduce or completely eliminate the tensions and uncertainties that accompany the learning or teaching of a new academic field. The study explores how a particular narrative from geoforensic practice is transformed into adapted educational comic strips. The focus then turns to the application of educational comic strips in language classes, and how six lecturers at two different faculties and their students in the first year of study perceive that application and respond to the challenges of teaching/learning in this way. Two surveys were conducted in order to obtain more precise data on the quality of the comic strips as a teaching/learning activity: the former, a qualitative survey of lecturers, and the latter, a quantitative survey of students. The results of the research indicate that even when the area of exploration such as geoforensics and comic strips is somewhat unknown for both teachers and students, the authenticity of material, the quality of preparation, the conscious and explicit participation of all sides, all potentially lead to new forms of good practice and positive linguistic outcomes.