THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMIC AS TEACHING MEDIA TO IMPROVING

YOUNG LEARNERS' READING COMPREHENSION

Komang Yogi Saputra/ 1712021172
English Language Education, Language and Art Faculty, Ganesha University of
Education
Phone: 085792618203
komangyogisaputra09@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the implementation of comics towards young learners'
reading comprehension. This study was used library research method as the research
method of this study, this study collects data from several sources which are book, articles,
previous research, and related journal. The data that collected in this study focused on the
terminology, the notion and function of comics as the media to improving reading
comprehension, Young learner, and the reading comprehension. Comics is flexible media
which can be used as the media in various teaching strategy, comics also provide the
students with pictures which make the students get new experiences in reading. The
findings of this study show that comics have a significant effect towards the students and
EFL learner, because of the visualization in the comic, but the implement of comics
towards young learner's reading comprehension is not so effective because it is too early
for them to use comics as media for learning reading. The researcher suggested, to
implement the comics towards the young learner, the teacher need to create a comic with
simple language and understandable content.

Keywords: Comic, Young learner, Reading Comprehension.

I. Introduction
Language is an essential factor for our life, language use as the media to
communicate with others, one of the important languages that should mastery in English.
English is a language which used to communicate with the people around the world, English
known as worldwide language. Mastery English, the students need to know about the main
part which measures in English, which are Speaking, Reading, Writing, Listening, and
Grammar (Lasagabaster, 2011). Reading is one of those factors which essential for students;
reading can be defined as an interactive process to understand the meaning or the
information which contain on the text (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). Understand the
information which contains in the text can make the learner know how to mastery English,
in reading can be divided into two parts, namely, Extensive reading and interactive reading,
and to mastery it there is a skill called as Reading comprehension (Gilakjani & Sabouri,
2016). Reading comprehension can be defined as the readers' skill to understand the
information which contains on text or paper, this skill is a complex skill because the reader
should mastery the levels of reading comprehension which are Words, Words recognition,
Processing, and Interactive processing (Kirby, 2007). This skill is useful for the beginner
reader and intermediate reading. For the beginner reading like young learner who just
started learning about reading, the teacher needs to prepare the relevant teaching strategy
and media that understandable for them.
There are several teaching strategies which can use to improving students or learners’
reading comprehension, namely, Inquiry based teaching and Active learning strategy.
Inquiry based teaching develop the students with sources but the students should find the
information by themselves (Koutníková, 2018). Meanwhile, Active learning strategy is a
strategy which require the students to active in the learning process (SILVA et al., 2017).
Those learning strategies need appropriate learning media in purpose to strengthen the
learning process, one of media which can uses as media for both strategies are comic. Comic
can provide the students new experiences such as aesthetic experiences in reading
(Koutníková, 2018). Comic which use in the Inquiry based teaching can make the students
find new information and create their own solution for the problem and for Active learning
strategy, teacher can ask the students to create new comic based on their experiences (e.g.,
Koutníková, 2018; SILVA et al., 2017)
 This study analyzed the implementation of comics to the reading comprehension
especially for young learners' reading comprehension, which effective or not for them.
II. Review of related review
1. Comic
The comic can be defined as an art contain pictures and sequence with the
information in it in purpose to give aesthetic experiences to the reader (Koutníková,
2018). Based on this explanation, comic is one of the reading media with the pictures
and story, the purpose of comic is to bring new experiences towards the reader when
reading. Comic can implement on the teaching and learning process to bring new
experiences to the students and also to avoid the boredom in the class, comic proven as
an effective teaching media which can improve students’ reading skill, thinking skill
and writing skill by combining the pictures with their own words (Merç, 2013). In
addition, according to Groensteen (2005) as cited in Koutníková (2018), comic can be
generalized as one of narrative text with visual art to explain the information. Comics
bringing essential information which combined with the image to give new
experiences, so the reader not only attracts with the content of the story but also
attracts with the image contained in the comics. Besides that, Comic is flexible media
which can use in several teaching strategies such as Inquiry-Based teaching. The
application of comics on Inquiry-Based learning as the media to make the students
work effectively by searching for information, augmenting and discussing to find their
own solution (Koutníková, 2018). Therefore, asking the students to make their own
comic based on their experiences can be defined as Active Learning Strategy which
can stimulate the interactions between students in the classroom which can make the
learning process more meaningful for students (SILVA et al., 2017). This strategy can
make the students active in the class and also the teacher can measure the students
creativity and improving the students communication each other, according to
Wurdinger & Carlson (2010) as cited in (SILVA et al., 2017), Active Learning
Strategy can make students easier expresses their ideas which make the discussion
process between students more effectively.
However, Comic also can be defined as contextual visuals which combine
between visual context and image, based on the functions, there are five major
 functions of contextual visual namely; Representation, Organization, Interpretation,
Transformation, and Decoration (Rengur & Sugirin, 2019). Comics can be applied in
every stage, from primary stages until university, but the difficulty of each stage are
different (Koutníková, 2018). Based on those theories, comics have several functions
which can support the learning process, for instances, the interpretation functions
which can give students information, and decoration functions that bring aesthetic part
which attract the students to read, by change the difficulty of comics, it also can use as
a learning media in higher-level educations. Comics can use as media to motivating
students in learning, because comics can give students new experience in reading by
setting the difficult of comics and use variative words (Yunus et al., 2012).
The implementation of comics as teaching media can be applied on the strategy
which uses by the teacher, if the teacher uses Inquiry-based teaching, they can give the
students new comics to the students and ask the students to find something new in the
comics, so they have new knowledge, and they can create their own path and
understand what the information in the comics (Koutníková, 2018). This strategy can
be used for elementary students until senior high school, the teacher can create the
difficulty of the comics, so it can adjust with the student’s levels. If the teacher uses
Active learning strategy, the teacher can ask the students make their comics based on
their experiences, this strategy can stimulus students activeness, interactions between
students, and participation (SILVA et al., 2017). This strategy can apply in every stage
based on the difficulty of the comics.
2. Young learner
Young learner or students who just start study in the education field is students at
the primary level, which is Elementary until the early stage in Junior high school
(Gautam, 2015). Students in this stage are known as formal education. They have
knowledge taught by their parents before they start to study informal education.
Besides, the students in primary age look like a person who does not know anything,
but they know a lot, and they can do anything about what they know (Gautam, 2015).
This knowledge is called as prior knowledge. They learn what they see and what they
hear, such as what their parents teach for them. Parents teach their children to say a
word in an early stage, such as the toddler period, the children imitated what they see
 and hear from their parents. This shows that although young learners just like a blank
paper, they can do whatever they know. Furthermore, in teaching young learners, the
way the teacher teaches should be different from teaching adults because the young
learner is more active and enthusiastic (Damayanti & Faozah, 2014). The teacher needs
to give variety in teaching young learners that suitable for their characteristics, like
using games and fun activities in the classroom. In addition, teaching young learners
required a skilful teacher, which means the teacher should professional and have
pedagogical competence (Habibi & Sofwan, 2015). This shows that it is not easy to
teach young learners. The teacher must build the atmosphere in the classroom, which is
suitable for the young learner. They need to know what young learners like to create a
comfortable classroom for them.
Meanwhile, in teaching young learners in this era, the teacher should prepared
young learners to face the future, like using technology and communication (Rusiana &
Nuraeningsih, 2016). This could be a challenge for teachers who teach the students in
school and the parents who teach them out of school. They need to work extra to make
the students able to use technology and the skill to communicate. They need to prepare
them well, to make a better future for them. Therefore, there is a misperception in
teaching young learners; they cannot learn something complex. They need to learn
something simple, fun, and colourful they need to have the capability to learn
something more or something complex. They have the potential to learn it (Gautam,
2015). They can learn something complex as long as they know how to learn it. The
teacher used the appropriate strategy to make them comfortable in learning and support
from their parents. In addition, to motivate the young learner to learn English, several
factors influence experiences, teacher, reward, reinforcement, and external reasons
(Asmali, 2017). The teacher and parents should apply those factors to maximize and
motivate young learners to learn, especially in learning English.
3. Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand the information contain in the text
(Kirby, 2007). Reading comprehension is a complex ability which needed the ability to
understand what the writer of text talk about and the information that contain in it,
because of that mastery reading comprehension is not easy. There are several levels in
reading comprehension, which are; Words, Words recognition, Processing, and
interactive processing (Kirby, 2007). Each level has their difficulty, to mastery the
reading comprehension, the reader should mastery the levels first, start from the lowest
level, which is Words and continue with Words recognition. If the reader cannot
mastery the lowest level, they cannot jump into the next level, which means it needs
mastery step by step. Meanwhile, there are some ways to improving reading
comprehension, especially for students; one of them is DCT or Dual Coding Theory
(Merç, 2013). According to Liu (2004) as cited in Merç (2013), DCT is a theory which
combines the nature of language and imagery, one of the parts of DCT is comics. The
use of comics in improving students reading comprehension proven success, comics
can bring beneficial effect same as visual Reading towards reading comprehension
(Merç, 2013). Besides that, to improving students reading comprehension, the teacher
should provide the students with the text based on their level, after that teacher should
make the students enjoy with the text with minimal effort in purpose to make the
students have better comprehension towards the text (Torres &Constain, 2009). In
addition, summarizing is one of strategy which can improve students reading
comprehension, they can learn on how to paraphrase the words in the text using their
words, the success of paraphrasing depend on how they visualize the words in text
(Kigotho & Fitriani, 2018). Based on this explanation, the summarize can be success if
the students can visualize the words correctly, one of the ways to make the students
have better visualization is improving their reading comprehension.
Based on the theory, there are three types of theories which underlie reading
comprehension, namely; Mental representation, content literacy, and cognitive process
(Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). According to Kinstch (1998) as cited in Gilakjani &
Sabouri (2016), Mental representation have three different levels which are; surface
component (encoded the words, meaning and not meaning), text-base (the meaning of
words which combined with the mental representation parts without changing the text’s
meaning), and situation model (combination between text-base and reader’s prior
knowledge). Therefore, improving children especially children with low levels in
reading comprehension is little bit hard, the essential problem when teaching reading
towards children with low levels in reading comprehension is word reading which the
 most important factor for reading comprehension (Kirby, 2007). Based on this theory,
children ability in word reading have significant effect towards the reading
comprehension, the teacher needs to apply the effective strategy to improve reading
comprehension.
III. Method
This study used library research as the research method. Library research method
is a method which collect data from several references like article, book, previous
research, note, and journal that related to the study (Sari & Asmendri, 2020). The main
references of this study are the previous research and articles which related to this
study, the data will explain qualitatively in this study. The purpose of using library
research on this study is to collect the data from previous research and related articles
which support the validity of this study. The researcher analysis the data from the
sources and explain the relevant information for this study. The subject that analyze in
this study is Comics.
IV. Result
Rengur & Sugirin (2019) was conducted study entitled “The Effectiveness of
using Comic Strips to Increase Students’ Reading Comprehension for the Eight
Grade Students of SMPN 1 Pundong” this study analysis whether the use of comics
as teaching media is better then using conventional method in increasing students’
Reading comprehension, this study conducted in SMPN 1 Pundong, Bantul,
Yogyakarta. The method that used to analysis the data in this study is Quasi-
experimental research which uses two groups of students, the experimental group and
control group. The findings of this study showed that the use of comics strips is more
effective than the conventional media. Comics strips proven effective as teaching
media to increasing students’ reading comprehension than conventional media
(Rengur & Sugirin, 2019). Rengur & Sugirin (2019) stated that Comics strips is the
best media to increasing students’ reading comprehension, because comics strips
provided with images and story line which attract student’s attention in reading, most
of the students understand about the information in the comics and could create a
good text based on it. Beside that, the researcher also stated that comics strips was
effective teaching media not only for reading comprehension but also effective for
teaching vocabulary (Rengur & Sugirin, 2019).
The study entitled “The Effect of Comic Strips on EFL Reading comprehension”
by Merç (2013) was conducted towards Turkish EFL learners. This study focused on
the effectiveness of comics strips towards EFL learners’ reading comprehension with
two different levels which are lower intermediate and upper intermediate. The method
that used to analysis the data in this study was Quantitative research method. The
participants of this study were 167 university students which separate into four
different group which are low-level text only, low-level text with comic strips, high-
level text only, and high-level text with comic strips. This study showed that comics
strips have significant effect towards the EFL learners’ reading comprehension
(Merç, 2013). Merç (2013) stated that the EFL learners’ which provided by comic
strips have better result than without comic strips which means used comics strips as
teaching media is effective towards students’ reading comprehension, because comic
strips provided with pictures. Furthermore, the research explain that comic strips can
facilitated the students in both level (lower intermediate and upper intermediate)
(Merç, 2013).
Graham (2011) was conducted study entitled “Comics in the Classroom:
Something to be Taken seriously” the focus of this study was the process of designing
comics as teaching activity. The participants of this study were six years students of
English language basic Education in Thailand. The result of this study showed that
students in early stage or primary stage have beneficial impact towards the activity
such as gap-fill activity, they could practice their writing ability based on the activity
(Graham, 2011). In addition, the researcher stated that is too early for the primary
level provided with Smooth Transition DVD dialogues in the comics to improving
reading comprehension, but the early result indicates that Thailand students in
primary level enjoy completing the comic activities (Graham, 2011). Graham (2011)
also stated that one of the students in the first grade was tried the comic activity, and
the result was the students were enjoyed in the writing activity, the problem that
found only the used of alphabet although they are not guided by their teacher, they are
 able to used the capital letter and the full stop system by copy their text from the
comic strips into their paper.
V. Discussion
Comics is one of teaching media which can apply in several learning strategies
such as Inquiry based teaching and Active learning strategy. It is because comics is
flexible media and can measures student’s ability such as writing, reading, and
vocabulary. Teaching students using Inquiry-based teaching with comic as learning
media can be done by giving them new comic sources and let them find the
information which contain in the comic, so they can have new information and also
they can build their own notions about the comics, it can increasing their reading
comprehension (Koutníková, 2018). Besides increasing the reading comprehension
and giving new experiences towards the students, it also makes them enjoy in
reading, because comics provide students with pictures which can attract the student’s
attention towards the comic. Using comics’ activity like Gap-fill activity which is fill
the blank comic sequence can improving the students writing ability, it shows in the
result of study by Graham (2011) that said the students were enjoyed in writing
activity, they also able to write their own paper based on the comics without the
guidelines from the teacher. Comics also proven that besides improving the reading
comprehension, comics can be used as the media to improve the students vocabulary,
because the teacher can create their own comics with the various English material in
it (Rengur & Sugirin, 2019). In addition, comics is the most effective media to
improving students reading comprehension, as the study result by Rengur & Sugirin
(2019), comics provided with images which can make the students easily to
understand about the information in the comics and they could create a good paper
based on the comics their comics. This also happened towards the EFL learners, the
result of study by Merç (2013), The EFL learners which provided with comics could
got better result than without comics, this mean that comics have significant effect
towards EFL learners because comics can facilitated the students in lower level and
high level.
Implementing the comic as teaching media, the teacher needs to know about the
characteristics of the comics in purpose to create a suitable comic for the students.
 According to Yunus et al. (2012), there are three main character in creating a comics
which are; Panels, Gutter, and Balloons. The teacher needs to understand about this
concept first, because those are the main component or the basic in creating comics.
Besides that, the teacher should know about their student’s levels, are they in low
levels students or higher-level students, in purpose to make the comics
understandable for students. However, to implement the comics to improving primary
students’ reading comprehension is quite difficult. Based on Graham (2011) result
stated that, too early for students in primary age provided with Smooth Transition
DVD for the comics’ dialogues, but they can enjoyed the writing activities.
VI. Conclusion
Comics is one of the flexible media which can use to improving several students’
ability. Comics can combine with various teaching strategy, for instance, Inquiry-
based teaching and Active learning strategy, comics also the best media to improve
students ability like reading comprehension and Vocabulary, this statement proven by
the study results by Rengur & Sugirin (2019). Besides that, the used of comics are
effective for EFL learner, this proven by the results by Merç (2013) which showed
that EFL learner which provided with comics as teaching media have better result
than the opposite and comics can facilitated EFL learner with low level and high
level. However, to implement comics as teaching media towards young learner to
improving their reading comprehension is not effective yet, this proven by (Graham,
2011) which showed that using Smooth Transition DVD for the comics dialogues was
too early for the students in primary level or known as Young learner. The researcher
suggested if the teacher using comics, they need to create a comic with the simple
language and understandable for them, so they can easily get the information contain
in comics.
 REFERENCES

Asmali, M. (2017). Young Learners’ Attitudes and Motivation to Learn English. Novitas-
ROYAL (Research on Youth and Language), 11(1), 53–68.

Damayanti, S., & Faozah, S. (2014). Teaching English to Young Learners through Games and
Songs Sri Damayanti and Siti Faozah English Education Study Program Ibn Khaldun
University of Bogor. E-Journal Uika, 15(2), 44–47.

Gautam, G. R. (2015). Teaching English to Young Children. Journal of NELTA Surkhet, 4(June),
26–33. https://doi.org/10.3126/jns.v4i0.12857

Gómez Torres, N., & Ávila Constain, J. (2009). Improving Reading Comprehension Skills
through Reading Strategies Used by a Group of Foreign Language Learners. HOW Journal,
16(1), 55–70.

Graham, S. (2011). Comics in the Classroom: Something to Be Taken Seriously. Language

Education in Asia, 2(1), 92–102. https://doi.org/10.5746/leia/11/v2/i1/a07/graham

Habibi, A., & Sofwan, M. (2015). Teachers of English for Young Learners : An Analysis on
Their English Proficiency and Profile. English Education Study Program-National Seminar,
Oktober.

Kigotho, M., & Fitriani, S. S. (2018). Summarising an Explanation Text with a Visual
Representation as the Guidelines: How Does this Work to Represent Meaning? Al-Ta Lim
Journal, 25(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.15548/jt.v25i1.379

Kirby, J. R. (2007). Reading comprehension: its nature and development. Encyclopedia of

Language and Literacy Development, August, 0–8.

Koutníková, M. (2018). The Application of Comics in Science Education. Acta Educationis

Generalis, 7(3), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.1515/atd-2017-0026

Lasagabaster, D. (2011). English achievement and student motivation in CLIL and EFL settings.
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 5(1), 3–18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2010.519030

Merç, A. (2013). The effect of comic strips on EFL reading comprehension. International
 Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications, 1(4), 54–64.
http://www.ijonte.org/FileUpload/ks63207/File/05.merc.pdf

Pourhosein Gilakjani, A., & Sabouri, N. B. (2016). How Can Students Improve Their Reading
Comprehension Skill? Journal of Studies in Education, 6(2), 229.
https://doi.org/10.5296/jse.v6i2.9201

Rengur, Z. A., & Sugirin. (2019). The Effectiveness Of Using Comic Strips To Increase
Students’ Reading Comprehension For The Eight Grade Of SMPN 1 Pundong. 330(Iceri
2018), 239–243. https://doi.org/10.2991/icossce-icsmc-18.2019.24

Rusiana, & Nuraeningsih. (2016). Teaching English To Young Learners Through Traditional
Games. Language Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, 10(2), 193–200.
https://doi.org/10.15294/lc.v10i2.5729

Sari, M., & Asmendri. (2020). Penelitian Kepustakaan (Library Research) dalam Penelitian
Pendidikan IPA. Natural Science: Jurnal Penelitian Bidang IPA Dan Pendidikan IPA, 6(1),
41–53. https://ejournal.uinib.ac.id/jurnal/index.php/naturalscience/article/view/1555/1159

SILVA, A. B. DA, SANTOS, G. T. DOS, & BISPO, A. C. K. D. A. (2017). the Comics As

Teaching Strategy in Learning of Students in an Undergraduate Management Program.
RAM. Revista de Administração Mackenzie, 18(1), 40–65. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-
69712017/administracao.v18n1p40-65

Yunus, M. M., Salehi, H., & Embi, M. A. (2012). Effects of using digital comics to improve ESL
writing. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology, 4(18), 3462–
3469.