COMICS: Its Effect on Grade 7 Students Ability in Story Retelling

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

English is an important means of communication used by many countries in the world. Story retelling is an essential skill wherein students organize and describe events, enhancing their reading comprehension. Comics is one of the many media to teach story retelling. Comics are an art form using a series of static images in a fixed sequence. Using English comics as a means for teaching story retelling can be very pleasing and interesting for students. By using English comics, students will be more interested and more active in learning. They will learn something new and different from what they usually get in their class.

METHODS

This study used the quasi-experimental method of research. This method makes use of pre-test and post-test design. The primary source of data for this study is Grade 7 Magenta students equally divided into two groups. They were randomly selected for the experimental and controlled group. In this study, the experimental group of students was exposed to the use of the English comics while the controlled group relied on the typical instructions on storytelling without the use of innovations like comics.

RESULTS

The significant findings of this study include 1. Majority of the students encountered difficulty in terms of summarizing stories. 2. The developed intervention increased Grade 7 students' ability in story retelling as it elicits interest among the students. 3. Comics are an effective medium of teaching in the retelling as revealed in pre and post-test weighted mean results.

DISCUSSIONS

Selecting a good medium to teach retelling is very important. The writer assumed comics is a kind medium that attracts students' interest and stimulates them to enjoy story retelling because comics is light and easy-to-understand. It has pictures and contains shorts conversations in speech bubbles. The vocabulary used there can be inferred from both pictures and the context so students do not waste time looking up for the meaning of difficult words in the dictionary. Comics also enriched the vocabulary of pupils and stimulated their motivation and interest in story retelling.